Seasons Of Love ❤️

7. Winter Flowers

Sometimes, Mahir goes over just to watch Bela work. It's nice to see Bela in her element, serving customers and creating bouquets with true meaning and making beautiful things. One day, Bela asks if Mahir actually has a job at the tattoo parlour, because he only ever seems to be at the flower shop nowadays.

"I'm on my lunch break." Mahir says defensively.

"Ah," Bela taps her nose knowingly. "I've never seen you eat lunch though."

Mahir blinks. "Well, uh- I, erm..." He stalls, because he really doesn't want to admit that he's been skipping out on his actual lunch for weeks just to hang out with Bela.

Bela seems to understand what he's not saying though, and she tuts and shakes her head disappointedly. "Next time you come here on your 'lunch break' you better bring food with you."

-

The next thing Mahir knows, he has a standing lunch date with Bela every day. It's not the worst thing in the world.

-

"Hey Emma," Mahir says when he steps over the threshold. "Is Bela in the back room?"

Emma nods and gestures towards the door behind the counter, which holds most of the shop's inventory as well as Bela's workstation, where she arranges her flowers.

"She's preparing for her first wedding arrangement, but you're welcome come to head on through."

Mahir thanks her and weaves around the counter to get to the back room. Inside, Bela is sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the workstation, a bright yellow flower in each hand.

"It's a fall wedding," She says as lieu of a greeting. "The couple said that they want the floral arrangement to match the season, so basically they're asking for a red, orange and yellow colour scheme. But they didn't give any other indications as to what they want; they just said that they trust my judgement and wow, this is a lot of pressure for my first wedding gig, y'know? What if I choose the wrong shade of colours, what if-"

Bela is near hysterics, so Mahir calmly takes the flower from her hand and sets them aside. He pulls the girl up from the floor and deposits her in her workstation chair.

"You're the best florist I've ever known," Mahir reminds her, crouching so that they're still at the same level.

Bela's eyebrows pinch together. "I'm the only florist you've ever known."

It's patently true, but Mahir shrugs because it doesn't even matter. "I've seen you work, seen you put together the most beautiful arrangements, seen people come to your shop just to tell you how perfect your flowers were. You can do this."

Bela peers at Mahir with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Do you really mean that?"

"Of course I do," Mahir says honestly. He gestures to the flowers he'd taken from Bela's hand earlier. "Now, you already know the colour scheme you're working with - how are you going to figure out which shade is right for the wedding?"

Bela sighs and she looks somewhat defeated. "I don't know, I can't- the couple didn't say anything else other than 'fall wedding with the flowers to match'."

"They didn't give you anything else?" Mahir prods. "No subtle hints, no mention of favourite flowers, no pictures?"

To Mahir's relief, Bela seems to brighten with those words.

"When they first asked if I did weddings, they sent pictures of the dresses and- and, uh, the wedding venue, as well as the reception venue," Bela answers, shifting around in her chair and extracting her phone from her pocket. She unlocks it and shows Mahir the email with the attached pictures. "I can...I can decide whether to go with a bold arrangement or something more subtle by seeing which shade works best with the bridesmaid dresses and the wedding dress, and then I can- oh my god, Mahir, thank you."