Forget me not

Fourteen

Emilia

"Alcohol," Fliss said. "Lots and lots of alcohol."

"Well, howdy do to you too Felicity." Hannah giggled. "I'm all for drinking until we pass out but can we at least understand why?" I grumbled at them both. We were already late and I was hungry, tired, achy and my head was now killing after sobbing at Fliss for the past 30 minutes about me being a terrible person.

"We are celebrating." Felicity skipped across the room to Maisie, dropping her bag onto the sofa beside her before turning around to face me. Could she not just do something half arsed? Or leave it? For the love of god. "Someone has finally decided to fully call it off with Mason instead of keeping the guy hanging."

"Don't say it like that. I feel bad enough about it as is. I really don't need anyone reminding me how much of a bitch I am for this whole thing." Maisie rounded the room, handing me a glass of something pink and bubbly and I didn't care enough to ask what exactly it was. This was such an unhealthy way of handling all of this but I didn't know what else to do in all honesty.

No matter how I looked at it, I left Mason at the altar. I didn't take any opportunities I could have made to tell him I didn't want any of it. I've been lying to myself for years just because he was the only constant and it left me with a giant mess to tidy up.

The girls sat around as I retold it all again. About his parents and sister and the wedding plans and what my future was supposed to look like with him and how I don't think that was what I wanted and I was confused as to how I'd lost my sight on what I wanted so easily because part of me still wants to run a flower shop and make everyone back here proud. I kind of want the small-town routine. The girls and my dad and Chris and the peace.

"Wait. So, you're moving back home? Permanently?" Maisie tipped the last of the second sparkling wine bottle into my glass. No one had really said anything up until now. Just let me speak and get it off my chest and talk my thoughts out which I was surprised at how easy it all was when I said it out loud. With Fliss it was messy and there were tears everywhere but now that was out of the way, I was all cried out and was able to just talk and answer their questions as they popped up and it didn't feel huge anymore. It felt like I was making a doctor's appointment. I was here already. Fliss had brought everything I'd bought with my own money that had been shoved into storage. Dad had sworn at me when he came home to me blubbering and Fliss told him I didn't want to be a burden. Like really sworn. Dad didn't swear but he called me a fucking idiot about 50 times. Just to promise me that room was mine no matter how old I was or where I ended up or how long I'd been gone and that as long as I lived with him I wasn't paying any household bills because that was his job.

"I guess so. I'll have to find a job though."

"No." Hannah laughed quickly. "No, if you're coming home, you're doing it all."

"What do you mean I'm doing it all?"

"You're not coming home to pick up shifts between your dad's shop and the bait shop like you're 16 again. You're not getting stuck working behind a bar forever either. If you're coming home Leah, you're setting up a shop."

"Are you nuts? Or just drunk because that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life."

"No, no it's really not." Fliss shook her head from the floor. "You've got the degree and the experience from working in the shop during uni."

"You know more about flowers than anyone I know Leah."

"And you know exactly what pairs well. You've got the business degree; you know how to run it successfully and I'm sure Hank and Ellis will help you with all the tax stuff until you know what you're doing."

"It's not like we have a flower shop in town either. You'd have to go out to Fondale for anything that wasn't supermarket flowers or from the garage." Maisie shrugged. "I'd love an excuse to treat myself every week. All the girls that come into the bar are always talking about how they'd love flowers but it's so far for their guys to go for something so stupid."

"MAISIE!" The girls shouted at her.

"What?!"

"We're trying to talk her into setting up a business around flowers and you're here telling her they're stupid. Honestly. You can be so clueless sometimes." Hannah smiled.

"Shall I tell them what this place looked like 25 minutes before they got here Han?"

"How about we don't go there. I was cleaning but -"

"You got distracted washing up because you forgot to preheat the oven and then you checked the instructions on the food and left the fridge open whilst you snacked with the tap running in the background. I came home and it was like a little bomb had gone off." Hannah laughed. The scatter brain had always been this easily distracted.

"Guys. We're talking about Emilia here."

"Oh right. Yeah." Hannah nodded. "You're opening the shop."

"I wouldn't even know where to start with it all."

"See this is why we have girls night when we're having a crisis to work it out. I'll get my notebook and the whiteboard and we can look at shops to rent in the centre of town and flower suppliers and applications and oh! Maisie can put her little arty heart to good use and make you a logo and we can look at colour schemes. AND-" Oh god. I'd set something off for her hadn't I? Goodbye to her little crocheting hobby, no doubt I'd knocked that out of the window.