The door slammed open, which roused James from the sports section of the paper, because doors rarely slammed open in small town flower shops. Unlike most customers, the girl who entered did not dally by the displays and instead walked straight toward him and slammed a few bills on the counter.

"How do I passive-aggressively say 'fuck you' in flower?"

You had me at 'fuck you in flower.' Before he could come up with an actual answer, his hand jumped to his hair and ruffled it in the back. It was a nervous habit - one Sirius teased him about whenever a pretty girl entered the room. "Er…" It was a good thing Sirius was not hanging around the shop for once, because James would never have heard the end of it for giving that response to a very angry, very attractive girl in his shop.

"Sorry," she answered quickly when he clearly did not have a response ready, letting out a breath. "It's my pain in the arse best friend. He's been entirely unreasonable lately and I just…"

Finally finding his voice again, James waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. We strive to supply flowers for any occasion." He cast her something that usually counted for a winning smile and grabbed his notepad and pencil for the order. "Now I don't know what this best friend did," he continued easily, "but I'm sure we can find just the thing."

His parents had owned the shop since before he was born and tended to it like a child before he was around. He was born later in life to them, and James remembered walking the rows, making the watering rounds every day, and checking the petals and stems for health. His father would hoist him onto his shoulders so he could reach the high blooms. His mother had taken him with her often when she picked the flowers for each order, reciting their meanings as they selected each stem. The colors changed each season, but they filled orders diligently for nearly everyone in the small town since they were the only flower shop. Nearly everyone in town circulated through the shop at one point for a wedding, funeral, party, dance, or holiday. Valentine's Day brought bright red roses, Easter Sunday had its fresh lilies, and the winter holidays were coated in poinsettias and curving ivy.

When his parents had died last year, suddenly but not quite unexpectedly, his university plans went immediately on hold. Keeping the shop alive and ensuring that it wasn't his fault that it shuttered after decades in business was more important than studying for classes for an undecided major. Even if Sirius ordinarily enjoyed teasing James, his best mate had understood and convinced Remus and Peter not to push him toward university right away. They even helped with shifts after James became a business owner overnight.

Of course, it had been nearly a year since then. James had not really planned to run a flower shop for the rest of his life, but his university application remained untouched.

Pencil in hand, James leaned against the counter and held his pad in front of him, ready to create a 'fuck you' bouquet for this girl's arse of a best friend. The girl propped her chin on her elbows to match him, green eyes sparkling with laughter. "Perfect," she answered. "What do you have?"

He took a moment to consider (and raise his hand to his hair again to make sure it was ruffled just right). "Geraniums, of course. They stand for stupidity. No matter what this best friend did, it was definitely stupid to get you flying in here."

The girl across the counter laughed at this. "Yes, I'll need loads of those."

James noted that and tried to think of something else to add. It wasn't just about picking flowers that looked all right together, his mother always said. It was about telling the story – even if the person getting the flowers did not always know what it was saying. "Now I don't want to pry, but I might need to know what this best friend did. What kind of asshole are we dealing with?"

The girl rolled her eyes in a way that told him that she had similar conversations with a few people before him. So this fight was not a one-off thing. "We've been best friends since we were kids. It's just…" her voice trailed while she looked for the next thing to say. "He's gotten involved with this awful group at school. You've probably seen the flyers around – all that anti-immigration nonsense?"

He nodded but said nothing. Of course, he had seen them. They coated nearly every available surface in town. People could not lose dogs fast enough to cover the signs with missing animal flyers. Sirius took it upon himself to rip down every poster he saw, cursing his family and other members of their party who were pushing for more restrictions and bans on people coming into the country. Remus took a few international politics classes and often came into the shop in the afternoon, fuming about what someone had said in class that day. Peter would follow Remus in, talking about the latest article he saw and flyers for another protest.

The girl across the counter nodded as well and stood, tucking some red hair that as escaped from her braid behind her ear. "Well, mum's an immigrant. My grandparents, too. When I bring that up to him, he doesn't even want to acknowledge it. We just…" She shook her head. "We just got into a big fight about it. Yelling, name calling, storming out - I'm sure you can imagine. I couldn't stand to be near him right now, so I…" She looked around the shop, smiling at bit. "I thought this might be a nicer way to respond than putting salt in his sugar for tea. Consider it my own form of protest, sitting in his flat for the next few days."

James looked up slightly at her. "Messing with a man's tea can be dangerous. I think I can make just the thing and can have it ready by Friday. Just leave me your name and number, and…" Before he could finish his usual end-of-sale speech, he was interrupted by the faint jiggle of the bell over the door that signaled someone's entrance.

Both people at the counter turned toward the door, and James saw the girl's posture stiffen at the sight of the new visitor. Her voice, which had been light a few seconds before, even when she spoke about the fight, had a noticeable edge. "Severus, I'm not really in the mood for talking right now."

"Lily, I didn't mean-"

"Save your breath." Lily – apparently, that was the girl's name – turned back toward James quickly. The laughter that had been in her eyes a few moments ago had frosted over. "Lily Evans," she said before taking the pad from his hand and scrawling her name and number across the top.

James looked up to see the other bloke's face, which he saw change in a few seconds from seeking forgiveness to confusion to something much closer to anger when his eyes found James. Never one to pass up the chance, James raised his hand and waved his fingers almost tauntingly. He looked back over at Lily, who had already pushed her way past Severus – that was what she had said, right? – and was nearly to the door. "All right, Evans?"

Lily turned back for a moment, the corner of her mouth almost twitching into a smile. "Call anytime." With that, she tossed her hair for good measure and snapped the door shut behind her. That left both boys in the shop, Severus still staring at James like his gaze could destroy him where he stood.

"Well," James started after a few beats, ripping the paper off the pad and tucking it into the pocket of his jeans. "Anything I can help you with?"

Severus looked around the shop, his lip curling. "No." With that, he turned to follow Lily's exit and let the door slam behind him.

"Hello?"

"Evans?" He paused, but when the voice on the other end of the line did not correct him, he continued. "I'm calling to let you know the flowers are done. I settled on geraniums, like we talked about and added yellow carnations for disappointment and orange lilies for hatred. Now you didn't say you hated him, but I thought it fit with a fight about… well, you know. Anyway, I added foxglove for insincerity. I think anyone who knew what they were doing with flowers would get the message loud and clear."

Now he heard her laugh. "Perfect. It's perfect. I can be in after class to pick it up. Is six all right?"

Here was his chance. Maybe it was a good thing he was not doing this in person, because his hand had jumped to his hair again and his heart was pounding at least a million beats a minute. He said his next sentence quickly, before he could talk himself out of it or Sirius could decide to walk into the shop. "I was just wondering, you know, when you came by, if you wanted to pick something else up too."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Me."

There was a slight pause, a few beats too long for James' liking.

"It's James, by the way. James Potter."

He could practically hear the grin in her voice when Lily finally answered. "Good name for a florist, I think. Did you plan that?"

"Lily's not a bad name for my date then."

She laughed again. "All right, Potter. It's a date."