XxX
Lillies.
XxX
Lilies had always been her favourite, so when he saw the last lonely bunch amongst a bushel of roses he knew he had to buy them. They looked a little worse for wear, but there were some buds amongst the wilting flowers that hadn't bloomed yet. He paid the florist, took them home and gardened. He threw out the dead and dying, tidied up the survivors and in the morning when she came into work there were five perfect lily buds sitting in a hastily brought vase on her desk.
"What are these?" she asked as she arrived ten minutes after him and shrugged off her coat.
"They look like flowers to me," he said casually. "Lillies, I think."
"Yes, they are." She picked up the vase and twirled it around. "Who are they from?"
"Who do you think?" he countered.
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking." A little note of annoyance crept into her tone. "Is there a note?"
"No note."
"How do you know there's no note?" she asked with suspicion. "What did you do with the note, Dempsey? If I find it on the notice board, I swear - "
He'd done that one time, and she'd never let him forget it. "There's no note, because they're from me, alright?" he interrupted. "Don't make a big deal out of it."
She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. He didn't much like that at all. "You brought them for me?"
"Yeah." It was his turn to be annoyed.
"Why?"
"I need a reason?"
"No, but –"
"So say thank you, and move on."
She positioned them just so on her desk and said, "Thank you, Dempsey. They're lovely."
"You're welcome. Now can we get to work?"
"Of course," she replied, eyes flickering from the flowers to him, her lips curved into a soft smile that did weird things to his stomach.