Chapter one: The Tale of Two flowers.
Cam would never forget the day the new farmer walked up to his store asking for a bouquet of lilies. This event would change his life in unforeseen ways. At first he took no particular interest in this farmer who called herself Lillian, but things started to change rapidly before his eyes.
"More lilies please." Lillian asked shyly, averting her gaze as she fiddled with her bandana upon her flowing chestnut hair. "P-Please and thank you!" She added on with a nervous, almost forced chuckle.
{Again?} Cam thought to himself. {This is fourth time today. } He let out a sigh and nodded, pulling out the last lily bouquet and handing it off to Lillian their fingers brushing accidently. Cam quickly pulled away and caused the bundle of lilies to fall to the ground. "Ah!" He groaned as he made to pick them up, but then he and Lillian crashed together, slamming the top of their heads onto each others.
"Yeowchies!" Lillian ducked away, now on her knees, clutching the top of her head, her sea blue eyes gleaming with agony. "That really hurt." She groaned, rubbing at a small bump which was swelling underneath her bandanna.
"Agh." Cam, having enough of this left the lilies upon the ground and instead stood up straight and gave Lillian and icy glare. "What in the world were you thinking?" He snapped out, the stress of running his store was getting to his head. He hadn't had a good business day in at least two or more months and finally he couldn't hold it in anymore. "That hurt you know! You need to be more careful and not be so oblivious to the people around you! I've never met someone as inconsiderate as you!" He huffed out, kicking the lilies without much thought. "Take your lilies and get out of here before you hurt someone else."
Lillian's mouth immediately opened she was about to say something but her apology caught in her throat and she faltered stammering out something inaudible. As Cam began to scold her, she could feel the tears glistening and they slid down her cheeks. A sob escaped from her lips and she quickly snatched the lilies towards her and jumped up and made a mad dash towards her farm.
Enraged Cam watched the tears fall from Lillian's face; numbly he turned his head away from her and huffed in annoyance. Her sob was what snapped him out of his tangent and he turned his gaze only to see her rushing off. "Lilli-" He called out, stretching out his hand, but missing his chance to catch her by the hem of her dress.
"Ah….I am such a moron." He mumbled to himself, before he turned to his shop and haphazardly slammed down the closed sign on the counter before he rushed after Lillian. When he got to Lillian's farm, the young girl was standing in front of a small stone that had lilies surrounding it in a wreath. Cam's heart skipped a beat and he mentally scolded himself. {I feel like a prick…}
The guilt clutched at his heart. To think just a few moments ago he had been complaining about how inconsiderate Lillian was. Now he was the inconsiderate one, screaming and taking out his anger on someone who was clearly considerate to a fault. He gulped down his nervousness and made his way over. "L-Lillian?" He said timidly, he didn't know what he was going to say but he should probably apologize.
Lillian jumped at his voice and turned her head, her red eyes puffy. "Ah." She squeaked out as she realized it was Cam. "Ah…Cam…" She mumbled awkwardly. "Er…about before I'm….I'm sorry."
"No don't." Cam cut her off shaking his head. "There should be no reason for you to apologize, it was an accident and I was the one in the wrong." He said, glancing down at the grave. "This is…?"
"Minnow's grave….she's my cat, well was." Lillian whispered turning to face the stone grave. Her knuckles turning white and she clutched the bouquet of lilies. "She was my cat for ten long years. As a kitten I didn't know what to name her so she went without a name for a while, until one day I saw her out by the pond at my old house catching minnows. So I called her Minnow." Lillian explained in a hushed voice.
"When I moved here, my horse, Snow was spooked by an animal and stopped suddenly. After I woke up I was informed by Rugter that Minnow had been grievously injured from the accident. I had to put her down…" She trailed off, using her right hand to wipe away the tears that were falling from her face. "Lilies are Minnow's favorite."
"I'm sorry." Was all Cam could utter out, and he wasn't talking about just Minnow, he was also apologizing for his actions earlier.
Cam would never forget the day the new farmer walked up to his store asking for a bouquet of lilies.
