The bell over the door jingled faintly just as Lily was securing the final flower in the bouquet with a bit of wire. "I'll be right with you!" she called from the back room, glancing over at her coworker, Dorcas. "Make sure this looks all right and then wrap it up for me, could you?"
Without waiting for the other girl's response, Lily brushed a couple of stray petals off her apron as she moved to the front room of the flower shop. Eyeing the bunches of roses in the stand by the door was a tall young man of about her age. "How may I help you?" Lily asked. As he straightened, she was immediately struck by how handsome he was, from the sharp curve of his jaw to his long, straight nose and captivating hazel eyes. Even the somewhat unkempt look of his dark hair seemed to suit him, and it wasn't until Lily wondered if he styled it that way on purpose or if he knew he could get away with doing nothing to it that she realized he had spoken.
Feeling a blush begin to creep up her neck, she asked, "Sorry, could you repeat that?"
The slow smile that tilted the young man's lips in response made Lily blush all the more. "I'm looking for something for a birthday. Any suggestions?"
"Well, do you know what type of flowers she likes?" Lily asked.
"Er…not really. D'you think I should?" he replied uncertainly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"No—lucky for you, I can work with clueless," Lily said, not unkindly.
The other grinned. "Then we'll get along just fine."
"Right," said Lily, keeping her tone business-like to avoid saying anything embarrassing. "Irises are in season right now, so if you're looking for something fresh…." She trailed off, eyebrows raised in a question.
"Sounds fine," the young man said with a shrug. "Oh, and could you do two dozen?" he added as Lily turned for the back room again. "She's turning twenty-four, so…" He scratched absently at his ear. "Unless you think that's stupid."
Lily couldn't help a small smile. Despite her slight disappointment that he was obviously purchasing flowers for a girlfriend, it was sweet how nervous he seemed about impressing this girl. "I think she'll love that," she told him sincerely, and he nodded in relief.
"Anyone interesting?" Dorcas asked when Lily joined her again.
"Very cute, but very attached, from the sound of it," Lily summarized succinctly, opening one of the refrigerated cabinets and starting to select irises in bloom.
Dorcas shot her a sympathetic look as she moved to help her. "And you'd think a flower shop would be the perfect place to meet eligible single blokes," she said, shaking her head in mystification.
Lily laughed at the joke. "We should obviously change professions," she agreed, starting to clip the stems on the first dozen flowers.
"Well, did he specifically mention a girlfriend? Maybe they're for his mum?" her friend offered hopefully, taking the flowers as Lily finished and arranging them on the paper wrapping.
"No, he mentioned it's for a twenty-fourth birthday," Lily said with a sigh. "Thus he's getting her twenty-four flowers."
Wrinkling her nose, Dorcas said, "God, that is disgustingly adorable."
"I know," Lily grumbled. "It reminds me of what my dad used to do for my mum on their anniversary, except it was with jewelry—he'd find her a bracelet with the number of stones or charms equal to the number of years they'd been married."
"Well, you don't want either of those, anyway," Dorcas assured her as she tied off the bouquet. "What you really need is a bloke who will buy you a number of desserts equal to your age. That would be a reason to look forward to turning a year older."
Smiling appreciatively, Lily took the flowers from Dorcas's hands. "This is why we're friends, Dor."
On her return, Lily found the handsome man leaning over the counter and squinting at the picture hung behind it. The photograph showed a much younger Lily and her mother standing outside that very shop. Upon spotting the present day Lily, the young man flushed and stepped quickly away. "Sorry," he said, flustered. In an obvious attempt to recover, he gestured to the flowers and added, "Those look excellent—thanks."
Handing him the bunch, Lily said in a teasing tone, "I'm not trying to hide that picture, you know."
Laughing self-consciously, he said, "Right. Sorry." Wincing, he went on, "I'm apologizing a lot, aren't I? Unfortunately I'm on a bit of a tight schedule, otherwise normally I'd stay and try to convince you that I'm actually devilishly charming. I wish I could," he said, holding Lily's gaze with a crooked smile as he handed her two twenty-pound notes, "trust me."
