Flowergirl

✿✽❀~ five ~❀✽✿

                          w  e  e  k   5  :   j  a  s  m  i  n  e

"Miles, who's that at the door?" Mum yelled, her footsteps approaching from the kitchen. "Is it J?" she asked, emerging from the hallway holding a half-cut onion in one hand and a knife that was way too large for it in the other. She had an apron on over her work clothes and was wearing those protective goggles that she always put on when she was doing anything that required even the mildest bit of physical exertion.

"G'day, Miss Lee." Flowergirl waved at my mother from outside the door, a smile on her face welcoming enough to make you believe Mum and I were at her house and not ours. "I have the flower you had requested."

Mum's eyes widened at her news. "No way!"

Flowergirl had a sly smile on her face as she nodded and winked at Mum. "Reckon."

My mother grinned and did her own little happy dance in the archway as flowergirl brought out a small pot with a stem of the most delicate looking white flowers I'd ever seen growing from the soil.

"Oh, fantastic!" she exclaimed. "Miles, be a dear and get that for me, will you? I have to get back to the stove, but pay whatever price she gives, I know it still won't be nearly as expensive as it would've been if I'd gotten the flower from anyone else." She sighed. "J, you are an angel."

I looked at flowergirl—or J—who was now shaking her head with a big grin on her face. It felt weird to see her interacting so comfortably with my mother. Usually you meet a girl, date for a little, then introduce her to your mother. J knew my mother before I had even met her though, and they were really fond of each other.

"Anything for you Miss Lee, you're my best and favourite customer."

"Oh, you probably tell all of us that," Mum said, rolling her eyes at J, but still smiling as she headed back to the kitchen, onion in hand.

I turned back to flowergirl who now had a cheeky grin on her face. "What?" I asked.

She shrugged, biting her lip to try contain her smirk. I found myself following the entire action, unable to fathom how everything she did could be so intoxicating. My eyes were on her lips, and when she spoke, it was almost scary for me to watch her lips move and think that there might be someone else out there who gets to kiss them. Somebody else who gets to hear her voice early in the morning when they wake up.

"Miles is a nice name," she said, looking up at me through her eyelashes. It was funny, because her eyelashes were so short that it wouldn't have made much of a difference had she just looked me straight on, and yet, my heart still pounded against my rib cage. My throat still became dry as she widened her eyes (that were already too bloody big) for dramatic effect. I could still feel sweat form on my neck as she proceeded to say my name.

"Miles Lee...Miles Lee..."

It was like she was testing the words out on her tongue, as though she had never heard of either of those names and had to practice to get it just right.

"Miles Lee." She said it a third and final time, smiling contently at me. "I like it."

"I—uh—thanks."

She narrowed her eyes in amusement, but quickly turned her attention to the flower at hand. "Oh! So here, this is for your Mum. It's an Arabian Jasmine flower."

She took the small and frail looking stem between her two fingers, bending it slightly, a look of wonder on her face. As if she'd never seen anything so marvellous. As if she'd never stopped and looked herself in the mirror before. "Wow, she's really a beaut." Flowergirl shook her head in awe. "This is a wild one, you know," she said, chuckling. "Don't ask me how I got it though."

I laughed, taking the pot from her carefully. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

She nodded slowly, her attention still on the flower, and it felt weird to think that at that moment, I was jealous of a flower. I wanted flowergirl to look at me the way she looked at the flower, as though she'd never seen anything more breathtaking in her life. I loved that she was so passionate about what she did though; it was beautiful to see somebody doing something that they both loved and were really good at.

"So how much is this one?" I asked.

Now her eyes snapped back up to me and she gave me a nervous smile. "Uhh...it's...thirty-five?" She shut her eyes tightly, pursing her lips as she waited for me to respond.

I looked at her, amusement the only emotion coming to me as I took in her state. Along with her comical facial expression, she had balled her hands into fists against her chest and bent her knees a little bit. She looked so tiny as she stood before me and it was hard to believe that she could be so small and yet older than me. Although, every time she spoke, it was clear that what she lacked in size, she made up for in personality and on God, it was the most attractive thing I'd ever witnessed.

She peeked one eye open, trying to see why I hadn't responded, and when she saw the smile on my face, she relaxed a little. "Okay, I know it's a little expensive, but the pot did cost ten! And also it's a wild flower...those are always a little more expensive than the others."

I nodded. "It's okay, my mum told me to pay whatever price you gave me, remember?"

She chuckled, nodding as she zipped open her fanny pack to pull out change for me.

"It's okay, I think I have exact change..." I pulled the money out of my back pocket, taking out thirty-five and putting back the rest. "Here you go." She smiled as I gave her the money, putting it away in her fanny pack and then giving it the usual pat.

"Tell your mum that before she needs to use the jasmine, it'll go best in the kitchen. The smell is extraordinary."

"Will do."

"Okay." Flowergirl nodded, grabbing the cart with both hands. "Well I'll be on my way then, got lots more houses to stop by." She pulled the cart down the walkway, turning it around to exit the lawn before I stopped her.

"Wait, so you know my name, but I can't know yours?" I asked. "Doesn't sound very fair if you ask me."

She wiggled her eyebrows at me. "That's all part of the charm, buddy."

I frowned. Buddy.

"You really won't tell me?" I asked.

Flowergirl shook her head, now turning around to face me full on. She stepped down on the wheel-lock and leaned on the cart, folding her arms over her chest as a sly smile spread across her face for the second time that day. "No," she said. "But I will give you a hint, then we'll see if you can figure it out."

"Alright! I love riddles, so give me your worst."

She bit her lip and looked up at the sky, humming quietly to herself, a tune I was familiar with, but one I couldn't put my finger on. Now she looked back down at me, still humming as she studied me with wide eyes, trying to gage if I recognized the melody. Finally, after my staying silent for long enough, she spoke, "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, may prove a beauteous flower when next we meet..."

My mouth opened to say something, but the words escaped me before I could speak. My mind ran over and over the words she had just said, and even though I knew it was just a riddle, the way she was smiling at me coupled with the word choice she had used gave me hope that maybe, maybe she meant it in more ways than one.

Fat chance though.

She grinned, popping up the wheel-lock of her cart with her foot, and turning around to push it away from the house and down her path. She looked back up at me from past the picket fence, with her smile still on her face. "Think about it, Miles," she said, before heading on down her path, humming the tune again, just loudly enough for me to make out her voice among the birds chirping alongside it.

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