Deadly Infatuation

Chapter 56

One week later

Lily

"Thank you for taking me for lunch, Mom. I really needed it."

She knows I find days like these hard when I have had a therapy session and with the shop somehow still being busy at this time of the month and looking after Max in my spare time, I've felt a little run down.

"It's no trouble, honey. I think Milo enjoyed himself as well."

"Yes, I think he did too." My eyes drift to the back seat of her car, where Milo is fast asleep. We ate in one of the nearby parks so he could have a run around and he mostly did laps of the park in between asking us to throw his favorite ball.

"I think he will spend the rest of the day sleeping on the couch," my mom says, laughing. "It's nice to see him happy, though."

"It is." He seemed down for a while after we lost Bailey, but he looks like his old joyful self now, which is nice to see.

The bell rings on the shop door behind me, and I turn and see more customers walk inside. "I better get going. I need to take over for Claire so she can go for lunch."

Claire has been working for me for two weeks now and I am pleased to say that she is a hardworking, happily married mother of two who spends her free time baking which works well for Suzanne and I as we get to taste all of her creations.

"Okay, honey. Give her and Suzanne my best."

"Will do."

I wave my mom goodbye as she heads home and then walk inside my shop and see Claire and Suzanne busy working. I put my apron on and tie my hair up and then go behind the counter just as Claire is finishing a sale. "How has it been?"

"Really good. We've had a few more sales, and we have had someone inquiring about using for a retirement party. Suzanne was busy at the time to ask for advice, so I discussed the different packages we offer with them and took their details so we could follow up with them."

"That's great, thank you. I promise that when the shop is a little quieter, I'll go through the procedures more with you for this."

"Thanks. It's good though, being busy like this. Beats standing hours behind an empty counter bored out of your mind."

I laugh. "Very true." I have had days like those and they are mind numbingly painful.

"Did you have fun with your mom?"

"I did. She says 'hi', by the way."

"That's sweet of her."

"You can head off for lunch now if you want to, now that I'm back?"

"Okay. I'll grab something on my way to my son's school." She rolls her eyes and removes her apron. "I asked him this morning if he had everything for his gym class and he's now texted me saying he forgot his shorts."

I giggle. "Oh no."

"Unfortunately, this isn't the first time he's done this, but it's the job that comes with being a mom."

As another customer comes to purchase their flowers, I tell Claire to sneak away while she can and then ring up the sale. I have a steady flow of people waiting to pay for their flowers over the next few minutes and when there's finally a break in sales I have a quick catch-up with Suzanne before heading to my office to call the people who inquired about using our flowers for a retirement party.

Four hours later, the last customer walks out of the shop and I tell Claire to lock the door before anyone else walks in.

"I think we definitely earned today's money," Suzanne jokes, fanning herself. "I think your advertising online is really working now."