*|*Flowers Make Everything {More Dramatic}*|*

[GARRETT BEARE]

Well, wasn't this just dandy? Here he was, the manager of a VERY prominent business in the sales capital of the world, standing in their shopfront ( Quite possibly the WORST part of the corporation, with all those dirty, grimy people coming in and out with absolutely NO respect for the flowers or the people behind them growing them by the hundreds) with the only prospect for the rest of the day teaching the newest intern the ups and downs and theoretical joys of manning the shopfront.

Of course, it was JANUARY so the only hope for actual customers coming in was from those freaks who couldn't wait the extra few months to get married and HAD to have their anniversary's in this god-forsakn month of cold and snow.

At least February had VALENTINE'S Day, January had squat.

" Okay, so the flowers go in THIS refrigerator which keeps them nice and cool and fresh and then when people come in you ask them if they're picking up or placing an order, and if you luck out and manage to find a person who walks in here with a BRAIN then they will have already ordered like any SANE human being would have done, instead of expecting they can just take whatever precious flowers they want as they please. Got that so far?"

He glared at the new intern, Summer, menacingly. Last he'd heard the only intern ever to say "no" to that question hadn't had a stable job in years. It would be interesting to see how this one turned out.

[luckyreborn]

He'd finally done it. Paul had left. Conrad was silently cheering, his demeanor set on a smirk in a leather jacket. His random laughs coming out in bursts that flew around him in a white cloud.

Now the bad part.

His mother loved Paul. And he was pretty sure genuinely, and Paul had taken good care of them. So Conrad had only one choice to win his mother back, and get Paul back into the house.

Apologizing.

Even the voice in his head mimicked the word. Sorry was over-rated and over-used. Things would be better if regret wasn't around.

Not that Conrad even felt regret.

All in all, Conrad needed flowers. Big, beautiful flowers that matched his mother's house, ones that she would press and frame, smile every time she saw them. Ones she would show her new high-class friends over a tour of her newly decorated house.

Does he sound bitter? Never. I want the best for her. She got the best for me. Conrad would recite in his mind. Was it odd that he was jealous of Paul? Of how is mother now smile when he walked into the room, pinched his cheeks, and only noticed Conrad when he gagged while visiting. He wasn't weird jealous, he just missed his mother.

Conrad shivered and did his best to bury deeper into the leather. He pulled the sleaves down over her hands, hiked up his shoulders and popped the collar. Damn, winter was cold.

When he finally reached the flower shop, Conrad's nose was red and runny and his eyes were flowing freely. He was a mess, but flowers were what he risked looking like a disaster for and by golly he was going to get them. It's not like he would see anyone.

He shouldred the door open, looking down and searching for money on his person.

"Oh, errr..." Conrad started. Well, he started it before he looked up. The grumpiest guy in the world and the most beautiful woman in the universe were chatting.

Shit.

Conrad desperately wiped his eyes and nose, but knew it was helpless. He sniffed. Bit his lip. Shifted awkwardly.

"Pretty flowers, please?" He said politely and small. "I need them big and caring, for my mom." Another sniff, and he flashed a bleary smile at the girl. Truly hopeless.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer wasn't going to lie. Garre--- Mr. Beare, was a bit intimidating. Right about now, she wouldn't mind if November were telling her what went where, how things worked out. Here she was though, with the man in charge, learning the basics. Well, perhaps she'd get lucky and wouldn't have to worry about any of it until later, when a customer showed up. Maybe then Mr. Beare wouldn't be here and she wouldn't be a total mess when talking to said customer.

Oh, okay. That refrigerator was for flowers. Thank God she was a quick learner. If she didn't understand this like that (she mentally snapped her fingers), it'd probably be difficult. And frustrating, overwhelming... yeah. Oh dear, he was still talking. Sort of ranting, actually. Summer had to grin. Intimidating and kind of amusing. Even if the person hadn't ordered the flowers in advance, she wouldn't rip their throats out. No, it wasn't their fault if they needed a bouquet last minute.

