Wednesday arrives in a daze, complemented by another odd day at work. I kept replaying yesterday's lunch with Silas and Constantine, flashes of lopsided grins and honey eyes plaguing my mind and prickling my heart with an indescribable stab that's simultaneously anticipatory and loaded with dread.
"Call security!" Jane instructed, bringing me back to the present filled with coloured handbags and harsh lighting.
"I can't?" I returned weakly, leaning against the side door designated as a fire escape where some guy managed to find himself trapped in.
"What do you mean you CAN'T?" he exclaimed anxiously.
"Sorry, not you. I'm speaking to my manager over a walkie," I hurried, biting my lower lip before asking the obvious. "How'd you even end up there?"
"I watched a movie and when I exited the cinema, I took a door that had an exit sign in neon and followed some stairs. But after awhile when I noticed no one else was in here, I got scared and banged on the first door I saw!"
"What did you watch?" I asked, realising that in his distress, if I were to laugh at the situation where he glaringly took the fire escape route then he'd feel ashamed and panic more.
"Safari Cruise," he sniffled, an apocalyptic fear seizing him.
Initially posing the question to keep him calm, my expression immediately changes into one of real interest. "Oh! I wanted to see that! How was it?"
"It was enchanting," he declared wistfully.
"Hmm, interesting choice of words."
"In there!" Jane announced, cutting into our conversation and walking towards me with a security guard in tow.
"Hi, are you all right in there?" the guard asked loudly, barking at the door and making Jane and I flinch.
"I was before you started yelling!"
Without a trace of guilt, the guard frowns momentarily and continues in the same volume. "Oh. Well, listen here. I can't open this door because it'll set the alarm off and send a firefighter unit here, so -"
"YOU'RE TELLING ME I'M STUCK HERE? OH GOD. OH GOD. I'M NEVER GOING TO THE MOVIES EVER AGAIN!"
"Sir, calm down. All you have to do is to keep following the stairs till the last floor. There's a door that'll lead you to the parking lot. I have someone stationed there now and waiting."
"Keep taking the stairs? Are you crazy? What if I'm stuck here forever? What if I take the wrong set of stairs?" he hollered, baffled by the security guard's order.
"There are only one set of stairs and you can only go up or down. Just remain calm and you'll be outta here soon." Shaking his head, the guard turns his head and points at the door with a face that reads, 'can you believe this guy?'
"Fine. But if I'm not out of here in five minutes then I'm suing."
We can hear his steps hitting the stairs, an awkward glance shared by us all when silence descends.
"He seemed nice," I commented airily, smiling at Jane's gawking while the security guard reveals his sombre frown.
*********
On the way home, I keep smiling to myself as I picture the looks on aunt Gill's and Beth's faces once I tell them about today's shift at work, but the smile vanishes quickly when I see the flowers awaiting my arrival and the familiar prick at the heart replaces it instead.
"This makes no sense. It can't be Silas!" I huffed, treading through a month's worth of flowers in the living room ten minutes later as aunt Gill and Beth watch me grunt and stomp, stare at the walls and then drop onto the expensive Persian rug decorating the maple wood floor.
YOU ARE READING
Flowers for Rachel
Romance| FEATURED | Every day, Rachel Everheart comes home from her deadbeat retail job to a mysterious delivery of flowers, each bouquet different from the last and with their own intended meaning. Romantic, right? But she doesn't know who the sender is o...
