all the flowers in time | laurinah *rewriting hehe*

Chapter One

yes it is 2024, yes i am revisiting and rewriting this fic, i needed some simple inspiration.

Dinah's morning fortune read 'there will be trials and tribulations today', and when she stepped outside to her car to go to work, she wished she had heeded said warning.

There's foggy memories of strawberry shampoo in her left eye, tumbling (briefly) down the steps, and mice using her shoes as a breeding zone. One thing is a coincidence, but throw three morning tragedies at her and she's suddenly spiritual. She's late, if you can believe it, to top off her stellar morning, so she's practically sprinting across the street to her car. She's in such a rush to get a move on that a car comes close to hitting her, but maybe that would've been a blessing in disguise. If she's hospitalized, no work at all.

There was a twinge of panic, the rushing and rushing and rushing...she hadn't noticed the boba shaped sticky note under his windshield wiper at first. Accompanied by a brand new dent in her front bumper.

She's fishing around in her purse for a stick of gum, realizing she hadn't brushed her teeth, which she finds without too much struggle. When Dinah looks up, she's gob smacked. A dent. A dent! In her car!

"You have got to be kidding me, no, no, this can not be happening." By the end of her sentence she's practically yelling, attracting the attention of passers by on the sidewalk. Just as quickly, she's yanking her phone from her purse and starting to dial nine-one-one, maybe even the president if she had his number, absolutely fuming. If it wasn't a thing solely in cartoons and it were actually possible, smoke would be pouring from her ears. She's about to hit the call button when something jumps out at her.

The boba shaped sticky note... and a flower?

The note, yeah, that made sense. One of the first things they teach you in driving school is to leave a note when you have to leave the scene of an accident. The flower, though, they caught Dinah completely off guard. She picks up the flower, anyway, along with the note, and reads it quietly to herself.

"Hi! I sort of knocked your bumper on the way to work, didn't have time to stop. But it was also kinda your fault for parking so crooked, so. Here's some information if you need to contact me!" She repeats the words on the paper, out loud this time and quietly to herself.

It was signed with "Lo", and underneath was a phone number and the place Lo worked. Dinah has to take several deep breaths, she reminds herself that murder is illegal, she reminds herself that jail is not a good place for girls like her.

Her fault? This person crashes into her car and has the audacity to not only share blame, but try to say Dinah is at fault in any way?

She grabs the little yellow flower and climbs into the driver's seat of her car, shutting the door and staring straight forward as she attempts to process the events of the last hour. She's going to jail. That's it, her life is over.

She makes a short call to her work and informs her manager, Arin, that she's going to be a little late getting in today, and as always he's extremely understanding. It calms Dinah down the slightest bit, but overall she remains angry for the duration of the drive to Seventh Street Flowers, and it didn't help that traffic was an absolute bitch in the south-east side of town.

When Dinah finally finds herself outside of the florist shop, she goes to an empty parking spot and takes a few seconds to collect herself. Jail is bad, jail is dangerous, jail is jail. She repeats like a mantra. She may want to punch this person Lo in the face, but her inner most angel reminds her that she's overreacting.

"You can do this Dj." She assures herself, smiling tight lipped in the mirror before clambering out and going into the building. It's pretty, on the inside and out, and Dinah finds herself calming slightly as she looks at the pink walls and blue trim, immediately hit by the strong sent of flowers. But then, she remembers why she's here and is mad, yet again, marching up to the front desk in front of a lanky boy with curly hair tied up in a bun.

She's places the yellow flower she'd received on the surface of the counter, eyes squinting slightly but attempting to remain polite in case this guy wasn't the culprit. "Where is Lo?" She asks, her voice a lot more annoyed than she intended.

The boy behind the counter, probably a little bit older than Dinah herself, laughs softly. He laughs. "Ah, you must be the car she hit this morning then, yeah?" His accent sounds like it's fading, but Dinah can tell that he's from somewhere in England. She opens her mouth, because nothing was funny about this situation at all, and she fully intends to inform—Harry, his name tag reads—of this, but the other turns his head and yells towards the back of the store.

"Lo! The girl whose car you hit is here!" He shouts, and a soft "What?!" of shock comes from the back of the establishment. With that, he offers Dinah a dopey grin, nodding towards the pots of seemingly freshly potted plants by the front door. "M'gonna go fix those up. Good luck!" He beams, and Dinah says nothing in reply, watching the door to the back room so she can size up Lo when they walk in.

She expects a lot, her mind had been racing with possibilities of who this mystery person could be, but what she absolutely is not-at-all ready for is a pretty inky haired girl with a bright smile and a purple flower tucked behind her ear to emerge. Lo smiles sheepishly.

"Hi, I'm Lo. Lauren, actually."