"Hello again, young Nico. Which is it to be today?"
"Edelweiss, Lily of the Valley, Snowdrop and Verbenas, for now. Then can I come back in a couple of hours to collect the yellow bouquet?" Nico asked, having taken to requesting it by colour.
"Certainly. Anything for my most loyal customer."
"Thank you, Sally."
"People misjudge you."
"What do you mean?"
"I see people look at you as you walk down the path and hold their bag as if scared you'll take it. I hear them whisper as they walk past about the obnoxious teen with the tattoos and piercings who has ruined himself. They're wrong about you. This place would have closed down years ago if we didn't have those few customers like you who keep coming back. Whoever those flowers are for, they've got themselves a proper gentleman." Nico gritted his teeth, not realising that the woman's son who was in the shop, seeing him there for the first time, took this as a threat and was preparing to intervene, before stepping forward and hugging the woman suddenly. He ducked his head when she returned the hold and accepted the kind of embrace that he hadn't felt for a long time. Sally could see the tears in the boy's eyes as he pulled away but didn't comment.
"So, it is blue and purple ribbons on this bouquet, isn't it?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Want me to add it to your bill?"
"Nope, I'm here to settle up what I owe. I believe this covers it, if not, I shall pay the rest this afternoon. I do not except, nor desire, change. I, umm, it's for you. Treat yourself. I've never seen you take a day off, you're always here working. I'll cover you for a day if you need me to, just so you can take what is in there and relax. Go for a massage or a manicure or a shopping spree or whatever it is that you like to do to relax." Nico accepted the flowers from the woman before pulling a folded envelope out of his hoodie pocket and handing it over, practically running down the road without another word.
"What was that mother?" Percy asked, eyeing the teen suspiciously as he walked away. "What has that freak just paid you in, used needles?" Sally turned around and slapped the back of the boy's head in disappointment.
"I raised you better than that. He is practically the only one keeping us open Perseus. Insists on always paying double or triple what we charge, more if the flowers he buys are out of season."
"What's the envelope then? You have to admit that that is shady mother." The woman shook her head before turning and walking into the shop as she peeled open the envelope, smiling at the written sentiment on the back.
"Percy!" she called.
"Told you!" he shouted as he jogged the couple of steps to his mother's side to look in the envelope. "What the f-"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence Perseus Jackson! He only owed one hundred dollars, two by his standards. There must be at least five thousand in here."
"That's shady!"
"He said he wanted me to take a day off because he only ever sees me working and this was to pay for it. I could pay off half of our debt with this Percy."
"No mum."
"Percy-"
"It's shady as anything and I may not like the frea- the kid. However, he is right, you never take a day off. I can do the shop for a while. Go, we'll survive, we always do. You can't waste this. Take out what he would pay for his flowers to balance out the shops books and then take the rest. Go out and enjoy yourself."
Sally smiled gently at her son and kissed his cheek before doing as he suggested and clearing off Nico's name, resealing the envelope.
"I have taken out the money for the other flowers for today as well. I will prepare them before I go."
"I can do some flowers mother."
"No Percy. Not these. I trust you with any accept these I'm afraid."
"Just because I don't like the kid."
"No. I would allow you to create his other two selections. Just not this one. This one is one that he has very specific wishes for. Otherwise it is just the specific flowers that he chooses. Not this bouquet. This one he always requests beforehand. It has a specific number of each in and he has specific requests pertaining to the way in which it is made. He pays an additional hundred a month for the 'trouble' of doing this Percy. This is one I must do myself."