Author: @writingmaichard
Prompt: My youth is yours.
Prompter: @AldubUnlimited
You still bring me flowers. Every Thursdays, we meet and sit beside each other on the cool, windblown grass of this makeshift meadow somewhere in the fringes of our hometown, not talking. You look at the skies, I stare at your face. We've always had different concepts of heaven. I want to tell you that you are still my favorite definition of paradise. Even after everything. Even after I've lost faith in my own salvation. But Thursdays are not eternal—the sun sets, the world continues turning, the flowers unfailingly wilt and you...
You always walk away first.
You always leave me behind.
But.
You.
You always come back.
***
Richard was already about to close his flower shop for the day when the beautiful stranger walked in. A wildflower, he quietly thought. Her hair was a tousled waterfall of dark chocolate curls and her acid-washed denim jeans was artfully ripped, an overwhelming prelude to her sun-kissed skin. Her eyes can bring revolutions to a pause. Richard did pause—his whole body surrendered to an exhilirating sense of stillness.
When she finally walked over to the counter to talk to him, Richard felt a surge of vertigo creeping across the trails of his spine. A sleeve of cryptic tattoo snaked from the girl's regal neck, continuing on the entirety of her right arm, all the way until the edges of her fingertips. Like a preview, it made Richard think of what it looked like underneath her clothes.
An artwork within an artwork.
"Is there a flower which means 'Forgive Me'?" the girl asked him nonchalantly.
"There are a hundred different kinds of forgiveness," he replied.
The girl suddenly became silent. Her intense eyes travelled across the room full of different kinds of potted plants and flowers. And then her eyes darted back at Richard.
"Yung sorry na... Araw-araw kitang pinapatay sa utak ko pero sa totoo lang, pagod na pagod na akong magalit sa'yo. Pwede bang kalimutan na lang natin lahat para makapagsimula tayong ulit? May bulaklak ba na ganun ang meaning?"
Richard felt the beginning of a smile forming on the edges of his lips. He walked to the far end of the room near the glass door beside the grass path leading to his own home. He had purposely constructed his house to be adjacent to his shop for convenience. When he came back, he was holding an armful of bright yellow daffodils. He gently handed it to her.
"After every winter, daffodils grow during spring time. Always. It symbolizes forgiveness and new beginnings. A Rebirth."
"These are perfect. Salamat,"
When she motioned to reach for her wallet to search for cash, he grabbed her hand to stop her.
"I would only accept your name as payment."
The girl's laughter echoed across the room and somehow, Richard can almost feel all the flowers laughing along with her.
"Nicomaine."
"You have a pretty name,"
"Oh no, I won't accept flattery. Stick with our currency. Sukli ko?"
It was his turn to laugh.