Did she get it? Quickly going over everything he'd said, Summer bit her bottom lip. Refrigerator for flowers. Ask if they were picking up flowers or placing an order. Don't get snappy if they were placing an order. Okay, that last one was hers. Ah, time to talk. He was glaring at her. "Yeah, makes sense," she answered, nodding. The door opened then and she turned to look at who had walked in. Please, please, please not a customer.

Well, he certainly didn't work here. She'd recognize him. Well, did she? He looked her age which meant he might have been going to Baum. Oh wait... crap! He was a customer. Shooting a nervous glance over her shoulder at Mr. Beare, Summer approached the boy, smiling. Goodness, he looked so cold! Even as she neared him, Summer shrugged out of her jacket before offering it to him. It's not like she needed it right now, anyway. "Hello, I'm Summer," she introduced herself with a friendly grin.

Flowers for his mom? Aw, what a sweetheart! Big, caring, and colorful. "All flowers are pretty. What's the occasion?" she asked, feeling that this would be the best thing to know. You didn't want to give somebody 'hey, congrats on the baby! flowers when you were supposed to be getting 'sorry for your loss' flowers. Why would you give somebody 'sorry for your loss' flowers? Oh well. She was just trying to prove herself right.

[GARRETT BEARE]

He took a breather form his tirade for a moment, reorganizing his thoughts. In this moment he looked up from the referigerator of absolutely perfect flowers and at Summer for perhaps the first time during the crash course on salesmanship.

Of course he noticed her good looks. Of COURSE he noticed the fact that she was only a few years younger than him and he was pretty sure she had already turned eighteen so there wouldn't be any awkward problems with having to be registered as a pedophilic sex offender or everything, and that was a plus.But all of his attention was focused elsewhere(okay, maybe a LITTLE was focused on these key notes).

No, he was primarily focused on the blank expression in her eyes and the fact that she was just BARELY looking in his direction.

WHO DID THAT BITCH THINK SHE WAS? WAS SHE EVEN PAYING ATTENTION?!? Jesus! he wasn't giving her these vital instructions just for the fun of it!

He opened his mouth to yell and roar, but he was interrupted by the jingle of the bell on the door and th entrance of some teenage punk.

"Pretty flowers, please? I need them big and caring, for my mom."

Oh, well then. Change Teenage Punk to Mama's boy or gay or whatever it was that he was supposed to believe after hearing that.

" Go ahead, Summer. He's all yours." Garrett leaned against the refrigerator with the glass sliding doors, arms folded and glaring at the two.

[luckyreborn]

Conrad, at one last chance at vanity, patted down his hair. The girl was smiling at him. She was from his cool, he notcied. Smart, or something. They'd never really hung out at all, different classes, maybe. But she was sure beautiful Gorgeous.

Woah there, boy. Beautiful, gorgeous? He usually used hot to describe girls. What had gotten into? Beautiful was for describing works of art (not that he was saying Summer wasn't a work of art) or cars, or long-term girls. Never. He'd never settled down with a girl. Sure, he'd had flings. Girls he would talk to, hang around with and date, but he never felt such a...longing. A wanting. He really wanted to date her. Not good.

She smiled, walking gracefully up to him. Conrad blushed. He hadn't blushed since second grade, maybe once around now, but never for a girl.

"Hello, I'm Summer,"

Summer. Summer S-something, he now remembered. He was supposed to talk now.

"C-conrad," He managed, a loose smile. Wait, she said that like an introducer on the phone. He was an idiot. Conrad's smile wavered, and he quickly took his hands out of his pocket and stretched it out for her to shake, a desperate attempt at making his introduction less idiotic. "You go to my school, right?"

Summer offered him her jacket, which Conrad took with another embarassed grin, "Thanks," He mumbled, putting in on quickly to stop his shivers. He was supposed to offer her the jacket, not the other way. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

"All flowers are pretty. What's the occasion?" She continued, still smiling big and wonderfully while he was wading in his ever-deepening puddle of embarassment.

