8:23

Lukas squinted at the clock hanging along the wall next to him, inwardly groaning at the fact that he still had seven minutes left. Resting his head on his hand, his eyes narrowed, glaring daggers at the clock.

Tick, tick, tick…

Realizing his intense gaze wasn't making the clock move any faster, the blonde leaned back in his chair with a groan, raking his hands down his face.

Truthfully, he absolutely hated working here, at his mother's flower shop.

The Bondevik family's flower shop was a quaint shop, located in a suburban area in the United States; the family having moved there from Norway when Lukas was twelve.

Two years prior, it was only Lukas's mother and him working there, but ever since his mother left to pursue her career of being a lawyer, Lukas was the only employee. Despite this, since there were only a few customers per day, it wasn't very overwhelming for the boy to work there alone and he learned to get used to it.

For the seventeen year-old, working there was excruciatingly boring, and the worst part was having to interact with people. It was beyond frustrating. However, luckily for Lukas, over the weekends his brother worked there as well. Those days, Lukas oftentimes forced the younger teen to deal with customers, relieving a bit of Lukas's stress of having to be a walking complaint department.

No, it wasn't as bad for the brothers because there weren't many customers to visit their cozy shop; however the few nitpicky ones were extraordinarily annoying to deal with, and made up for the lack of buyers.

Despite all of this, the young Norwegian hated to admit it, but this was the best job he would be able to get being still in high school. He'd just have to deal with it until he at least would graduate high school.

"Hm.." The corners of his lips turned downward slightly, himself gazing at the cracked and peeling wallpaper on the pale blue wall beside him in deep thought.

Closing his eyes slightly, he inhaled the intoxicatingly sweet aroma of the flowers scattering the shop in front of the counter. As much as he hated working here, he had to admit that it was quite relaxing being surrounded by a plethora of flowers.

God.. I'm so tired.. Lukas thought with a grimace, sighing.

It was a long school day that Friday, and it didn't help that he was forced to work at the flower shop from 5:30 to 8:30 that day. He just kept pondering how much longer until he could leave, and how excruciatingly tired he was.

But that's when a ring of the bell on the door interrupted his thoughts, abruptly jolting the teenager from his daze. Lukas glanced up, putting on a fake smile as a man walked through the door into the shop.

"Good evening, welcome to Bondevik Family Flowershop," Lukas spoke in a monotone voice. "Do you need anything?"

The stranger, a bubbly grin set on his bright face, leaned on the wooden counter slightly.

"Yes, actually!" he spoke, voice flowing with a strong Danish accent, making Lukas cringe. "Ordered some flowers from here, and I'm here to pick 'em up!"

"Name?" Lukas asked, glancing down at an order sheet.

"Oh! The order's under Berwald Oxenstierna!"

"Okay," Lukas nodded, rolling his eyes slightly in bemusement at the man (who he assumed was Berwald)'s excitement. He scanned the sheet, and found the name and its order number. He stood up from his black desk chair.

"...you don't have to yell every damn thing you say..." Lukas mumbled with a scowl, turning around to retrieve the man's bouquet from the back room. However, because of the man's obliviousness, he didn't quite catch Lukas's snarky remark.

Lukas slid through pastel violet curtains decorated with royal blue rose patterns, into the back room, glancing around to find the flower arrangement. After a few moments, he returned with a small bouquet of flowers; the flowers assorted ranging from red carnations, to red and white camellias, to gardenias...

Lukas almost sighed in disappointment when he realized the flowers the man ordered. Most of the flowers had meanings of love or affection. Not to mention, but the arrangement did have a card attached to the side proclaiming his love to someone named.. Tino.

Of course, he has a… Lukas then abruptly shook his head. … No…! Why should I care..? Lukas asked himself, outraged at his subconscious disappointed thoughts.

Scowl remaining on his features, he returned to the counter where the man waiting stood, humming an unfamiliar tune. He placed the arrangement on the counter, sitting back down in his leather desk chair.

"That'll be…" Lukas quickly glanced down at the register, "...$12.67."

The customer nodded, and with a smirk, handed him 13 crumpled-up dollars.

"Thank you for buying your flowers from Bondevik's Blomsterbutikk. Here's your change," Lukas drawled with a seemingly bored tone, handing him 33 cents back from the register. "Have a nice day."

The man bid him goodbye as well, albeit in a more cheerful tone and with a flirtatious wink. He quickly slipped a small strip of paper down on the counter, along with a tip, before picking up his flowers. The Dane was out the door before Lukas could even blink.

Rolling his eyes, Lukas gazed down at the folded piece of paper in curiosity. Picking it up, he examined it with a frown still gracing his features.

Scrawled across the slightly crinkled paper was: call me, gorgeous ;). And underneath that, there was a number messily written in black ink.

Lukas gave an exasperated sigh, shoving it in his back pocket before pocketing the generous tip as well.

So he wants to cheat on Tino.

What a dick.

A/N: -PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE-

Hello everyone!

As an IMPORTANT side note, please, please, PLEASE refrain from commenting things like "That's not Berwald!" or "You're mixing the characters up!" or things like that, just hold on, and things will make more sense in the next chapter or two, okay? Okay. :)

Also, I apologize if they are OOC, but it is my first fanfic. I'll work on writing the characters more accurately, though! I swear!

Oh! Just to let ya'll know, I'll be updating the next two chapters pretty soon (probably in the span of the next few days), mainly because they are pre-written. However, after those are up, I will be updating (hopefully) once a week! Again, I say hopefully because things may pop up in my life, but I'll try my best! Hope ya like it so far!