You got your first pang of worry at 7:02, when you looked up at the clock and realized Obi-Wan still hadn't knocked on your door. You immediately knew something wasn't right. He seemed like the kind of guy to be precise with his time, and that's what he'd even said on the phone, wasn't it?
7:05 turned into 7:10 turned into 7:30, and a scrap of stubborn hope was insisting that he was still just running late. There had been a problem with the babysitter, or Anakin had a tantrum, something benign that was making him run late. He hadn't texted or called to say that he was delayed, but he was just taking care of things... Right?
7:30 turned into 8:00, and that was when you changed out of your nice clothes. At 8:30 you wiped off the little makeup you'd been wearing. At 8:45 you drew the blinds on the picture window, locked the door, pulled a carton of chocolate ice cream out of the freezer, and ate it on the floor while silently bawling your eyes out.
At 9:20 you crawled into bed and pulled the quilt up over your ears, but you couldn't escape the sound of a soft knock at your front door. You knew it was him. And you knew it took guts to show up like this. But you really didn't want to see him. You'd gotten your hopes up yet again, and they'd been dashed just like all the other times.
Your phone dinged with a text, and you knew who it was from.
I am so sorry. Please allow me to explain. It read. You stewed and ignored it, remembering too late that you had read receipts activated.
I'm still outside if you could give me a moment. Came the next text. You furiously scrolled to your settings and turned receipts off. You probably wouldn't be able to hide from him forever, but at least you could hide under the blankets for now until he went away.
A voice message popped up on your screen. In spite of yourself, you clicked it open.
Darling, allow me to open with an apology from the deepest recesses of my heart. A situation came up that was completely out of my control. I should have texted or called, but I allowed my phone to die while I was negotiating this situation. Please know I would never do anything to hurt you, and I still want to take you out when you can forgive me for failing you.
Obi-Wan sounded so angelically devastated, you were out of bed and running to the front door before you even really realized you'd caved on your resolution to avoid him. You threw the door open, and there he was, standing barefooted on your front step.
"Oh no." He breathed, taking in your red-rimmed eyes and messy hair. "Darling..."
Now that you were here, you didn't really know what your brain intended for you to do next. And so you did the next logical thing you could think of and slammed the door shut again, sliding down it to sit sprawled on the floor.
"I'm so sorry." Obi-Wan said on the other side of the door. You let your head thump silently against the wood. You didn't hear Obi-Wan's bare feet walking away from your door, but you could feel his absence.
He didn't text again.
For two weeks you behaved in an absolutely ludicrous manner to avoid seeing Obi-Wan and Anakin. You got up and watered your front yard at 4am, and came out to pick flowers for the market after it was dark. You spent your afternoons working on the back yard garden, and didn't raise the blinds in the picture window. You took your flowers to market, ignored your petty behavior, and tried to think about literally anything else.
It was quite a shock when you recognized two familiar faces in the crowd at the market.
"Obi! Yook! It Fower Yady!" Anakin shrieked, pulling on Obi-Wan's arm. Obi-Wan looked like there were a number of other activities he'd rather do besides approach you, but Anakin practically dragged him to you.
As soon as Anakin approached, you saw the reason for his lisp was a massive gap in his front teeth, coupled with a large cut on his chin and some bruises.
"Hello there." Obi-Wan said quietly.
"Hi." You said, avoiding his gaze as your face heated.
"Yook. I got no teefs." Anakin said, showing his crooked grin to her. You looked inquiringly at Obi-Wan.
"Anakin was a headlong collision with the bathtub after trying to re-enact a scene from his favorite cartoon, Kamino Clones and Friends." Obi-Wan said. "Knocked out four teeth, needed 6 stitches, and warranted the rare event of both worried parents appearing in the same room together."
"I'm so sorry. I should have-" You started.
"No, I should have explained. I was overwhelmed, but I should have informed you of the reason for missing our date."
You felt like a colossal asshole. It must have showed on your face, because Obi-Wan reached out and took your hand.
"Please. There's nothing for me to forgive. I would have behaved the same way."
You could only blush, and nod your head. His thumb stroked the top of your hand twice, and then he pulled away.
"What color do you like?" He asked Anakin, pointing at the flowers you had on display. Anakin immediately pointed to a bundle of red carnations. Your eyes widened as Obi-Wan pulled out his wallet and handed you twice the amount of the price tag on the display.
"Wrap it up nicely with tissue paper and a ribbon, if you would. And add a couple sprigs of those forget-me-nots." Obi-Wan pointed to the forget-me-not shrub you'd just purchased from a rival booth that morning and put in the back of your car to take home and plant.
"Sure." You said, convinced you were still flushed a deep red from your embarrassment and surprise. You trimmed some stems off the plant and rolled them up with the carnations, tying the pale pink tissue paper up with a ribbon. While curling the ends of the ribbon, you accidentally sliced your thumb and hissed in pain. You had a first aid kit in the car somewhere, but had the sneaking suspicion you were out of band aids.
"That looks serious." Obi-Wan said, cerulean eyes dark with concern as he accepted the flowers. You shrugged and turned to go look for the safety kit. It was under the passenger seat as expected, but you groaned as you realized your inkling about the stock level of bandaids had been correct.
"Do you need a bandage?" Obi-Wan asked. He had followed around the edge of your booth to your car.
"Yeah. I forgot to restock. Poor nursing skills right there." You scolded yourself.
"Not to worry, my dear. I have a toddler hell-bent on self-destruction. I carry stock in bandaids." Obi-Wan retrieved his wallet again, and pulled two bandaids out of it.
He also flicked a condom right onto the ground in front of you. You both stared at the gold foil packet in shock.