"Oh, well," Conrad made a face, pulling his left cheek higher and cringing. "We sort of got in a fight." He looked at her, then the man behind her. "Maybe roses? Is that weird and romantic?" His eyes widened. "Not that romance is weird, just she's my mother..."

He stopped himself, thank the lord. He had just totally demolished all chances with this girl.

" Go ahead, Summer. He's all yours."

Conrad almost felt like sticking his tongue out at the guy, or making a rude face. Summer was already on it! Ha! But he held his tongue, this guy had one mean glare.

Plus, he was totally checking out Summer. They were already on bad terms.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer looked again over her shoulder to Mr. Beare who was now leaning against the refrigerator. Well, wasn't he cool. With a sort of nod/shrug, she turned back to Conrad who had taken her jacket and was holding out his hand. She shook it, "nice to meet you, Conrad." Aw, what a cute name. Sort of familiar. Yeah, she recognized him now. He did go to Baum and she was pretty sure he was a senior. Why didn't she know him? They should've had classes together. Or maybe she was paying less attention as of late. That was bad. She needed to focus. Like right now. How long had it taken her---- "Yeah, I do," she answered, "I'm a senior."

Weird and romantic? Summer almost giggled. He didn't really know what he was doing, did he? Well, she wasn't entirely sure either. Why was she working here? All that mattered to her when buying flowers was that they were pretty. Nice and colorful. She wasn't very good with flowers, though. She forgot to water them or something and they usually ended up dying. Never good. Neither were fights. What would she want after a fight? Yellow. Maybe some lilies or something. That was personal opinion. Roses would be good. They had lots of those here.

"I would go with yellow," Summer suggested, having no idea what she was talking about. It was all about the confidence. Be confident. Confident. No, she was still a wreck. "I mean, after a fight, that sure would cheer me up." Summer sort of shrugged. "And yellow roses?" she paused, thinking. Definitely. If yellow roses didn't fix a fight, she wasn't sure what would. "Yeah, go with those," she finally finished with a firm nod. Summer so knew what she was doing.

[GARRETT BEARE]

Garrett hated waiting. Especially when all he had to do in the spare time was listen to the stupid, imbecilic conversations of high schoolers. " Oh, my mommy's mad at me. Can you get me something pretty to make it all better?" " Yellow makes ME feel happy!" Did they not UNDERSTAND the fine art of floral design? What were schools coming to when they didn't teach students the refined and difficult to master skill of picking out JUST the right focal flowers combined with the correct intermediates, fillers and greens? He had spent YEARS learning the correct methods and materials.

he couldn't stand the juvenile banter any longer. Stepping up to the counter he glared down the kid and then quickly got to work. If he was going to make a stunning design in under ten minutes he would need to work fast.

He ran back and forth from the counter to the refrigerator, grabbing flowers in an incredibly decisive manner, and making sure that not a single one of them was yellow. Dropping them in a pile, he went to work at cutting off a piece of miracle material to keep the plants watered and sprinkled the same powder his workers had been using for years, the very stuff that kept the flowers alive for weeks after others would have died.

Finally he took out the sharpest knife the room had to offer and, staring straight at the kid, went to work.

" So. If you want to get her happy what you're going to be getting is an arrangement of English Roses." He paused long enough to slam the knife down and sever half the stems from the rest of the flowers. " Baby's Breath. Cymbian Orchid. And Black Snake Root." Each name was accompanied by a resounding slam.

His hands working independent of his mind he began to carefully stab each and every stem into the green material sitting on the table. It was dense enough to keep the flowers upright, yet soft enough to allow penetration. God he loved floral design tools.

" As you can see, theres' not a hint of yellow in here. Yellow is a pansy-ass color. If you want her forgiveness you're going to pony up the pinks, whites and reds. Sure, it's considered a bit of a romantic blend, but it has been scientifically PROVEN to ease stress and promote care, which is why we here at Last Petal LLC use it to help YOU, our customer. There's no way to go wrong with it." Every other word was punctuated by a quick jab and a slick crumpling noise until he was finally done. Lifting the material into a plain glass vase he held it reverently before the most likely dumbstruck boy.

Looking up at the customer with a broad smile he added simply, "Which is why YOU will be so willing to pay our admittedly steep prices. That'll be $89.99 for the bunch and an extra $20 for the vase."

[luckyreborn]

Conrad nodded, shaking her hand back and just listening. He deposited his hands back their pockets. Senior? He should know her. This was weird. He knew everything. A deep feeling of regret went down to his toes, filling him up. If they were friends, he would know. They would be going out now. It would save time.

"I would go with yellow," she had said. Yellow? Conrad glanced over her and to Mr. Grumpy, who seemed to being having some sort of fit. "I mean, after a fight, that sure would cheer me up." Summer continued, doing some shrug. Not to self: buy Summer yellow flowers. "And yellow roses?" Summer was nodding, a definite look on her face. "Yeah, go with those,"

Conrad laughed aloud and nodded, but it didn't last long. "You...like...yellow?" He said, off. What the hell was that guy doing.

First, he was critisizing Summer, grabbing flowers like some sort of mad man - wait, he was mad - and chopping and sticking and what the hell. He was holding a knife, staring at Conrad.

Conrad cleared his thorat, and raised an eyebrow. He knew this guy wouldnt hurt him. He couldn't. Wouldn't. Conrad smirked a bit, trying to figure out how to make a move to get Summer out of his range.

"So. If you want to get her happy what you're going to be getting is an arrangement of English Roses." The idiot went on, chopping roses and whatever and glaring at them, like they should know this. If Conrad knew what to do with flowers, he wouldn't be here. He would be doing this himself. For free, and away from crazy people. Plus, he would be gay. There was a million flaws with this guy's reasoning.

" Baby's Breath. Cymbian Orchid. And Black Snake Root." With each flower name the knife slammed down, and each time Conrad's eye twitched. He should clean up those flower stems, put them in a pile. Do freaking something before Conrad snapped those flowers in half.

Conrad grabbed Summer's arm, gave her a what-the-flowers-is-he-doing look, and whispered, "Should you...Should he legally be out here, with the normals?"

" As you can see, theres' not a hint of yellow in here. Yellow is a pansy-ass color. If you want her forgiveness you're going to pony up the pinks, whites and reds. Sure, it's considered a bit of a romantic blend, but it has been scientifically PROVEN to ease stress and promote care, which is why we here at Last Petal LLC use it to help YOU, our customer. There's no way to go wrong with it."

This guy sure did love a good rant, with motions and all. By the end of his last highly punctuated sentence, the man was holding a vase full of flowers to Conrad, looking very proud. Conrad fished in his pocket for his money, pulling out a hundred dollar bill and a twenty, handed it to Summer, took the flowers, and said, "Keep the rest and split it for a tip,"

The flowers were quite amazing, double the size of Conrad's head and more. "Great place, sir," he added, with a nod of the head. Respect to elders, right? He was laughing in his head, and glanced at Summer protectively, then back at the man. "Catch you around at school Summer." Another nod at her, and turned around.

And of all things mighty, he dropped the flowers.

"This is either karma, or something is saying yellow was right." Conrad stated, smiling at the two of them. The guy was going to flip, he could tell. The rage, and Conrad's nonchalantness, was going to put him over the edge. Hopefully.

And those flowers really were pretty.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Summer did another nod/shrug. Yellow wasn't her favorite color but it did come in second. Green had the number one spot. Green flowers weren't very pretty, though. Not as pretty as yellow. "Green, actually," she muttered, distracted. Was her boss freaking out? Yes, yes he was. He'd grabbed a bunch of flowers from the fridge and was now organizing them and... stuff. He was doing flower stuff. And he was ranting. Something about this totally pissed her off. He said she could handle it, did he not? Summer crossed her arms over her chest and rose an eyebrow. He probably wouldn't notice the icy glare she was giving him as he was to busy glaring at Conrad. Ugh, how rude. He was a customer!

Garrett was cutting the stems in half, leaving a mess on the counter. Oh God, that bothered her. You should never let it get like that. "Ugh, I wish he'd do something with those stems," she muttered, annoyed. Aforementioned customer grabbed her arm and she turned back to look at Conrad. "Oh, uhm, yeah, I think it's safe." Think? She thought it was safe? Well, she shouldn't be working somewhere unless she felt safe. This had been the first time he'd gone off the wall, though. Around her, anyway.

Summer scoffed. Yellow was not a pansy-ass color. Oh how she just wanted to give him the old one-two right now. He handed the vase to Conrad who handed her the money. Jeez, flowers were expensive. Maybe she'd stick to cards. "Oh, uhm, thanks," she said, looking at the flowers Garrett had arranged. Well... they did look nice. Summer looked back to Conrad as he gave her some sort of look. Huh. "Oh, yeah, see you around," she repeated with a smile.

He turned to leave. And the last thing she expected happened. He dropped them. He dropped. The flowers. Ohmygod, Garrett was going to kill him. Some tiny part of her laughed, actually. It said "hah, Garrett, that's what you get for being a know-it-all!" She had to press her hands to her mouth to keep from grinning. Luckily, this had some sort of surprised look to it. Nice cover up. "You should run," she muttered from behind her hands. Karma or yellow was right? Aw. She was starting to like him.

[GARRETT BEARE]

Garrett smiled. This was too easy. It had been the family trade secret for YEARS and was probably the singular reason the money kept rolling in. For the entire stock of flowers the company had probably lost 10 dollars, AT THE MOST. The same was true for the vase. He could hardly even ACCOUNT the cost of labor, he had done it so fast and easily that the price was inconsequential. And yet, the charge went WAY up because people were always dazzled when you gave them a show and told them exactly what was going on ( with a few elaborations, of course).

The smirk stayed on his face right through when he put the money into the cash register. He was always happiest when he completed a sale. He felt like he had triumphed over some of the stupider or more worthless people of his race.

He was about to go back to Summer and tell her EXACTLY where she ahd made the mistakes and why he had needed to move in and finish the sale when he heard it. The sickening crash accompanied by the small " Oh' of surprise that always happened right when-

" YOU DROPPED THE FLOWERS?!? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? THOSE WERE PERFECTLY GOOD PRODUCTS! GOD-DAMNIT!"

He glared at the idiot he had just taken the money from. What the hell was wrong with him?! He had DROPPED the flowers?!?

[luckyreborn]

Things going right in Conrad's life right now:

Pretty girl: check
Summer, aka, pretty girl: check
Pissing off random people: check
Making Summer laugh: check (even if it was unintentional)
Dropping flowers accidently in a classy way: check

Bad things going on in Conrad's life right at this moment:

He was quite literally about to be killed:...check?
His mother was still totally and utterly in loathing with him: check


Now that that was done, Conrad's thought process skipped back into order. His mind turned what he's been hearing and shot it up into his brain, for processing.

"Green, actually,"

"Ugh, I wish he'd do something with those stems,"

" YOU DROPPED THE FLOWERS?!? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? THOSE WERE PERFECTLY GOOD PRODUCTS! GOD-DAMNIT!"

And then, of course, "You should run,"

The warning, naturally, came last. And man, did this guy look like he had definitely gone of the ledge. Okay, so being a klutz wasn't usually Conrad's things, and not normally around the ladies either, but apparently holding overly-priced flowers made him dizzy, and his feet suddenly a whole lot cumbersome. He did want to totally irk this guy so...

Job well done, sir.

Conrad put a slightly drunken looking smile on his face, tried coughing to cover up his laugh, failed, then just plain laughed. "Oh..my...jeez..." He breathed, each word needed to be carefully deciphered through bursts of laughter. "You should so...see...your face!" He laughed for a bit more, before clearing his throat and looking right into Sir Hates-Alot's eyes.

"I'll pay to clean that up, mister, or I'll clean it, either way, I payed you already." Suddenly, Conrad was a business man, ready for all of those who opposed his precise logic thinking with their emotions. "Now, sir, anyway, I didn't mean to drop your flowers. It was an accident. Which I'm sure you've had plently of. Like that foul language." He contorted his face to an offended mask.

Quickly, he flashed a smile at Summer.

Now, back to the Beast.

"Oh, and I'll just keep those flowers. They were beautifully arranged, but I think my mother has a nice vase for them at home. You can keep the money for it." He continued, nodding. Lordy, he was the biggest snob. Hopefully Summer wouldn't take him too seriously. He flashed her another look, this time it was stoked with worry.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

Garrett was absolutely, 100 million percent furious. This made total sense seeing as he'd been so intent on making the flowers look lovely. Oh, and he had a bit of an obsession with said flowers. Not to mention the shattered vase and water soaking into the carpet. The neat freak in her wanted this mess cleaned up immediately but there were probably more important things to worry about now. Like the fact that Garrett was absolutely, 100 million percent going to kill Conrad. He really, really needed to learn how to control his temper. It would scare people away. If the yelling didn't, the swearing would.

Conrad's laughter pulled her out of all thinking she was doing. He was laughing? In a situation like this? It didn’t make sense to her. Did he not realize how angry her boss was? Summer bit her lower lip, unsure of what she should do next. She could sweep up the glass and flowers or she could leap between the two of them before Garrett murdered Conrad. Whatever she was trying to say seemed stuck in her throat and all she could do was watch, not entirely sure what was going to happen. After Conrad’s laughter subsided, he began to talk business. He’d clean up the mess, he still wanted the flowers, etcetera, etcetera. It was interesting, to say the least. She barely caught the first smile Conrad sent and she managed a meek one in reply. He had a point about the language. Summer would have to talk to Garrett.

Once Conrad had finished his negotiating, he looked to her again, a worried expression on his face. She felt like hers mirrored this. Summer would be just as surprised with however Garrett reacted. She hadn’t been working here that long and anybody else would probably expect whatever was about to happen. Was he going to continue yelling and swearing? Or would he calm down long enough to negotiate back?

[GARRETT BEARE]

Garrett was ready to rip this freak a new one. He didn't have time to put up with this nosnsense, nor should he have to! He was a respected and feared owener of a...well....FAIRLY successful business! That ought to earn him certain rights which included tto be able to ignore the lesser people who decided to try and mess with him. This was just common sense!

Garrett gave only a glare as the annoying youth tried to lay out the reasons Garrett lacked reasoning. He didn't really care about the speech, he was just trying to understand the motivation behind it. What could possibly have led this little boy to verbally assault the intimidating Garrett? What was he? Sixteen? Seventeen? Garrett mentally grimaced in disgust. Those were the worst of the bunch. He could remember exactly how he had been at that age. Driven. Coldly attached to nothing but the fact that he was going to one day be the manager of The Last Petal LLC. He had never been this insolent, had he?

And those flowers had been so perfect....

Oh, what was he doing now? Offering to pay for them? Well, wasn't that nice... Garrett wouldn't stand for it. He NEEDED to show this little freak exactly where his place was. It was hard to miss the quick smiles and frins at summer...maybe he could use that to his advantage?

"Oh, don't bother about paying for the flowers. It will be coming out of Miss Sinclair's paycheck. I doubt that it'll matter much once you start paying for the lovely dates you'll have together..."

Garrett turned and walked into the back office. Fuck 'em. He wasn't going to stick around for long just to hear about how he was being 'SOOO UNFAIR!' and how he was "RUINING THE LIFE OF A PERFECTLY INNOCENT BYSTANDER, TAKE ME INSTEAD MISTER BEARE!' He was above that. Summer may have been a hot little package but he wasn't going to take it easy on her.

He WASN'T above standing close by the door and only ruffling a few papers to make it SEEM like he wasn't interested though. He was going to hear each and every word of a predicatable ensuing fight, and he was going to LOVE it.

