A/N: Back with another one!

She's grocery shopping when she sees them. Just off the produce area, a beautiful bouquet of carnations in all different shades of pink just sitting there marked forty percent off.

Normally she'd just look at them and sigh then continue on with her shopping, but something compels her to move forward and pick them up. They're even pettier in her hands, velvety soft and fragrant.

Annabeth has always loved flowers even though she doesn't really get them that often, and now that she's holding them, she doesn't really want to put them back.

Why put them back?

It's a great question. Why should she put them back? What's stopping her from buying them and bringing them home?

Nothing.

Some revelations happen during important occasions or in the middle of a sleepless night or under duress.

Hers happens at two o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon in a grocery store in between picking up tomatoes and bread.

She can buy herself flowers.

An ability she's always had really and now she doesn't know why she hasn't exercised it more.

Another rough day at work because of the project and on her way home she daydreams about coming back to dinner and flowers and Luke giving her a hug and telling her he's ready to turn the day around. And the disappointment that follows when he's not even there to greet her but at a bar with coworkers.

Actually, he never bought her flowers.

She's already leaps ahead of him by simply ringing up the flowers alongside the milk and eggs.

The flowers are strapped to the passenger seat so she can look at them at the red lights and she wonders if maybe she's going crazy. It took a month after her breakup for her to lose it?

"The project is almost done," she says to the flowers as she starts to drive. "It's been rough, but I'm really glad I pushed to take a half day off today."

She nods to emphasize her point. "I can actually have real food in my kitchen now. Maybe I'll make stuffed peppers for dinner, it's been a while since I did that. Or…" she trails off thinking about her groceries.

"Or loaded at home nachos, and I won't look at work stuff either, I'll…"

She thinks of how to fill her afternoon. The luxury of free time is almost overwhelming. "Maybe I'll go to the beach, it's been forever."

The beach isn't far, but even with California weather, it's not really warm enough to go into the water. But now that it's in her head she can't get it out.

She gets home, puts away the food and digs out a dusty vase for the flowers. They look nice on her small dining table, immediately working to uplift her mood even more.

Humming to herself, she grabs a beach towel and a book she's been meaning to read along with some snacks and heads back to her car.

"I'll just sit and read for a while," she says out loud. "It'll be cute, like I'm the main character in a movie or something. Piper is always telling me I got to romanticize my life."

The flowers aren't there so at this point she's just talking to herself because she just feels like talking and it's actually kind of nice to get her thoughts out of her head.

The sand is warm from the sun as she lays down her beach towel and sits there looking at the ocean and listening to the waves. It's peaceful.

Some kids are running around, dragging sticks through the sand, no doubt trying to draw something, and it makes her turn to the sand beside her.

Without thinking her pointer finger automatically draws a heart, no doubt a remnant from the amount of times she used to doddle hearts back in high school.

Then in the middle she writes her initials: A.C.

They'd come to the beach with some of his friends and one of the guys had drawn a heart in the sand for his girlfriend.

"Aww, isn't that cute," she'd commented to Luke.

"Don't expect me to do that though," he'd said.

She'd frowned. "I don't, I just meant that it—nevermind."

Well, she definitely doesn't need Luke to draw a heart with her initials in the sand for her, it's something she can do herself. (And better because after years of doodling she's mastered how to draw the perfect heart).

Two points of Annabeth, she thinks. Not that it matters, Luke is out of the equation anyway.

(But if it was a competition, she'd be winning).

It's not till later while she's listening to music and dancing along does she remember how much Luke didn't like to dance. He claimed he wasn't good at it.

"Neither am I," she'd said, "it's just fun."

And she's right, it is fun to spin around in your socks on the only part of the apartment that has tile other than the bathroom while you wait for pasta to boil.

The vague jumble of thoughts floating in the back of her mind finally unravels.

Three points to Annabeth.

For what?

For doing the things that make her happy.

For making herself smile.

For loving herself better than Luke ever could.

The things she'd wanted, needed, from him to feel loved and he never gave them to her, those things she gave herself.

She's never really thought about the idea of loving herself, but listing it out like that, well, it's obvious that she does.

And it's obvious that Luke never really did.

It's a bittersweet moment but ultimately the sweet wins out because Luke's gone and she has herself.

And there comes the chorus of the song.

Time for an encore.

A/N: Inspired by Miley Cyrus's new song Flowers, I think the concept of self-love is a very obvious but often missing piece when people talk about love so it fit to put it in this series.

I hope you guys liked it, please review and share your thoughts!

And as always, thanks for reading!