Chapter One - Introduction

It was a great morning to sleep in. It was raining and a young 24 year old Mai had no plans for today. Both of these factors provided a very good invitation to spend the morning in old pyjamas and snuggled under the covers. It was Saturday, which meant no work at the floral shop and no more having to deal with pesky bugs trying to eat your lunch food.

The old floral shop in which Mai worked in was owned by her old and weary grandmother. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Like oh my gosh what a cliché!" But I assure you dear reader, that this story will be full of non-cliché moments and rather realistic situations. Anyway, let us get back to the story. Long ago, in a land far far away, there lived a young woman named Mai. I will not get into the details as I have already introduced her, but only tell you that she was from the small country of England. In which she lived in the town of Amble, where her family had stayed for generations and owned a small floral shop.

Like any other family business, the currently unemployed youngest family member would always work there six days a week, on little pay. This just so happened to be our main character, Mai. Yay! Growing up, Mai had always asked her grandma why their ancestors had decided to open a floral shop. Her grandma would always give the same answer; "My dear, the joy of helping people find happiness is our main objective in life. Why flowers and plants? Well dear Mai, flowers are the fruit of the soul and always brighten spirits."

As a young and unknowledgeable girl, she never really understood her grandmother's words. But now, as a young and intelligent women she came to realise that the women of her family were always helping and giving love to everyone. Mai strived to try and be like her kind mother, or wise grandmother. "Try" being the key word. Most of the times, her attempts at charity failed. From dropping grocery bags to making poor children cry harder because their knee injury was "going to get infected and you will die if you don't get home and get off the foot path."

Now on this dull and dreary Saturday, Mai got out of bed at 11:20am, made herself and her delightful cat Harry some breakfast and sat down on the couch to watch some television. As she munched on her bowl of Corn Flakes, her mind dozed off into a trance. After minutes of the incessant noise of crunching, the trance was broken by the loud sound of the phone ringing. Putting her cereal bowl down on the side table, Mai reached to her left to grab the phone that was haphazardly thrown on another seat days ago.

"Hello this is Mai speaking." Mai answered. Standing up she made her way towards her bedroom.

"Hello darling its mother! How are you?" Her mother, Sarah, was on the other end.

"Good. I just woke up." Grabbing the day's clothes out of her cupboard, Mai got her things ready for the day.

"Oh that's lovely. I was just wondering if you would like to come to dinner with me and my friends?" Sarah replied. Mai's mother had lovely friends, albeit dull and boring, but they meant well.

Mai scratched her head, unsure of her mother's motives. "Why?" She eventually asked.

"I was just wanting to spend time with you that's all. You know, I am an ageing woman and at any time I could accidently..."

Mai cut Sarah off with a chuckle, "Ma, your 50 not 100! You aren't going to be dyeing anytime soon. Think of grandma! She has more of a chance of dying than you!" Once in the bathroom, Mai dropped her clothes on the floor and leaned against the sink. "Where were you guys planning on going?" Considering that the food was most likely going to be free, Mai was thinking about joining the party. Mai always followed by one of her most loved quotes; "If free food comes knocking at your door, you open up and let it in."

"To the nice new French restaurant that opened up a couple of months ago." Sarah responded. Ah yes, I heard of that place. Apparently it had nice soup... Mai nodded her head in thought.

"Okay I'll come, what time? I'll drive myself there." That is if TomTom decides to stop being an asshole to me and leading me in the wrong direction.

"About 6:30," Sarah said. "See you then, love you!"

Saying her goodbyes, Mai hung up the phone and sighed. Looking down to her clothes she pondered for a while. Should I?... "Meh. Whatever." She left the clothes abandoned and returned to her room, setting an alarm for 5:00. What was the point of changing if she was going to change hours later? Dropping onto her bed, Mai fell into a peaceful sleep.

A.N: Greeting everyone, this story is my first one ever. It might sound a bit posh or robot-y at the start but once I get used to writing it'll probably loosen up to casual language. So I hope you enjoy the story. Constructive criticism is allowed but I would prefer you PM me.

Edited: 5/1/17