Seasons

30: Why Do You Still Care?

Baby don't get greedy - Tate Mcrae

A T H E N A   R O S E

"My date, my plans, my rules." He grins and walks away.

"You weren't so bossy before," I murmured to myself as I trailed behind him.

Another laugh erupted out of him as he continued walking, nevertheless, he put his hand out behind him, waiting for me to grab it.

And so I do, placing my hand in his as he brings me closer to his side. My body instantly felt his warmth. 

"You know..." Azariah says, looking at me through his fluffy blonde hair that falls over his eyes. "You just never noticed because of how in love you are with me." A slow grin crept up on his face as he started swinging our arms together back and forth.

I slapped his arm letting out a laugh and looked away. "Yeah, you got my attention that's for sure."

We walked a few more blocks before reaching our destination. In front of us was a floral shop with the sign turned off, showing us that it was clearly closed for the night.

Nova Floral's was shut down for the night so I looked at Azariah cluelessly.

"What?" I say out loud instead of in my mind.

He tugs me toward the door. "Come on, Rose." He urges. "Miss Nova said I could borrow the shop for the night and all she said was to make sure the door is locked when we're done and that everything is clean." His hand finds the door and the other takes out a key from his pocket.

"No way..." I said, my eyes bouncing back between him and the key turning the lock open. "Ms. Nova let you have the key?"

He scoffs. "Duh?" He cocks his head to the side as he opened the door and waved for me to go in. And I do. "I won her over with my good looks. Just kidding- I had helped her with a few things and in return she wanted someone else to close the shop for once."

I shake my head in disbelief. 

As we entered the shop, the strong smell of so many different flowers hit my nose. I look around and see the fridges full of different flowers.

The table was clean and ready to be made a mess. I lean my elbows against the table and put my head on my palms as I watch Azariah open the fridge and pull out many flowers—some pink, red, and even orange.

He holds the last two buckets of greens and raises them up. "You ready?"

I straighten myself. "Born ready."

Someone cleared their throat. "So, you back on planet Earth again?" She says, leaning back in her chair. "You've been in space for about ten minutes."

My eyes grow wide. "No," I whisper. "I've totally been here the entire time." I laughed.

My hands play with the napkin in front of me. My eyes did not want to meet my best friend's murderous gaze. Lina's mentioned, multiple, times that I've been spacing out so much it's like I'm not even here.

And she's not wrong. I really am not here. I know I chose to do this- to break it off and go our separate ways but I can't help but think about what if I tried? What if I had put in the effort?