Beyond the Broken Angel

CHAPTER NINE

"You like him," Maxine stated, an upward tilt to her lips.

"Mom!" Giselle admonished, her cheeks going red. "No, I don't."

Maxine leaned back against the couch cushions, looking at her daughter knowingly. "Mother's intuition, hon."

Giselle groaned, plopping down next to the woman. "Okay, maybe I find him a teeny bit attractive, but he's rude and annoying."

"I thought the same about your father at first, and look how we turned out."

"Can we not have this conversation?" Giselle asked, setting the pictures onto the table. "Go back to being freaked out about me time traveling."

"Oh, trust me, I'm still freaked out, alright." She sighed, slinging an arm around her daughter and bringing her into a hug. "I missed you, honey." She kissed the crown of her head. "It felt like I had lost a limb."

"I missed you, too, Mama," Giselle said, bringing up her hand to squeeze her mother's arm.

They stayed like that, Giselle savoring the comfort her mother provided like she was a little girl again and had woken up from a nightmare.

"What do we do now, Giselle?" Maxine asked, not moving to let go of her daughter. "Do you really have to stay here for that tree?"

Giselle nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, Mama."

"It's okay, honey, we'll get through this. We'll figure something out. This is one of those trust-God situations that's completely out of our control. But I think things will get better."

• — • — •

The next morning, Giselle stood in front of Murphy's Floral Shop with Selene's letter addressed to Patricia Murphy in her hand.

She slowly walked in, a bell jingling overhead as she opened the door.

The shop was filled with flowers and plants, as could be expected. An employee with an 80s perm stood behind a long stretch of counter next to the cash register, assembling a bouquet presumably for the small, elderly Indian woman before her.

There was a young Indian man perusing the wall of plants behind the old woman, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans.

"I'll be with you in one moment, dear," the employee called out. She was a tall, skinny woman with salt and pepper hair and a faint Irish accent.

The old woman snapped her dark eyes towards Giselle, smiling brightly. "Oi, Ajay," she called out to the man behind her, "look! Isn't she beautiful?" The woman moved closer to Giselle. "Are you with someone? Husband? Boyfriend?"

"Nana!" Ajay said, shaking his head as he looked over to Giselle apologetically. "Please ignore her, she gets like this when she sees a pretty girl my age."

"Only because you're taking too long to find a wife!" his grandmother snapped at him before turning back to Giselle with a warm grin. "I'm Anandi Kumar, this is my strong, handsome, and financially stable grandson, Ajay Kumar. Get your phone out, and I'll tell you his phone number."

Ajay groaned. "Bloody hell, Nana, you're like a waking business card for me."

Giselle laughed. "Can I keep her?" she asked Ajay. "I'd love to have someone to introduce me like that to people." She looked back to Anandi. "I would like to be introduced as pretty, kind, and intelligent."