Gravis Mushnik ran a respectable flower business in uptown Skid Row and did a perfectly wonderful job, if he did say himself. There was always discipline in his workplace, always ethics, and always respect for the man in charge (which happened to be him). If you went into his shop unfocused, there would be hell to pay, and not just a stern talking-to from the boss.

Who was he kidding? Those morals are washed up. Baloney. Done for.

He knew he let his good-for-nothing employees get away with everything. His failure of a shopkeeper was the cause of most of his financial woes- replacing broken pots, fixing leaky pipes (they would be fine if he didn't try to fix them on his own, the schmuck!), and Mushnik was sure that he (the shopkeeper) drove most of the potential customers away with his sheer… awkwardness. The pathetic little guy. He had been an orphan when Mushnik took him in, and he was the shyest youngster he had ever met…

His girl employee was not bad at all. In fact, she was pleasant, thoughtful, organized, and easy to talk to. If only she didn't take so many sick days, she could be around to help his blasted shopkeeper manage the little flower shop. But the poor girl had the worst boyfriend imaginable, and she was too kindly to leave him for somebody better.

There they were: the wretched emotions that Mushnik felt towards his employees that stood in the way of him being brutal and running a MANAGEABLE shop.

If only they could fix their problems. If only they could find some way to be less… pitiable. Then Mushnik could run the shop the way-he-pleased.

'The only thing my shopkeeper needs,' thought Mushnik, 'is someone to look after him. My girl employee needs a new boyfriend- one that will treat her the way she deserves to be treated.'

Mushnik looked up from his desk at his employees. Something caught his eye.

Now, he knew, and had known for a very long time, that his incompetent shopkeeper had been smitten with his girl employee for the year that she had worked in his fine establishment. But never in his wildest thought had he imagined… a requited attraction!

For there it was, just in the way they spoke to each other.

"Say, Audrey," said Mushnik's shopkeeper to his girl employee, "Could… could you pass me those gloves?"

"Why, sure, Seymour," replied the girl to the boy.

And… their hands! They accidentally touched while passing the gloves. Audrey turned bright red and hastily turned the other way, while Seymour looked as though he might have thrown up into the pot of flowers in front of him. They were both so nervous!

And it hit Mushnik. They needed… each other! That is exactly what this place needed- a spice in relationships. Of course, he'd have to go through a period of infatuation, but he could live with that, because in the end they will both be focused.

Mushnik would get the shop he wanted!