Page 6 of Finding My Forever

“Yeah. She thinks she can get me out of having to make up the work, too.”

“Nice.” She winked and pulled out her notebook. “Tell me more at lunch.”

Chapter 3

Mom’s car was parked in its normal spot behind Fancy Florals and Skylar’s was next to it. Hopefully, I could stay in the back today working on orders rather than having to help customers. Since Katie was freaking out about the extra routine for homecoming, we went over practice by almost an hour, so I didn’t have time to shower off before coming to the store. Not only was I still wearing a cheer shirt and shorts, I was a sweaty mess.

When I swung open the back door and stepped into the prep area, Skylar looked up and smiled before grimacing.

“Ew. You’re going to make the flowers smell bad.”

“Thanks for the understanding.” I pulled my grey apron on over my head and went to the stack of orders on the desk and picked up the top one. There was a decent amount waiting to be created, so my chances of hiding in the back were looking good.

Skylar was arranging baby’s breath around red roses in a tall vase. It was our least favorite arrangement, but sadly, our most popular. Men thought those were the only flowers women liked so at least half of our orders were those obnoxiously trite arrangements.

I cleared the area on the opposite side of the work table and read over the next order so I could grab the flowers from the walk-in fridge. Of course. Another dozen red roses.

My feet and hands knew the routine so well I barely had to pay attention at all. I could get the supplies and make the arrangement with my eyes closed.

“Your mom told me you have news.” Skylar tied a white bow around the vase and took a step back to appraise her work. She nodded once and picked it up before walking it to the fridge where we stored finished orders.

While cutting the stems I told her about the contest and the upcoming trip and she jumped up in excitement then pulled me into a hug before we got back to work.

I watched her grab another order and grin. “Did you get a good one?”

“Yeah, the exotic arrangement.”

“Oh lucky. I love the birds of paradise we got in.”

The door from the front of the store swung open and Mom appeared. “Oh, good you’re here, April. How was your day?”

“Good. We had a long practice though.”

She looked me over once and smirked. “Looks like you’re staying back here today.”

Inside I cheered, but I couldn’t give away that I preferred to make the arrangements rather than taking orders from customers, but I knew if Mom knew that she’d use it against me as a form of punishment.

“Oh darn,” I exaggerated my frown, “If it gets busy out there just let Skylar know. She’ll come help out.”

I winked at Sky, who rolled her eyes in response.

“Thanks, girls.” Mom disappeared behind the door again, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“You’re going to start coming like this every day, aren’t you?”

I smiled but didn’t reply. She might use it against me, too.

“How did your date last night go?” I changed the subject.

Skylar was only a month younger than me, but she always seemed ten years older. She was much more mature and focused. She loved this shop almost more than my mom, so she was going to go to the local college and get an associate’s degree in business management so she can take over the management side of things, or even open her own store.

She was someone my family liked to compare me to as if my own sisters weren’t enough. We might be cousins and share the same red hair, but I lacked the vision they all seemed to have.

“It was fine. Nothing great.” She shoved a stem into the arrangement with a bit too much force.

I eyed the poor foliage but design still looked fine. “Bummer. You said you liked him.”

“Yeah, but there was no spark. He talked about himself almost the entire time.”