Elly In Bloom (37 page)

Elly stood in front of the table, trying to breathe calmly and enter into her own peaceful mind-set.
I can do this
, she told herself.
I will design these flowers not as if they are for Aaron’s new bride, but rather just that it is the most important wedding of my career. I will be centered and focused when I design this, and I will be filled with love and beauty.
She opened her eyes. It wasn’t working. “Forget it,” she huffed. “I’ll just make it as pretty as possible.”

She began with the bridesmaids’ bouquets, lush and full, filled with pale pink peonies, huge white garden roses, unabashedly showing their pollen to the world, and canary yellow orchids. Around each one, she wrapped tiny twigs covered with cherry blossoms, their bright pink in sharp contrast against the white buds. Dark green magnolia leaves rounded the bottom, filling in any tiny holes in the bouquet and giving it an air of drama. She topped each one with an antique lace wrap, accented by white pearls. The result was an ambrosial delight, a lavish garden you could hold in your hands. Elly had just completed the tenth bouquet when she heard the front door chime.

“Hey, babe,” said a deep male voice. Elly ducked behind a bucket of freesia. Isaac?
Please no
. She had still not overcome the embarrassment of him buying her lingerie. She peeked her head around the corner. Sean, Kim’s handsome husband, stood at the front of the store, one arm wrapped around Kim and the other around a pile of pizza boxes.
It’s a shame he’s married
, thought Elly,
the man brings pizza
. She emerged out of her flower jungle, arms wide open.

“Sean!” she cried, giving him a friendly hug, “Thanks for lunch! Kim, you have an amazing husband.” She opened the box and helped herself to a large slice of cheese, not bothering to get a plate. Unlike with Isaac, she had no problem eating like a caveman in front of Sean. Kim’s face glowed as Sean kissed her hand.

“How are you feeling today? Any contractions? Are your hips sore?” He looked accusingly at Elly. “I can’t believe you have her working today.”

Elly felt a flush rise up on her face. “I told her she didn’t have to…”

Kim scoffed. “If I left, this whole place would fall down. I’ve been fielding calls from vendors all day – did you know that the caterers aren’t planning on having the linens down until 2 pm?” she growled. “What’s wrong with people?” Elly grabbed her second slice of pizza and tucked a soda under her arm and headed back to her table.

“You’re ruining my design buzz. I’ll go tell the other ladies that lunch is here. Bye Sean, I owe you one.”

“You sure do.”

Elly snuck a look over her shoulder, and saw Sean give Kim a passionate kiss, one hand pressed against her very pregnant belly. She turned away and felt a familiar twinge in her heart.

The back room looked like someone had blown up a greenhouse. Stems and leaves were ankle deep, and Ardelle and Snarky Teenager were working furiously away, sticking white orchids into wet floral foam and making sure they fit into the candelabras. Ardelle’s normally pristine face was damp with sweat and she had some berries in her hair. Elly swallowed a laugh.

“Hey, Sean brought pizza and cold drinks.”

Snarky Teenager threw down an orchid. “THANK YOU,” she snapped and stalked out of the room.

Ardelle smiled simpering at Elly. “I’m surprised, the young madam is actually quite good. Not like me, not in ze ethereal sense, but she has some flair for design.”

Elly nodded, even though she had no idea what Ardelle was talking about. “Do you want some pizza? There’s plenty out there.”

“Pizza? For me? Do not insult me with your common food. I brought my own.” Ardelle pulled out a picnic basket –
a basket!
thought Elly – from under the table. She delicately unpacked several thin slices of cheese, a tiny handful of crackers, a single wineglass and a small bottle of wine.

Elly shifted uncomfortably. “Uh - is that alcohol?”

Ardelle poured, swirled, sniffed and took a long sip. “Of course. One cannot design without wine.”

Normally, Elly would have grabbed the bottle, thrown it in the trash and reprimanded a worker for drinking on the job, but today was not that day. She grabbed her coffee mug from the shelf. “Fill ’er up”.

Ardelle thoughtfully chewed on a piece of cheddar. “Your young worker told me all about zis wedding, your ex-husband and his lover? Such an interesting scandal for such a plain little shop.”

Elly leaned back against the door. “I can’t believe it myself. I’ve never been a scandalous type of woman.”

Ardelle drank deeply from her wineglass. Elly watched, impressed by her voracious guzzling.

“Every woman needs a scandal. It’s what lets us show zem our teeth.”

Elly smiled and leaned her head back. She could barely see the shop’s exposed beams through the white orchids, exploding from the tall gold candelabras.

“All this is really beautiful. Even though it’s the worst thing I could possibly imagine, it’s still beautiful.”

Ardelle brushed off her hands and tucked her ridiculous picnic basket under the counter. “When you work with beautiful things every day, it can be difficult to see real beauty.”

Elly squinted at Ardelle, surprised at the wisdom pouring forth from this boozy Parisian.

“Now, back to work in the squalor!” Ardelle announced. She looked over at Elly, annoyed. “I cannot work while someone watches me. It destroys all the the magic. One cannot look directly at ze sun.”

Elly headed back to her table. She made quick work of the personal flowers, wiring and taping doughy gardenias, pieces of petite dahlias and tea roses into small bundles, each secured with an antique gold brooch. There were fourteen additional corsages, made of white dendrobium orchids, and twenty boutonnieres for various groomsmen and fathers, all made with white mini-callas and canary mimosa. Snarky Teenager passed her on the way to the back, a slice of pizza hanging out of her mouth. She circled her finger around her temple. “CRAZY,” she announced. She disappeared behind the orchid curtain. Elly looked over the thick contract. Bridesmaids’ bouquets? She made a small check. Personal flowers? Check. Hair Pieces? Elly glanced into the cooler, double checking the pale pink peony she wired to a chocolate lace headband. Check - delicious perfection. She looked over the contract. There was nothing left on this list… except the bridal bouquet. Her heart thudded.
Lucia’s bouquet.
Lucia, walking down the aisle, looking up into Aaron’s adoring eyes. Lucia, bearing his children, being his wife. Lucia, cradling her husband with her naked body on Elly’s bed. Lucia, carrying this bouquet.