Swallowing hard, Lily focused on counting out his change to distract from her pounding heart. "Maybe next time, then," she said. She kicked herself mentally, knowing that if she were his girlfriend, she certainly wouldn't appreciate her flirting with him.
"Definitely," he replied, and with a final smile was gone.
"Keep it together, Evans," Lily commanded herself in the silence that descended following his departure, before returning to help Dorcas.
Knowing she was being silly for wishing that the first handsome man to enter her shop would immediately sweep her off her feet, Lily had deliberately forgotten about the bloke with the twenty-four irises by the time she saw him again. It was a Friday afternoon, and she'd agreed to close up alone because Dorcas's parents were in town. Just as she finished locking up the back room and was proceeding to do the same with the front, the door swung open.
"You're here," the hazel eyed gentleman from before said, sounding relieved. "I was starting to think I'd just imagined you worked here, because every time I've stopped by the past two weeks it's been another woman working. Not that she wasn't helpful and nice, of course, just…"
"Just what?" Lily asked, recovering from her surprise—and trying to ignore her pleasure—at seeing him again.
The young man flashed a crooked grin. "Just, she's not you."
Lily gave him an amused look. "Did you really just say that?"
His grin morphed into a grimace. "Yeah, that was an awful line, wasn't it? Should have known right from the off, since my mate Sirius says it all the time and he's horrible at picking up women. I mean, he's not horrible at sleeping with them, just at getting any of them to want to stick around."
Trying not to pay attention to the nagging voice in her head that said he shouldn't have been using a line on her at all, Lily commented, "Well, to be fair, not everyone is looking for something long-term." To preclude any further flirting, she added before he could reply, "What'll it be today?"
The handsome man leaned one elbow on the counter. "Just going to go with the standard roses, I'm afraid," he said, nodding at the display by the door.
"Nothing wrong with that," Lily assured him, coming around and placing a dozen in a protective clear bag, twisting the bottom of it around the stems and securing it with a twist tie. "Fifteen pounds," she said, handing the flowers to him as she stepped back behind the counter.
"I'm James, by the way," the young man said as he dug the appropriate notes out of his pocket. "I figure it's only polite to be on a first name basis with one's florist."
"I'm not sure two purchases really qualifies me as your florist," Lily said, shutting the till. "But I suppose it would be rude either way not to tell you my name in return. It's Lily."
James grinned. "Really? Well I suppose you had no choice but to work in a flower shop, then," he teased.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, I haven't heard that one before," she said dryly. "But I basically grew up here, helping out my mum, so it's all I've ever really wanted to do."
"Does she work here too, then?"
Averting her eyes slightly, Lily shook her head. "No. She—well, she left me the shop when she died a few months ago. Cancer."
"Shit," James said, and immediately reddened. "I mean, I'm sorry—losing a parent is…that's hard. My dad died when I was eight. Not," he added hastily, "that it's the same situation, I'm not trying to say I know how you feel, or anything…" He trailed off, and looked so desperately uncomfortable that Lily had to laugh.
"It's all right, I know what you're trying to say. And I appreciate it."
"That's good," James said. "But maybe I should get out of here before I say any more idiotic things and get myself blacklisted. I'd hate to have to find another flower shop after all the trouble I went through to discover this one."
"That would be tragic indeed."
"All right then. Until next time, Lily."
The next time occurred just over a week later.
"That sexy bloke James is back," Dorcas said, wiggling her eyebrows as the door to the back room swung shut behind her.
"Don't say that so loud!" Lily hissed sharply to her. "It's not exactly sound proof back here."
"Somehow, he strikes me as the type that is fully aware of how attractive he is," Dorcas said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, he asked for you. I'll finish up the center pieces if you want."
"I'm not sure I could ever be actually interested in someone who flirts so easily with other women when he's seeing someone," Lily said, biting her lip.
"Well of course not," Dorcas said. "But there's no harm in helping him buy flowers as an excuse to look at his beautiful face. So…" she made a shooing motion towards the door.
"You're a terrible influence," Lily muttered as she moved away. Arranging a smile on her face, she nodded at James in greeting as she emerged into the main part of the store. "Back so soon?"
"I couldn't stay away," he said with a wink. "From the flowers, you know. They're just so lovely."
