Honeylove [H.S.]

6 ☆

— 𓆤 —

Coffee is acrid on my tongue, running through my throat like molten lava and sitting stiffly in my belly. I rip open two sugar packets and drop them inside the cup in one go. This isn't my usual order. I don't care much for coffee unless ice cubes and a mix of oat milk and caramel syrup are swimming with it, but I had a long night so I figured a decent cup of hot coffee is better than nothing. I chase a teal pill with my third hesitant sip of coffee and wait over thirty minutes for it to kick in and soothe my headache.

I got in the apartment around three in the morning. I showered until I turned into a prune, inhaled a chocolate Pop-Tart, and passed out on the couch with the silver wrapper still in my hand. Tofu was licking at it when my alarm blasted in my ears four hours later. The girls were still sleeping when I got up so I couldn't decompress what the hell happened at Rainbow Paradise. I'd pass it over to Tomás within an hour of arriving at his flower shop.

I brushed my teeth with my eyes half-closed, threw my damp hair up in a bun instead of blowdrying it as I prefer, stuffed my body into a wrinkled white cotton dress I found in the corner of my suitcase, and walked twenty-four minutes towards a quaint corner in Greenwich Village. If I'd walk east an extra twelve minutes, I'd be right outside of Rainbow Paradise and that's probably the last place I'd want to be in. I don't know whether I'd be invited in today anyway.

The flower shop, however, has welcomed me in with open arms since I was eighteen years old in the same year I moved from my hometown to the city. It's seen me through nearly every season of my life. I went through my fair share of jobs at restaurants, cafes, and even a laundromat before I stumbled into this shop in search of a colorful bouquet to gift myself as a 'Way to go! You've completed your first semester and you're not making a big mistake moving here and changing the course of your life, no matter what your mother tells you!'

That's when I met Tomás. He's the kind of person with an aura that radiates spring, warm hugs, and freshly washed sheets. Something about those people comforts you almost immediately and it makes you want to tell them your entire life story and receive life-changing advice in return, which is sort of how I ended up working here. His husband's teenage niece usually helps them around when they need it but she would travel out of the city with her family every winter and summer, so I would take her place when she couldn't.