The cry flew from her throat before she could get a handle on herself. She quickly ducked behind the table and covered her mouth with her soil covered hands. She tried in vain to stifle her overwhelming and wrenching sobs, and sat shaking on the floor. It had been a few minutes when Kim crawled up next to her and quietly leaned her head against Elly’s shoulder. They sat for ten minutes in silence, Elly moaning unattractively with big, wet tears rolling off her cheeks and nose, and Kim sitting solidly against her, not saying a word. There was no hair stroking, no hand-holding. She just simply sat. Elly let out her last long wail and then was silent. She sniffled and pushed her hair back. “Now that that’s done...” She pulled herself off the ground, pushing her shoulders against what felt like a rock, bearing its weight against her body. Kim smiled at her, touched her forehead against Elly’s shoulder and waddled back to the front. Elly turned to look at the back room and heard a quick shuffling of feet, as Snarky Teenager and Ardelle hurried to look busy.

Wiping her swollen eyes, Elly hurried over to the stereo, put in her favorite CD and let the soothing music wash over her. She picked up the contract and looked over the details of the bridal bouquet.

“Just get through it,” she said out loud, and instantly regretted it, hearing snickers in the back. She smiled in spite of herself. She was Elly Jordan, the owner of the most popular florist in St. Louis, and she wasn’t going to let some red-haired homewrecker ruin her life…again. And she may not be a lanky supermodel, but she had pride and talent, and a hot piece of tail waiting for her in the apartment next door.
Isaac, Keith, Aaron
…the images started swimming around her mind, touching lightly her last hold on sanity. She stomped her foot.
NO
.
Not today - I will not think of them today
. She consciously cleared her mind and grabbed what would be the foundations of the bouquet.

Lucia’s bouquet was to be a large cascade – an architectural waterfall that poured from her clutched hands. She began with the white ranunculus, pulling the tiny petals open with gloved fingers and blowing on them delicately to billow them out like silky clouds. Round and flushed white garden roses were followed by the exquisite and expensive cattalaya orchids and then topped with fringed parrot tulips, full hussies, their pale eyelashes kissing the edges of the other flowers. The palest pink tissue sweet pea topped off the bouquet, adding an air of innocence. Tucked deep into the bouquet were tiny lily of the valley stems, secreting their intoxicating and tart scent. And just like that, three hours later, she was done.

Stepping back, she examined the bouquet. It was the most beautiful arrangement she had ever created, for the woman who destroyed everything she had. She took a deep, restorative breath, suppressing the urge to tear the entire thing apart with her teeth.

Kim came around the corner. “How is –?” She stopped dead at the site of the bouquet. “Oh, Elly. That is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s…heartbreaking.”

Her wording couldn’t have been more correct. Dripping and gorgeous, the bouquet conveyed a sense of deep loss, and it knowingly spoke of the betrayal of a lover. Elly had mixed herself into the pillows of flowers, intermingling in the whites and creamy pinks. It was her greatest work and just looking at it pulled bright pangs of pain straight into her chest.

Kim carefully took the bouquet from her hands and put it into the cooler. “Have you started on the reception bouquet yet?”

Elly leaned her forehead against the table. Her spine felt twisted around, her hands were cracked with dryness and her legs quivered in exhaustion. “I don’t think I can do another bouquet for Lucia. I’m done.”

Kim nodded and took the contract from Elly. “I’ll give it to Ardelle. Take a little break, okay?”

Elly took a large swig of water and, wiping the sweat from her brow, peered out at her lovely store, a mirage of leaves and flowers.

“What’s next?” she asked.

Kim glanced over her shoulder. “The ceremony décor.”

Elly’s mouth dropped open. That was a massive undertaking. “Why did I take this wedding again?”

Kim waved her hand. “Hell if I know. Oh right, because you can pay off your apartment.”

For the next six hours of designing, Elly gritted her teeth, muttering “Apartment. Apartment, Apartment…”

It was ten minutes to midnight when Elly wearily climbed the stairs to her apartment. Her body screamed with every step. She leaned heavily on the stair rail, trying to protect herself from the exhaustion that threatened to take over at any minute, one that would leave her sleeping on the stairs like a hobo. Elly didn’t bother turning on her lights when she got inside. Methodically, she poured herself a glass of milk, petted and fed Cadbury and wrapped herself in pajamas, a sweatshirt and a thick fleece blanket. The oddly silent sheepdog at her side, Elly made her way to the roof, curling against him on her soft terra cotta couch. Minutes ticked slowly by, as stars crept through the sky, their bright light reflected in Elly’s glass. She was struck, in this quiet moment, by just how alone she truly was. At the end of the day tomorrow, it would still be her, and the wedding would be over. Aaron and Lucia would be married, and Elly would be back here, staring at a dark and howling November sky. The empty part of her heart – the one that Aaron had cut out of her - would still be a vast and ugly scar. Her apartment would be paid off, but when she looked at the walls, she would know the price she paid…that having her heart broken twice was the cost of financial independence.

Cadbury’s soft breath heaved against her chest as her whispered prayers disappeared in the wide sky. Something that felt like an iron determination rose up inside her. It would have been exhilarating if it hadn’t been wrapped so thickly in sadness.

Tomorrow was Aaron’s wedding.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX