Something to Talk About

Chapter 1 - The Letter

Abigail hates when her dad makes her do this.

"It'll only take a few minutes," he promises, holding a yellow piece of paper out towards her. "It's good for business; it shows her we have the best customer service in town. Do you think Joja personally hands out flyers?"

She groans, accepting the obnoxiously bright flyer from him. Maybe business would be better if her dad's flyers didn't look like they made by a little kid using a computer for the first time. Abigail considers giving it to Sebastian, instead; she's sure he would appreciate the awful font, and cheesy clip art of flower bouquets decorating the bottom of the sheet.

Wait, flower bouquets? Abigail frowns, studying the flyer a little harder.

Dear Farmer,

It seems like you're starting to get close with some of the townspeople. If you want to show someone that you're romantically interested, you've got to give them one of my beautiful flower bouquets. I'm selling them now, for a very fair price! If you want to start a family someday, this is the first step!

- Pierre

"Yoba, Dad, this is terrible." Abigail folds the flyer in half. "Do I really have to give this to the farmer? It's so embarrassing."

Her father looks up from the cash register, fixing her with a stern look. "Joja is trying to run us out of business, Abigail. Smarten up."

Abigail sighs, and stuffs the flier into her pocket. "Fine."

She pulls her scarf up over her face as she heads out the door. If she's lucky, she won't run into the farmer on her way there. Maybe she can just stuff it in the mailbox, and hurry back before the farmer catches her.

Oh Yoba... what if the farmer's already outside? What if she reads the letter while Abigail's standing there? Abigail thinks she might actually die if she has to personally hand over the flyer; she can't imagine the farmer being interested in 'starting a family' with her (or anyone in town, for that matter) after reading it.

Abigail's dad has already ruined her love life, and it hasn't even started yet.

Her heart is beating embarrassingly fast as she arrives at the farm. Abigail's never been very religious, but she sends her silent thanks to Yoba as she scans the grounds, and doesn't see any sign of the farmer. There's a fresh blanket of powdery snow covering the farm, and oh, it's so gorgeous, Abigail can almost pretend that her dream of living here one day isn't about to be crushed by a lame flyer.

Carefully, she opens the mailbox, and drops the stupid flyer inside. It lands on a pile of letters. There's a lot of letters in the farmer's mailbox, actually. Abigail fishes one of them out, and opens the unsealed envelope.

Farmer,

This is embarrassing... I lost my lucky purple shorts. I'm telling you because I think I can trust you. If you find them, bring them back to me DISCREETLY. I'll pay well.

Thanks, Mayor Lewis

Abigail wasn't planning on attending today's impromptu jam session – last night Sam sent her some lyrics he's been working on, and they're all horribly cheesy love songs about Sebastian – but she's just made a very intriguing discovery, one that needs to be shared with Sam and Sebastian immediately.

She tucks the Mayor's letter into her coat pocket, and pulls out her phone, shooting off a quick text to Sam to let him know that she's changed her mind about coming over.