Chapter Twenty Two
V is for Violets
While she was responding to her email after lunch, Stephanie heard a loud knock on her office door.
Grateful for the distraction, she raised her head and called, "Come in."
A slim brown-haired man entered the room.
"I have a delivery from WestEnd Flowers for Stephanie Taylor. Is that you?" he asked. He held a tablet in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other.
"Yes it is. Put them down there," she told him as she motioned towards the corner of her desk. How lovely, Stephanie thought as she looked closer at the arrangement of purple and white flowers. Violets were her favourite flower and she'd always liked roses too. She soon saw a purple card and pulled it carefully away from the bouquet. Curious, she opened the card to read the message written inside:
Happy birthday, Stephanie
Yours, Leonard
She smiled widely. By this point, Stephanie felt she was also Leonard's. She had him under her skin just like the jazz song. Before she could reflect further on the many wonderful qualities of her boyfriend, the delivery man cleared his throat.
"I'm glad you enjoy them. I need you to sign here," he said as he held out his tablet towards her. She set down the card on the desk and took the tablet. It didn't take her long to sign her electronic signature beside the date of the delivery and hand it back to him.
"Thank you. Have a good day," he concluded. As he left the office, he closed the door behind him.
As she didn't have a vase for the flowers, Stephanie wondered what she could use instead. After a moment's reflection, she remembered there was a large plastic jug under the sink of the staff break room down the hall. She quickly walked there and filled the container with water. Once she was back in her office, Stephanie carefully placed the bouquet into the jug. Despite how the flowers barely fit the container, she took a picture of them with her mobile. She composed a message to Leonard which consisted of the picture she'd just taken, the text thank you very much, and both a heart and flower emoji below that. She sent it to him than sat back down behind her desk and returned her attention to her inbox.
Only a few minutes later, she received a text in reply from Leonard which read:
You are welcome. See you tonight. She picked up her mobile and texted:
I look forward to it. His response read:
So do I but I have to get back to work now. She sighed and replied:
Me too. Until then.
Reluctantly she set down her mobile and tried to get her attention back to her work. Stephanie was glad she didn't have any marking to complete as she likely wouldn't have been able to concentrate as well as she needed to. As it was, a final read through of her presentation about green roofs was much less through than it would have been if her boyfriend hadn't sent her flowers. Even so, her lecture tomorrow on the subject would be just fine, she told herself.