It was 7:30pm in west L.A., Beca had gotten a call from her friend and roommate Stacie Conrad to grab some flowers on her way home from work. Stacie had a date and although she wanted to grab the flowers herself she was running behind on time. She made sure the reservation at the restaurant was confirmed, cleaned the car since she was the one who was going to pick up her date, and she got a mani pedi. Now all she needed to do was make sure she looked good, which wasn't a problem, it was the fact that she out a lot of thought into her outfit for tonight and lost track of time. Now Stacie's rushing to make sure her hair is straightened, but curled at the ends, and that her makeup is just right for tonight. Stacie has had her eyes on this one for a long time and she finally convinced the girl to go on a date with her and she wasn't going to disappoint.
Beca looked for floral shops on her phone and the one closest to the apartment was Floral Frenzy, it was close and had ⅘ stars so she decided to head towards the shop.
When she arrived the shop's sign 'Floral Frenzy' was bright. The outer edge of the letters lined in red and the fill of the letters was neon blue with a yellow flower next to the title to pull it all together. After looking away from the sign she noticed that it was dark outside, the sun had gone down and there were no stars out. She pulled out her phone to check the time 7:40pm, she had almost an hour until Stacie had to leave. Beca walked into the store and was immediately taken back by the amount of flowers that surround the edges of the store, with a large display centered in the middle of the store. Beca decided to look around for a minute before deciding that picking these flowers wasn't her forte, so she decided to text Stacie to at least get an idea as well as looking up some pictures on the internet.
Footsteps can be heard coming from the back and a girl with red hair approaches the counter. She notices Beca talking to herself and the girl giggles.
"Hey! Can I help you with anything?" she shouts across the store.
Beca walks towards the girl at the counter and says "Hey um, I'm picking out flowers for a date and I'm not sure what I should do."
"All right, do you know what kind of flowers this person might like?"
"Not a clue…" Beca felt awkward; she had been waiting on a text from Stacie because Beca genuinely didn't know what flowers to get and normally she wouldn't care so much if it was somebody else but Beca cared about Stacie and after all the effort Stacie has put into this date she wanted to make sure she got Stacie a nice bouquet of flowers.
"Ok then! What kind of bouquet are we looking for? Friend-date, first date….a proposal?" the florist asked?
"A first date." Beca stated. " She finally said yes to a date after all this time so it's at least somewhat important. People usually go for roses when it comes to dates right?"
"Sometimes! But depending on the color you can send mixed signals. Yellow roses symbolizes friendship. Pink roses usually symbolize being flirty, purple-"
"Pink! That's perfect for Stacie!" Beca interrupted. Stacie is the most flirtatious person Beca knows so she should at least put something that represents Stacie into these flowers.
"Oh her name is Stacie. That's a cute name." The florist wasn't surprised, there have been many people of sexual orientations and genders that visit the shop, she always makes sure they feel welcome and comfortable. Nobody needs to feel isolated or uneasy when they just want to grab flowers for others. But that name, Stacie, it rang a bell.
"Stacie isn't my date! She's my roommate and she's the one going on a date." Beca wanted to clear the air. She and Stacie were good friends but she didn't want anyone to get confused about the relationship which happens quite often. "She wanted to grab flowers earlier but she was busy making sure that everything for the date was set so she asked me to pick out the flowers but that was the wrong choice."
The florist laughed and then said "No don't be silly, we can make something beautiful for this important first date. Since it seems like she wants to make an impression, instead of having an all rose bouquet we can mix them up with some other flowers. It's different and unique."
"Sounds great. Let's do that." Beca said.
"All right, so what flowers should we use?" The other girl asked. The face Beca made showed the amount of hopelessness and confusion that she felt in that moment and this caused the florist to laugh.
"Ok. How about you pick 2 or 3 things you want in it and I'll do the rest?"
"Haa thank you so much." Be a said as she started pacing around the store. She was going to run out of time if she didn't think fast enough. Beca grabbed some light green hydrangeas, purple statice, and baby's breath. She saw baby's breath in everything, even the flowers she received in the past. Before heading to the counter she grabbed one pink rose; then she handed the stems to the florist and let her work her magic.
After about 10 minutes the bouquet was wrapped in recycled brown paper and handed over to Beca.
"Thank you. You're the best!" Beca shouted as she started to run towards the door. Just as she exited the store she started to the left towards where her car was parked but there was a bump in the way; she slammed into another person as she turned the corner; luckily no one was knocked off their feet.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Are you ok?" The other girl asked. Beca looked at the person that she ran into and that she should be the one apologizing. The other girl was a little taller than her, long black hair, with a black sleeveless shirt, and black pants with holes around the knees. Beca liked her style but she was more focused on what just happened.
"No that was my bad dude. I ran into you….literally." Beca said; she was slightly embarrassed that she was the cause of the problem and of such a bad pun.
"It's okay, at least the flowers still look good." the other girl chuckled a bit. "Hi, I'm-"
"Oh yeah the flowers! I gotta go, sorry for running into you. Bye!" Beca said as she ran off. She almost forgot she had a time limit. She had too much social interaction today and going home was exactly what she needed.
As Beca pulled into their designated garage spot she pulled out her phone to check the time again 8:12pm. This eased her senses, she made it with plenty of time to spare; she walked into the apartment with bouquet in hand and walked Stacie through her plans for tonight.