10 Days [Brallon]

Distant Billionaire Cousins And Fancy Botanical Gardens

Brendon was waiting for me right outside the shop when I'd arrived. Like usual, he wore his leather jacket and the complicated boots, but this time there was an armful of assorted flowers obscuring his chest up to his eyes.  They were all perfectly arranged, symmetrical in 4 sections.

"I raided the botanical garden that opened up last week," he explained in a hurry as soon as I got out of my car, holding open the front door for me and following me inside.

"Isn't that place like an hour away?" I asked and he shrugged, setting down the flowers on the front desk. He swiped the counter clear of the minuscule amount of dirt he'd dropped with a packaged wipe in his back pocket. "And isn't raiding a botanical garden considered illegal?"

"It's actually 45 minutes away, 50 with traffic on a motorcycle." He fidgeted with a few petals drooping to the soil, slight annoyance seeping into his tone "Besides, it's not completely illegal if your stupid rich distant cousin built you the place."

From what I'd heard, the person that had opened up that garden was rich with nothing better to spend their money on. Like, bathing-in-cash status.

"Your distant cousin? What are they, a millionaire?"

Brendon shrugged again as if it were no big deal, rolling his eyes in disgust for his relative. "Try billionaire. They said it was mainly built for me to spend sometime thinking about the whole botanist thing. It's filled with exotic high maintenance plants that are meant to try and direct my decision into joining into their industry."

Hell, I know people that come into my store and forget that I replaced their beloved office supplies shop then try to bargain with me to bring it back. Not every stop on the block can be called goddamn Paper Clips. But to build an entire botanical garden to convince someone to join them in business was on a whole other level than some older woman bringing me a knitted scarf in trade for that stupid office supplies store. Like, for fucks sake Paper Clips isn't coming back no matter how many sweaters you swear you'll make me.

"It never crossed your mind that the information on your billionaire cousin would be kinda important to tell me?"

He shrugged again and rolled his eyes in a joking manner "Well, I mean it didn't really matter up until now, when it apparently became a legal case."

I grabbed the basket of flowers and tucked it behind the back door, sticking my tongue out. "And I guess it didn't really matter when I paid for dinner all those times either?"

Brendon held his hands up by his head, matching my smile. "I don't get money from them every day, okay? But surprise, surprise, I will be paying for the next week and few days."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door, whisking the keys to the shop out of my jacket pocket and locking everything up for me. Then he sprinted down the street, staying ahead of me the entire way. It was only a few blocks, but by the time he stopped running I felt like my lungs were about to either collapse or explode. Maybe both, because I had most definitely collapsed and was undoubtedly about to explode.

"Stop sleeping on the pavement and look up, you idiot." He laughed and crouched down next to me, helping me from the ground to my feet.

A while ago he'd taken me to a nice little Italian bistro (sadly not Sarah's place although I wish it were- that was on a whole other level), one that was closing down soon because they never got a steady business flow. The food was to die for though, and I only got to eat there once with Brendon before they shut down. I was kinda sad about it, but I found myself facing a new and improved version that had one upped the previous restaurant.