The Heart Breaker Association

Chapter 16 - The Talk

The air was familiarly humid even though it was actually pretty cool outside. Arizona reached a wonderful temperature in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I groaned at the thought of Christmas. I would have to go home to my family which was never a fun experience. Many people when on ‘vacation’ to go home for Christmas. My vacation was the time I got to spend away from home. It’s not that my house had bad memories or that my childhood was awful, it was just, not a home. I didn’t feel comfortable there and most certainly didn’t feel like spending quality time with my oh-so-caring parents.

I began to water the pots whose soil was dry. I removed my gloves to test out the dirt with my fingers. It was always easier to feel the moisture that way. I gave a little push on the top of every pot and if water seeped forth then it was good to go. If the soil felt dry and crumbly like a stale piece of bread then the plant needed water. After watering all the plants that needed it, I moved on to spraying them.

I didn’t get up to the greenhouse every day, though someone always had the duty of at least watering the plants. I liked to spray all the leaves and petals because it gave the flowers more of a pretty look to them as if the morning dew had just come off of them. Plus it gave the air more water to make it humid which ultimately helped the soil stay moist and the flowers grow.

After spraying and watering, I worked on trimming. I went through with small scissors and removed dead leaves, petals, or flowers from the pots. Dead parts only withered a plant’s growth so they had to be removed. That took quite a long time especially when I had to search through some of the bushels of flowers.

I didn’t hear the door open to the greenhouse while working but I did hear it shut. I whirled around ready to lash out at the person who was disturbing me. I even had the scissors ready to strike when I saw that it was Preston. He held up his hands in surrender and took a step back not that he was anywhere near me.

“They did warn me not to come up here.”

Great. The person I had been trying to avoid thinking about pops up right in front of my face at the worst times. Life had a weird way of messing with me.

“What do you want?” I lowered the scissors and turned my back to him so I could continue with cutting off all the dead flowers.

“To talk to you,” he answered shoving his hands in his pockets.

“About Maggie?” I asked uncaringly. I really didn’t want to talk about her… me… that. “If you’re coming over to talk about Thanksgiving then you don’t have to. I already heard all about it. I practically feel like I was there.”

“I actually didn’t come to talk about Maggie,” Preston said.

I turned toward him and raised my eyebrow. “Oh? Well if… you want a discount on flowers or anything just because you know the owner, well that’s not going to fly.”

Preston laughed. “No, I didn’t come for that either.”

Now I was really confused. “Well then, what are you here for?”

“To talk.”

“To talk?”

Preston nodded and spoke slowly, “Yes, to talk. That is when one person uses their mouths to produce vocal noises to communicate in a conversation.”

“I know what it means,” I said annoyed with him already. “I don’t get why you want to do that with me.”

“Because none of my guy friends are interested in love and stuff and I don’t think being friends with any other females is advisable at the moment.”