After going around visiting clients' houses, Gary was on his way back to the office. Driving on the road, he glanced over to the row of shophouses lining down the street and caught sight of a flower shop.
The corners of his mouth curved upwards into a smile and he immediately did a U-turn and pulled over in front of the shop.
Pots of flowers that were not for sale were placed along the corridor of the shop front. He pushed open the door, walking inside and looked around. The walls were lined with wooden planks and there were a few mini flower pots hanging down from the ceiling.
He spotted a lady in a black apron, picking out some flowers from the chiller.
Sensing someone behind, she looked over her shoulder and saw Gary standing by the door. "Oh. Please wait a moment." She looked at him apologetically then slid the chiller door close and placed the bunch of flowers on the newspaper-lined worktable.
She wiped her hands dry on her apron and went up to him and apologized, "sorry to keep you waiting."
"It's fine. I came in to take a look. You can carry on with your things." Gary replied.
The florist nodded slightly and smiled. "If you need any help, feel free to approach me." She said before going back to her worktable. Gary watched as she snipped the stems of a few different flowers - pink roses, hydrangeas and white posies, and stuck them into a damp floral foam inside the pot. She arranged them in varying heights then scattered some pebbles around the flowers.
"Does this work with all kinds of flowers?" Gary asked.
She looked up and answered, "Yes. Are you interested?"
"I am but how long will it take?"
"About 30 minutes if you're a fast learner." She smiled and said.
Gary glanced at his watch. There is still an hour before Jihyo knock off from work.
"How do I begin?"
The florist pointed over to the different flower pot sizes stacked on the shelves beside him and told him to choose one. She then gathered the flowers that he wanted and placed them on the worktable. With her guidance, he carefully arranged the flowers in the small blue flower pot that he picked then tied a yellow ribbon around the pot to finish it off.
"Is this your wife?" She asked, noticing the wedding band in his ring finger.
Gary responded with a nod.
The florist walked towards the counter and carefully placed the pot of flowers into a square paper bag.
"She's such a lucky woman," she said.
He smiled and made payment for the item before leaving the shop.
***
Gary went back to his office to settle some of his work matters before heading down one floor to the manufacturing team's office.
Most of the employees were getting ready to knock off from work. Gary greeted a few of them as he walk past them to Jihyo's office. He pushed open the door, expecting to see her seated at her table but the lights in her room were off.
He entered and switched on the lights. She wouldn't have gone home without letting him know. He looked around and to his relief, he spotted her handbag on the floor, next to the swivel chair. He thought about arranging the pot of flowers somewhere easy to spot but after much consideration, decided to settled it down still in the paper bag on her table, and then sent her a message to let her know that he is in her office.
He sat down on the sofa, waiting for her reply. Ten minutes later, his phone buzzed on the table. He checked the screen but instead of a reply from Jihyo, it was an advertisment message from a real estate agency.
"Is she in a meeting?" Gary mumbled to himself as he delete the junk message.
He was about to send her another message when the door to the office was pushed open. Gary got up from the sofa as Jihyo stepped into the office.
"Yeobo," he called out to her. Jihyo looked at him, surprised to see him in there. He was about to walk up to her when he noticed someone else entering the office.
Someone familiar.
