The Girl Behind the Counter

Chapter 1

"Good morning Mr. Gray! Or is it Shelby? I've heard it both ways around town." The pretty little girl behind the counter of the flower shop greeted Michael. "Technically it's Gray, though Shelby is better for business. If you'd prefer you could just call me Michael." The young Peaky Blinder beamed, trying to be as charming as possible. "Very well, Michael, what can I do for you?" She smiled sweetly. Michael was a bit disappointed that she didn't offer up her own name in return. "Um, well, my mother would like more fresh flowers, last week's bouquet is starting to wilt a bit." This was a lie, last week's bouquet was still looking quite beautiful, but Michael needed an excuse to come to the flower shop. "Did she say what kind?" The girl asked. "Oh um, something, erm, spring-y." Michael wasn't bad at lying off of the top of his head, he was just bad at lying off the top of his head about flowers. "Spring-y? Hmmm, some tulips perhaps? They're fresh from the fields of Holland!" The girl was much better at lying off the top of her head about flowers. "Tulips sound perfect! Do you have any in pink? Like the light pink of your dress?" Michael asked. The girl blushed at the fact that he had noticed her dress from under her canvas smock. "I do indeed, how many would you like?" She asked. "Oh, I think a dozen will do." Michael said nonchalantly, trying to make the exchange seem like nothing more than a business arrangement. In fact it was anything but. "Coming right up!" She disappeared into a back room, leaving Michael alone in the front of the shop surrounded by various displays of roses and lilies and daisies. Just over a month ago Michael had wandered into this shop looking for the cheapest bouquet of roses he could find in order to give to some girl he had accidentally hooked up with two days before valentines day. Inside the shop he was met with one of the sweetest and most delicate looking flowers he had ever seen, the girl behind the counter. He had been quite blind sided by her rosy checks, bright blue eyes, and bright genuine smile. It had been quite a while since he had last met a genuine smile. On that fateful day he had been tapping his fingers impatiently on the counter until the girl had emerged from the back room in dirty gardening gloves, smiling, despite clearly having been working with some soil. She push a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes and in the process got a bit of dirt on her forehead. The image of their first meeting still makes Michael smile, all these weeks later. Michael had been so taken with the girl with a bit of dirt on her head, that he never made it to his date with whats her name who the original roses were initially meant for. Every week since Michael has come in to the shop to purchase flowers for his mother's table. These were flowers Polly Gray, of course, never actually asked to receive. Michael wasn't sure why he liked the flower shop girl so much. He met plenty of girls of plenty of types in plenty of clubs, but maybe that was just it. This was no girl in a club. This was a girl who was sweeter than the flowers around her who seemed to have no idea who Michael really was and what horrible things he was capable of. For that she was precious to him. "Here we are!" The girl reemerged with her arms full of blushing pink tulips. "Let me just wrap them up for you!" She pulled out some parchment and ribbon and delicately tied the blooms together. "How much do I owe you Miss, um-?" Michael purposely phrased his question this way so the he might learn your name. "Miss Larsson, but you can call me Maxie. That'll be 6 pence please." She looked at Michael expectantly. "Maxie? I like that! It's different. Though these aren't cheapest flowers are they, eh Maxie?" Michael said while rummaging in his pocket. "Like I said, fresh from those Dutch fields." She winked and he tried not to lose his cool tough guy act while handing her the money. Michael turned and opened the door to the shop, but before he could leave she stopped him. "Oh, and Michael!" He turned around at her call. "Same time time next week, eh?" She smirked. He blushed violently, but nodded his head and then quickly exited the shop.