3's unlucky but ours' timely

Chapter III

After the weekend tour, Özge and Can didn't have constant communication. They did slide in each other's DMs once in a while just to exchange quick greetings and how are yous. She was jam packed with school readings and projects with some nearing their deadlines while he was busy balancing his two careers.

Özge was on a conference video with her family at her flat after her early solo birthday dinner at a fancy bistro. They felt guilty that they weren't with her to celebrate her birthday. Unexpected occurrences happened and needed to be dealt with and they couldn't follow through their plan to visit her on her special day. She understood the situation and didn't make it a big deal. Actually, she didn't want her birthday to be a big deal. She thinks that she's past the age when she would get excited whenever it's her birthday.

She was busy talking with her sister on the video chat when someone knocked and notified her that there was someone waiting for her downstairs. She was surprised but still thanked the person who told her and went back inside her flat.

"What's wrong?" Her sister asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows and quickly answered, "I need to go downstairs. Hold on. I'll be back in a few." Her sister nodded and she went downstairs. A delivery guy waited and smiled professionally at her. He asked her to sign the form first before he handed her a medium sized box. She received the peculiar box and headed back to her flat.

Sevda, Özge's sister,  saw her enter the room with a box in her hands. "What's that?" She asked.

Özge placed the box beside her laptop and replied, "I don't know."

"Is there any writing that tells you who is the sender or did the delivery guy show you a form with details?"

She shook her head and responded, "I didn't read the whole form. I only skimmed and signed it."

"Özge!" Sevda scolded.

"I know, I know. I should've been more careful. I'm sorry, I was just too shocked earlier. My neighbor said there was someone waiting for me downstairs. I was curious to see who it was and it was just the delivery guy." She defended.

Sevda huffed and stopped herself from scolding Özge further. "Well, open the box. See what's inside." She encouraged Özge.

Özge hesitated for a moment and mumbled, "Here goes." She used a cutter to cut the tightly sealed box. When she tore down the box, there was another one inside. It was a sturdy black box and taped together on each side. She cut the tapes and opened the box. Her eyes widened and her breathing stopped when she saw what was inside. She could hear her sister's curiosity in the background when she stared at it for quite some time .

She picked up a bouquet of beautiful dried flowers and unintentionally showed it to her sister. She heard her gasp in surprise and admired the flowers. She noticed a small card attached to the bouquet and grabbed it carefully. She placed the beautiful bouquet on the chair she sat on earlier and read the card quietly.

"So you don't have to worry about them wilting."

It was printed. She bit her lip and tried to suppress an incoming smile on her face.

She was curious who the sender was when she received the unexpected delivery but as she thought more about it, she realized only a handful of people know about her whereabouts. Just her family and Can. Seeing that Sevda was also surprised earlier, Özge removed her from her suspects. And when she saw the type of flowers in the bouquet and read the card, she already had an inkling of who it was from.

She noticed that there was another box inside the black box and she was about to get it out when she heard Sevda's incessant inquiries. She was still suppressing her smile when she turned to her sister.