"Thank you," Lily said, telling herself that even if he continued to chat her up, she could at least not flirt back. "I hope the bride whose wedding we're doing this afternoon agrees."
"Oh you do weddings as well?" James asked, propping his arms on counter as he had the other day. Lily resisted the urge to do the same, keeping to her resolve not to give him any more indications that she enjoyed his flirting. "I've got a friend getting married in a couple of months—I'll have to recommend this place to her."
"Well, I won't say no to more business, although perhaps I should," Lily said, leaning against the back wall and slipping her hands in her apron pockets. "Spring is our busiest season, as you might guess, and I'm already looking at loads of overtime starting in a couple weeks."
"That's a shame," James sympathized. But there was a certain spark in his hazel eyes as he gave her that same slow smile from the first day they met. "When are you supposed to have any fun?"
"When I retire, I imagine. Which, considering what a florist makes, will probably be after I'm too old to enjoy it."
Shaking his head solemnly, James pushed back from the counter at last. "Life is terribly unfair, isn't it? But hopefully I can contribute just a bit to your retirement fund today. I'm going to go with your namesake this time."
"My—oh, lilies," she said, shaking her head at his witticism. "What type?"
"Whichever is your favorite," he said.
"Stargazer it is," Lily said, moving towards the appropriate case.
That evening, Lily found one of the pink flowers tucked under the windshield wipers of her car. With a simultaneous swoop of happiness in her stomach and guilty pang in her chest, she read the attached note: Think of it as a tip. Cheers! –James (P.S. I really hope this is the right car)
With a long sigh, Lily folded the note and tucked it into her pocket, placing the flower carefully on the seat beside her as she started her car.
"Right, no more leading him on, or—or letting him lead me on, whichever it is," Lily said firmly to Dorcas two days later, having resolved to confront James about the little flirtation he'd struck up.
"I still say there's no real harm in it, but if you're uncomfortable then of course you should tell him the next time he comes in. And," Dorcas squinted towards the front, "it looks like that time is going to be now."
Lily glanced around through the narrow window in the door of the back room and immediately recognized James's lanky figure. With a steeling gulp of air, she turned back to Dorcas. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck," her friend said dutifully.
"Hello again," James said with a pleasant smile as Lily entered the front of the shop.
"Look, I'm not blind," Lily started abruptly, ignoring his greeting.
James paused, looking bemused. "Yes, that would make it difficult to be in the flower business, I'd imagine," he began slowly.
Lily waved this off impatiently. "I see what you're trying to do by coming back here every time you need to buy flowers and I have to tell you…" she took a deep breath, "I'm not that kind of person. I'm not going to help you cheat on your girlfriend if that's what you—"
"I haven't got a girlfriend," James interrupted with a frown.
"What?" Lily blinked at him.
"I haven't got a girlfriend," he repeated.
"But—" Lily began, nonplussed, feeling her cheeks start to flush, "But you've been coming in to buy flowers for her."
"Not this often, I'd hope," James said with a laugh.
"Well," Lily said, trying to recover from her embarrassment, "perhaps you muck it up a lot and have to keep apologizing."
James winced. "That does describe me a bit too well, actually. But in this particular case, no. The first time I came in here I was buying flowers for a mate's birthday—the one who's getting married, in fact—since I'm rubbish at gifts and I figured you can't go wrong with flowers. The other times, well," he ruffled his hair uncomfortably, "I was making excuses to see you. Not the best strategy, probably, as I've now got a flat full of flowers, a flatmate who won't stop taking the piss, and have apparently only managed to further convince you that I'm already taken."
"Oh," Lily said, now completely mortified. "I…just assumed…"
"A dangerous thing," James said gravely. "But I suppose it was my mistake for not making the situation more apparent. So, let me be perfectly clear. Lily, would you like to get a drink with me tonight?"
"I'd love that," Lily said with a smile.
"Go ahead—I'll finish up here," came Dorcas's amused voice from behind her.
Whirling around and blushing again at the thought that her friend must have overheard much of the conversation, Lily glared at her briefly before nodding her thanks.
"Kind of you," James added to Dorcas as Lily stepped around the counter.
And with another smile at Lily, James ushered her out the door, the merry jingle of the bell above it following them onto the street.