Clover | ✔

Chapter 09: Red Columbine

The day that Evan finally showed up at the shop Sascha barely even noticed him at first because he was busy with a customer and there was a line he still had to get through. Jason was the first to see the man, but he was occupied with helping a young woman carry a fern in a heavy looking pot out to her car, so he could only nod at Evan. Not wanting to get in the way -- or make Sascha mad by bothering him -- Evan stood off to the side, waiting for the crowd to die down. It was getting late, so he doubted it would take too long.

"Hadn't seen you in a while," Evan looked at the boy who had spoken, smirking at the look Jason was giving him.

"What, don't tell me you missed me, Jay," he teased, but Jason only scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"No, I was just wondering if you did something to piss off Sascha," the teen responded, now grinning.

"Why? Has he been in a bad mood lately?" Evan did his best to keep the panic out of his voice because, if Sascha was still mad at him after days of him staying away -- and the surprise in the newspaper, of course -- then he didn't know what he'd do.

He glanced over at the florist, who was busy charging a woman for a couple of potted plants, trying to tell whether he was mad or not. Unfortunately, it was always difficult to tell Sascha's mood when he was dealing with customers, since he always did his best to smile and look as friendly as possible. However, Evan's fears were dispelled when Jason started snickering beside him.

"I can't believe you're scared of Sascha," he said, ignoring Evan's glare. "What's he going to do, beat you up with a flower?"

Evan decided to let Jason believe that he was scared of Sascha. Mostly because he didn't think it would be a good idea to inform the boy of why he didn't want the florist to be upset with him. He could just picture all the ways Jason would make fun of him if he found out he was chasing after Sascha.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping him?" he asked, and Jason scowled at him, but hurried off to help deal with the customers.

Sascha smiled at the teen when he joined him behind the counter and left him to deal with the people purchasing plants in favor of preparing more bouquets. With the both of them working together, it wasn't long before the crowd began to dwindle and then there were only a few people left wandering the shop. Evan took the chance to approach Sascha, who was working on a wreath of leaves and berries in warm colors.

"Busy day?" he asked, feeling a bit nervous about talking to Sascha. It was a relatively new feeling for Evan, who had always been rather confident. The florist nodded and looked up at the man in front of him and Evan was relieved to see that he was smiling.

"You could say that," said the florist cheerily. "Though I suppose I owe it to you," he set down the wreath he was working on and focused on Evan.

"What you did was very nice, you know, even if it was just to get on my good side," Sascha said, giving Evan a slightly exasperated look, but he was still smiling. Evan just grinned at him and leaned over on the counter.

"It wasn't just for that," he told the florist, a sly smile on his face and his hazel colored eyes focused on Sascha's. The florist couldn't help but blush and look away.

"Still, you didn't have to go through all that trouble," because Sascha knew he would have forgiven Evan anyway.

"It wasn't any trouble, I know some of the guys that work in the newspaper, so I just called in a favor," Evan shrugged, and it really hadn't been very hard because he'd gone to school with some of the guys there. "Besides, I thought you'd like it, and I didn't really know how else to make you happy," he admitted, abashed, and Sascha let out a small laugh.