Flowers for Rachel

Wild Roses

I leave Deloris' home in a trance, everything colliding into order as the obvious pieces snap into place. I should have seen it clearly. In a town like Malamute and in a neighbourhood like ours, coincidences are far too rare and wide for a disruption of flowers to be anything but a semblance of the ordinary.

It was Konstantin Blake this whole time.

The glint and humour swarming in his warm orbs a tell tale sign that he was behind it all. The dark hooded figure running across great-aunt Gillian's lawn didn't run away because he was trying to make my life miserable with questions, but because I'd find him out and too soon, before the love letters could be complete.

Apple Blossoms. I prefer you before all.

Daises. I love you, truly.

Yellow Marguerites. I'll be there soon.

Hyacinths. Your loveliness charms me.

Irises. I send a message.

Red Tulips. I declare my love.

White Lilies. My love is pure.

Honeysuckles. Devoted affection.

Red Carnations. My heart aches for you.

"And I thought romance was dead," I mumbled, clutching the book in my hands as my eyes dash across the flowers and their meanings. My secret admirer wasn't so much of a secret after all, but a friend at my side. 

Continuing to walk under the umbrella of a daze, I barely have a shoe tossed off at home when today's bouquet of flowers stare back in a corner at the entrance. Their existence is enough to make me freeze with an explosion of expectation before quickly opening the book and flipping through its pages till I find the exact match.

Sucking in air, I shut it close with a snap and hurriedly text Konstantin to meet me at the park. Taking the wild roses to the kitchen to rummage for a glass jar, I fill it with water before taking them up to my room and sigh with a smile.

I guess it's my turn to answer these love letters.

***********

I said this town was full of shits, but in this moment and in the here and now, I take back everything I ever whined about. 

Sure, the park is grimy from the paling winter that's trying to hold on while spring battles to be seen and felt. There are no kids around by the playground, the sand gloppy and moist, and the benches ready to give you a cold bite. Regardless of these less than picturesque facts, the sky is clear, the trees and grass lush green and my mood soaring high, refusing to be dampened by anything.

"Rachel!" a familiar voice hollered, making me turn and look up.

"Hey!" I yelled back, glancing around to make sure we were the only ones here. I might have mustered a minimal amount of courage as large as a speck of pollen to answer those love letters and the one thing I told aunt Gill I wouldn't do, but that doesn't mean I'm not scared of being overheard.

"You texted?" he said posing it as a question, and coming up to me with a nervous look.

Crossing my arms, I purse my lips to huff out some air. "Yeah. You have a lot of explaining to do. Konstantin with a K and not C."

"What?" he snapped quickly, shifting his eyes to look around the park until a swift change comes over him and he's able to steel his emotions. "I never hid that from you."

"Okay, fair enough," I murmured with narrowed eyes, seesawing on the balls of my feet and enjoying the uneasiness flashing across his face before he has a chance to dispel it.