White Roses

January

At the beginning of January Dean stopped in once for a quick purchase of roses. He was upset but didn't linger to chat. If Cas didn't know any better he'd have said Dean had been crying not long before stopping in, his eyes had been red rimmed and there had been circles under them. It had alarmed Cas to see the man looking like that. The rest of the month he didn't see Dean at all.

February was the busiest month of the year for Cas, and his entire shop was filled with roses of every color and variety, but red was the most popular and he had more of those than anything. His brother had come in two days before to help and yesterday his sister had come in to help, but seeing as how now it was Valentine's Day itself they were both off with their spouses and he was left to handle the rush by himself. All the orders had already been put together so it was really just a matter of finding the right one when a customer came in and taking the payment. In between those were the frantic, last minute customers that came in wanting something special for their significant other. By three o'clock he was down to only a quarter of the supply of roses. By the time he closed the shop at five he had no doubt he'd be out completely.

By four things had slowed down a bit. He had maybe two dozen roses left. Exhausted didn't even properly describe how he felt. It dawned on him that Dean had not stopped in at all, but he didn't have time to speculate about what that meant. At ten to five he pulled out the broom and dustpan so he could do a quick clean up. He always closed up shop the day after Valentine's Day, to give himself the time necessary to recuperate, and he was looking forward to sleeping in the next day. As it was, he was normally closed on Sundays but there was no way he was missing out on the income that the holiday always brought, so he had opened shop, and today alone he'd made close to five thousand. When the bell over the door jingled, he suppressed the groan that wanted to escape and set aside his cleaning. He went back up front to find Dean standing by the counter.

"Oh, hello, Dean. How are you?"

"Pretty good, actually. How are you?" Dean asked back.

"Tired. It's the busiest day of the year for me," Cas replied with a tired smile.

"I bet." Dean was smiling and he looked much, much better than he had the last time Cas had seen him. In fact, he looked more like he had when they'd first met.

"What can I get for you? Do you need something especially romantic for Lisa? I don't have very many roses left; I'm sorry about that."

"No, that ship sailed. We split at the beginning of last month. I stopped by after she'd picked a fight over the phone with me, brought her the flowers I got from you and she had another man in her house. I didn't even leave her the flowers. I didn't want to waste them, so I drove to my mother's and gave them to her. Today I'd just like a single rose, if that's ok."

Cas was a bit disappointed, but he wasn't going to admit that. Barely a month single and already Dean was seeing someone new. He didn't even have a chance.

"Sure, I have a couple red, maybe one pink, and a white. What color would you like?" He asked.

"What color roses do you like?" Dean asked as he followed Cas back to the coolers.

"Red is nice, but perhaps after all of the commercialization of the holiday it's a bit overdone. I prefer white. They symbolize many things, like purity, hope, new beginnings. And they're beautiful," Cas replied honestly.

"Then give me the white one," Dean said. Cas plucked it from the case and handed it over as they started back up front.

"Do you need me to wrap it? I can add in a few sprigs of baby's breath and tissue paper for no charge," he offered.

"No, I don't think that will be necessary." Dean paid for the rose but didn't move to leave.

"So, what are your plans tonight?" he asked.

"I don't have plans, no boyfriend, remember? It's me and a tub of Ben and Jerry's, and maybe pizza later." Cas gave an embarrassed little laugh as he began closing out the register.

"That's actually good to hear." Dean said. Cas looked up, tilting his head in confusion.

"It's good I'm sitting home eating ice cream?"

"No, it's good that you don't have plans because I was really hoping I could take you out to dinner." Dean held the rose out, and Cas noted the blush on his cheeks. "You can say no, I won't be offended."

Cas took the rose, turning it around in his fingers for a moment. "Really?"

Dean smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I sort of liked you from the first time I came in, but I don't play the field. I wanted to give Lisa a chance. I wish now that I hadn't, but that's a moot point. I don't want to focus on her. I want to focus on you. So...can I? I'm really not that bad a guy."

Cas smiled so wide every tooth in his mouth showed. "I'd love to go out to dinner with you."

Dean let out a shaky breath and smiled back.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Cas," he said. Cas came around the counter to stand in front of him. Dean was even more beautiful this close up.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too."