"Oh, Blast." Obi-Wan said, scrambling to retrieve it. His cheeks and the tops of his ears were tomato red. He tried to look you in the face but you both avoided each other's eyes.
"Obi? I'm hungwy" Anakin said, breaking the awkward silence between you. The child caught sight of the gasped dramatically.
"Obi? Fower Yady okay?" His big brown eyes threatened to spill over with worried tears.
"I'm okay, little man. I was bad and played with scissors. Can you come patch me up? You'd be my hero." You diffused the situation. Anakin scooted right over, holding his hand out for the band-aid with a comically serious expression on his little face. Obi-Wan opened the band-aid, trying to stifle his amusement. As Anakin used careful hands to put the bandaid around your thumb, his brow furrows and little tongue sticking out the side of his mouth in concentration made your ovaries ache again.
"All better." You said, showing him your thumb. He gave a whoop of celebration.
"Have you had lunch?" Obi-Wan asked you. You shook your head, protesting as you realized he was going to try and bring you food.
"I insist." He said. "Do you have someone to watch your booth? We'll go to the playground for a quick lunch and return you back here as soon as we can." You flushed yet again and ducked under the awning of the next booth, asking your friend Adi the beekeeper to watch your booth while you grabbed food.
"This wasn't what I intended for our dinner date, and I still intend to make good on that promise, but consider this a small step towards making it up to you." Obi-Wan said, raising a plastic fork stuff full of homemade tamale to you. You flushed and sipped your fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Anakin had downed his kiddie burrito in three bites and was bouncing from foot to foot, antsy to get out and experience the playground. Obi-Wan made him wipe his face, and then set the little monster to terrorizing the playground equipment.
"Are you all right, my dear? You're quiet." Obi-Wan said, concern flashing in his deep blue eyes.
"I'm sorry, today has been a long day." You admitted. "I get up at the crack of dawn to water and get everything done, and then I ship everything over to the market to sell."
"So that's when you've been doing your gardening." Obi-Wan said. "You've been avoiding us. Understandably."
You choked a little on your tamale, coughing in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, I've been a petty asshole." You said.
"On the contrary, I think you've been justified. I only hope I can make it up to you." His expression darkened.
"Please. You've done enough." You said, wishing your face could be any color besides red today.
"At the risk of becoming a chronic contrarian, I have to decline. I feel I've treated you monstrously, my dear."
You chewed in silence, unsure what else to say.
"Will you still allow me to take you out? This weekend, perhaps?" He asked softly. You nodded, not trusting your voice. Obi-Wan was about to say something more, but you were both alerted to trouble on the playground in the form of Anakin's loud scream.
"What's going on here?" Obi-Wan skidded to a halt in front of Anakin, who was surrounded by a group of older, bigger boys.
"I DO TOO HAVE A MOMMY AND A DADDY!" Anakin screamed at the other boys, going red in the face with the effort.
"Do not. Your parents don't want you." The oldest boy said.
"Nahdar, that is enough." Obi-Wan said sternly. "I don't want to have to talk to your mother again. Anakin has a mother and father who love him unconditionally, just like you. You would do well to play with the others closer to your age."
"Baby." Nahdar sneered before leading the others away from the playground to the nearby basketball courts. Anakin's little fist shook in anger. Obi-Wan went to him.
"What do we do when we feel angry, little one?" Obi-Wan said gently. "We breathe in... and we..." He took an overdramatic breath, looking at Anakin expectantly. Anakin didn't respond immediately.
"We breathe out, and we count to five. Can you count that high?" You said gently, kneeling down next to Obi-Wan. You took an overdramatic breath and held up one finger.
"One, two, thwee, foah, five..." Anakin sniffled. He let his tiny fists go and collapsed into Obi-Wan's arms, sobbing into his shirt.
"Time to go home, little pod racer." Obi-Wan comforted him. He picked Anakin up and returned to where your takeout containers were.
"I can take care of these. Don't forget your flowers." You said, trading him an empty enchilada container for the wrapped flowers.
"Thank you, my dear. I'll see you very soon." Obi-Wan said, smiling at you so tenderly it made your stomach do uncomfortable things. The midafternoon sun reflected off his blonde hair as he retreated to his car, and you couldn't help but feel like you were missing something you didn't even know you had.
As it turned out, you weren't going to see Obi-Wan and Anakin the rest of the week, which wasn't very soon at all. But when you returned home from the market, the flowers Obi-Wan had purchased from you were sitting on your stoop in a lovely blue glass vase, and a card was tucked underneath to keep it from blowing away.
Dear Flower,
Will you do us the honor of joining us for dinner on Saturday?
Thank you for everything.
Obi-Wan
On the card were crayon scribbles of every single color, courtesy of Anakin. You chuckled to yourself and hung the card up on your fridge. The flowers went on your bedside table so you could see the red and blue flowers first thing in the morning. You pulled out your phone.
Saturday sounds good. I'll bring wine, just let me know white or red.
Your phone immediately lit up with a call from Obi-Wan.
"I hope it wasn't idiotic to buy your flowers and give them back to you as a gift."
"No. Though how do you know I won't resell them?"
"Call it a hunch."
"Red or white?" You ask.
"White, to go with chicken. Best get something sweet, since we'll be having des fruits de l'été for dessert."
"You speak French?" You asked, somewhat surprised.
"Mais oui. Lo parlo Italiano, ich spreche Deutsch, and also English."
"Wow. And you speak architecture. You are multi-faceted."
"Darling, I don't think architecture is a language so much as it is a way of life in my world."
There was a sudden bang and a loud wail on the other end, and Obi-Wan sighed.
"Duty calls, I'm afraid. Goodnight, flower."
You hung up and fell back onto your bed, sighing. Saturday.