Tell Me With Flowers

7. Warmth in an ice museum

MEGAN

I was sitting with two phones in my hand, talking continuously for the past two hours without a single drop of water as I kept my voice cheery and bright. It was Friday afternoon when the calls had started to flood in and the dam had broken.

"Yes, Mr. Fox, I understand that the flowers were wilted when they had been up in decorations." I repeated my words patiently for the fourth time. "But you ordered the flowers on November first and put up for decoration on November fifth. It's natural for the flowers to wilt."

Mr. Fox went on about how I should be reimbursing his money for the wilted flowers that I had sent to his place. If I got a cent every time I rolled my eyes at cunning Mr. Fox, I would have minted the money to be one of the richest person on earth.

Eventually he threatened to sue me and my pretty shop to make sure that none of my other customers were harassed by me. I could only tell him to go ahead, and I would take care of the rest.

For the years, I had seen so many clients with the same problem, that was one of the reasons why Amber and I took up both decorations and flower supply on the whole. It left us a lot of spare space to adjust and revisit things to avoid people like Fox suing us.

I placed the phone away and walked around the front slab to free my limbs. Amber was in another call, pressing her head to the wall as she spoke to the other person.

I walked around her to get the water from the freezer only to get a glare from Amber who shook her head violently at me warning me to not take that cold water for drinking.

I patted her head twice before taking a gulp of water into my mouth. I walked back to the table only to find it ringing once more. Sighing, I took the call wondering how many more of Mr. Fox were there to ruin the day for me.

"Mystique Flowers. How can I help you?" I asked, not looking at the caller.

"Hi." A male voice spoke back. "I'm Julian Marshal calling from the museum for ice."

"Hello." I said, taking my seat back. I wondered what a guy from an ice museum would want from me. "What can Mystique Flowers do for you?"

"This year is very cold." Julian started and I had already turned a deaf ear to him. After listening to people blabber on and on about irrelevant things, I didn't have much patience left to hear what he had to say. In the month of November, it was natural to see snow and cold in the town of Baldachin Boulevard.

"I know." I responded back. "I'm already wearing two layers of sweater." The guy laughed at that, but I didn't have the strength to laugh along with him.

"So, we are opening the ice museum much earlier than we had expected." Julian said. "We were wondering if you guys could help us out with the flower arrangement for the inauguration."

"Sure." I said, pulling out a notepad to note down the details. "When is the inauguration? The flowers are going to wilt if you plan to order them today and decorate them after a week."

Julian laughed again at my advises. "Who's going to do that?"

"Just saying." I snorted, not able to hold back anymore. This call was much pleasanter than the calls I had taken since last hour. "So, when is it?"

"Today evening?" Julian replied back. "Will you be able to help me out? I know it's kind of a last-minute notice. But our organizer kind of had an idea just now. So..."

"What?" I asked, taken aback. "Evening? Will a few bouquets do then?"

Julian laughed again. "I hope. My boss doesn't care about the money since, well, it's a late notice."