“The Florists in Kerston, J speaking, how can I help you?” It is two minutes to five on a Saturday and I have a date in two and half hours – this had better be quick – it is a first date, my first for months, and I need time to prepare.

“I’d er, I’d like to order some flowers please er, J?” it is a female voice – I frown slightly, women always take longer than men to make a decision. “Is that J the initial or Jay as in the bird?” she asks.

“It’s the initial, did you have something specific in mind?”

“What? No! I was just curious is all … I … er …”

“For the flowers … did you have something specific in mind for the flowers you wanted?”

“Right” she laughs – nervously, I think. “Not really, just something … er … nice. It’s a while since I bought someone flowers. Can you make some suggestions? I’m not very good with this sort of thing …”

I take a deep breath, this is going to take longer than I’d hoped. “Of course,” I smiled – you can tell when somebody is smiling on the phone, “we’ll have you sorted out in no time,” I assure her.

 
“That’ll be a first” she interjects

I smile genuinely this time “Trust me, I’m a doctor” I joke. “Now, first off, who are the flowers for – a friend, relative, someone more special to you? Are they for an occasion?”

“It’s kind of for a house warming I suppose … and for a friend … well for someone who’s more special to me … well, who was I mean … well … definitely not a relative anyway. It’s kind of complicated …” her voice tails off.

“Well, don’t worry, house warming flowers needn’t be complicated,” I rush in to fill the silence – she sounds so sad. “Oranges and yellows are always a good base for house warming flowers, you know, yellow for sunshine and happiness, orange for warm and cosy feelings. They’re a good place to start.”

“Okaaaay” she stretches the word like she’s thinking of something. “Yeah … okay … I guess that’d be fine.”

“Are you sure?” I’ve opened my mouth before my brain kicks in – I always do that. “You don’t sound so sure …”

“No! Yes, I mean yes, that’s fine. I was just thinking is all …” I say nothing – it sounds like she wants to carry on. “It’s just that … well to be perfectly honest, sending the flowers is kind of for me really … sort of a … well sort of …” she tails off again. I wait for a second, then two, then just as I think she’s not going to carry on and I open my mouth to say something, she speaks. “Well to be honest I just wanted to show that I was fine, you know, not a complete wreck – big enough to send some flowers – but when you said about warm and cosy feelings and happiness and stuff and well … I don’t know it kind of got to me a bit I suppose.”

“Okay, so listen, you don’t have to answer this at all if you don’t want to but it’ll help me make some suggestions for you. Do you actually want the person you’re sending flowers to to be happy in their new home?” I’m smiling as I say it.

She giggles – it’s a nice sound “Oh god, what do I sound like? I’m sorry, I sound so pathetic, well awful actually. Yes I do … of course … only not too happy if you know what I mean?” I can hear the smile in her voice now and I find myself grinning more.

“Aah, I’ve got you” I assure her. “Okay, so is this guy likely to be flower savvy?”

“What?”

“You know loads of flowers actually have meanings attached to them”

“What? No!”

“Okay, so he’s not flower savvy, that means tha…”

“No, I mean … well … I mean it’s not a guy.” She sounds so flustered, somewhere deep in my psyche I register that she sounds kind of sweet too.
“Okay, well is this woman flower savvy?” I say it rather gently – I don’t want her to think I’m glossing or blustering over something that was hard for her to say.

She almost snorts “Jesus, hardly” now she sounds bitter and sad both at the same time. “Flowers aren’t really her thing to be honest. I sort of gave up sending them years ago because she never really liked them. It just seemed a nice but kind of defiant thing to send now … you know, like I can make my own decisions now … does that make sense?” She rushes on, embarrassed I think, before I can answer. “I used to use a florist in Kerston all the time actually… I couldn’t find it in the phone book, are you new?”

“Yeah, I’ve only been here a few months. We took over the old florists so it’s still the same place, just a different name.”

“Good name” I can tell she’s smiling again “Even I’ll manage to remember that one.”

“That’s the plan – The Florist in Kerston … can’t go wrong with that!” I laugh “Now, about those flowers…”

“Jeez, yeah I’d almost forgotten them… actually… you don’t charge for counselling do you?” She laughs, embarrassed again

“Hmmm, now there’s a thought.” I tease her. “Actually you’d be surprised the sort of things I do hear doing this job. It’s nice … that people feel comfortable enough to tell me I mean.”

“Tell me about it, had I known you were here I’d have called you months ago!” She’s still embarrassed and flustered, but definitely sweet, I think.

“Well, you know where I am now.” I say, and surprise myself by blushing.
She hesitates and I know she knows I mean it.

“I sure do.”

We go on to talk about the flowers then, we decide on blues. They look really good but are a bit less emotional and a bit less warm and sunshiny, not that her ex-girlfriend would know either way she says, or care she adds as an afterthought.

I take her details; her name is Mae; that makes me smile. Her ex-girlfriend’s name is Karen, she gives me her address so I can send the flowers to her. When she hangs up I know that I will hear from her again.

I think about my date tonight, I consider just not turning up. But that isn’t really me. I pick up the phone instead and dial the number that I was given but have never called. It rings once, twice, then after the third ring it is picked up. “Hello?” “Hi..” I say, “… is that Karen?” knowing that it is “this is J … er June.”