God, he loved being the boss of a company SO much.

[luckyreborn]

Conrad watched the emotion dance across the man's face with satisfaction, until it started turning to glee. Shit.

"Oh, don't bother about paying for the flowers. It will be coming out of Miss Sinclair's paycheck. I doubt that it'll matter much once you start paying for the lovely dates you'll have together..."

That was it. This guy was a full on asshole. Conrad's jaw locked and his eyes narrowed in a way the photographer lived. He glanced at Summer, scared of what she might be doing. It didn't matter if it ruined this between them, he had to stick up for her.

So, Conrad laughed. It was a clear, rumbling, ringing laughter without humor. He even threw his head back while he did it...then his eyes rested on the asshole. "Okay, okay. So, not only did you freak out like there was no tomorrow, but you just took Summer's salary. Truly, you have done everything in your power to make yourself look like a prick. Fine, take it out of her salary. I don't give a shit. But, since I'm not a total asshole, I'll pay her what you took. See how that works?" Like his laughter, Conrad's words were venemous and crisp. The language may have been severe, but done with class. "You just ruined any business you may of had here from my family, my peers, and anyone I can get to listen to me on the street. Oh, and with Summer," he nodded to her, making sure she knew he wasn't just using her as a pawn in his speech. Hopefully she didn't take it like that. Shit.

Conrad gathered his flowers in his arms and proceeded to stare at the asshole.

[SUMMER SINCLAIR]

WHAT? Had he REALLY just taken that from her salary? That son of a bitch! Flowers here were so damn expensive, too. God, that totally sucked! Why was she still working here? Why, why, why? Her boss was insane and her hours were bad and if something went wrong on her shift, the money came out of her salary. She was so pissed. She was so, so, so mad right now. The words ‘I quit’ were on the tip of her tongue, she could hear them in her mind, repeating over and over again. She could feel the tremendous liberty that would come with the words if she spoke them. But why didn’t she? Because, if she were really, truly, honest with herself, this job was good for her. It challenged her timeliness, it tested her patience, and it, most importantly, prepared her for the real world. Garrett Beare was not the last wretched boss she would have. There would be many bosses who docked her pay, yelled at her for things that weren’t her fault, and threw vases at the heads of unsuspecting employees. . . . Okay, maybe there wouldn’t be an vase-throwing, but nonetheless. This job, as much as she was beginning to hate it, was helping her in the long run. And that’s why she had to grin and bear it. She had to suck it up and deal with all of these negatives because, in the end, it would end up being a positive. Well. . . She hoped so anyway.

That’s why she had to let this anger melt away and accept that Garrett was just being Garrett. There wasn’t much she could do. Taking a few deep breaths, Summer unclenched her fists and told herself that it would be fine. She could earn this money back in no time. She was working two jobs, after all, and with all the hours she put in at the Library, it would be easy. Ignoring Garrett, who was very obviously staying around to hear what would happen next, Summer turned to Conrad and put on a smile. “I don’t mind--” She let the statement end abruptly as Conrad began laughing. He was laughing? Again? How was the situation any funnier than when he’d dropped the flowers? Listening as he spoke, Summer nibbled on her bottom lip, wishing that any more confrontation would be avoided. It seemed inevitable. Garrett’s middle name was probably Confrontation. Loosely folding her arms over her chest, Summer looked to her feet and hoped that her boss would just let it all go.

Wait, what had Conrad just said? Something about ruining chances with business and then her name had popped up. Garrett had just ruined any business he had with Summer? Wha. . . Okay, she really wasn’t quite sure what Conrad could be referring too and at this point, she didn’t care. She was tired and ready for her break. Shaking her head, Summer gently touched Conrad’s wrist and spoke quietly, “Really. . . I expect this from him. Besides,” she started, a half-hearted grin on her lips, “I’d hate to be blamed on a sudden loss of business.”

---

words; 528
notes; if you can catch that ella enchanted
reference, you rock, fo'sho.