The Beast

Chapter 2

I had just walked into the cafe to start my shift when Maggie came bouncing upto me smiling brightly. I looked at her hesitant to ask what had her so excited, but one glance at the huge bouquet of gorgeous red roses in her hand and I knew.
"Cyrus feeling romantic again?" I asked Maggie smirking slightly, it was adorable she still blushed every time he did any romantic notion for her.

"Oh no darling these are for you." Maggie said thrusting the bouquet into my arms.
"And it's got a note." She added in a singsong voice as I looked at her in confusion. Why had I gotten roses when I wasn't romantically involved with anyone?

I fished threw the flowers finding the little white note and pulled it out.
"Happy Birthday my love."
The note said in elegant script, and once I got over the initial flattery, I turned the card expecting to see a name but upon finding none I looked up at Maggie questioningly.

"Who gave these to you?" I asked her, confused as to why somebody would send such beautiful flowers without taking credit.
"I don't know, they were outside the store when I got here." She said and I shrugged, it was probably just a prank or sadly perhaps delivered to the wrong address, maybe I wasn't the only one in town who's birthday it was. After putting away my stuff I got to work organizing the books, bringing the roses out to the front with me.

"Should I just put them by the romance books? I really don't know what else to do with them." I asked Maggie, I didn't even have any glass vases in my apartment to stand them up in so they'd be put to better use here.

"You sure your secret admirer won't be offended?" She asked.

"I'm kind of just gonna keep my fingers crossed that it's a fluke, I mean the last time I got hit on was sophomore year and if it's that guy then he needs to see I'm not interested and give up. It's been 4 years." I explained.

"He wasn't your type?" She asked.

"Truth is I don't think I was his." I answered and she raised her brows in confusion at my statement but I just shook my head at her. Trying to subtly gesture to the customers who had just come in and were uncomfortably staring at the two of us.

I sent an awkward smile at the customers before walking away to the back where our romance books were. I set the flowers on the small wooden coffee table we had in the centre of two lounge chairs. The red roses actually looked very nice amongst the soft woody browns of the reading area.

The day went by quickly with me attending to the few regulars and sending side glances to the gorgeous roses. Unfortunately there wasn't even a florist company written that I could send them back to, the real recipient of the gorgeous flowers was just going to have to miss out.

Maggie wiggled her eyebrows at me every time she saw me looking at the roses making me scrunch my nose in distaste. Maggie was convinced I had a secret admirer, while I knew not to be that idealistic. It was obviously just a misunderstanding or expensive prank and I playfully rolled my eyes at her every time she suggested anything but. I wasn't involved with anyone, so unless they were from my parents who were forgetful enough to forget a card, they were pretty creepy if they were intended for me.

At lunch Jay and Sophie stopped by bringing with them a chocolate fest and while gorging myself on the delicious creamy chocolate I told them about the flowers. To my dismay that took over our conversations and they came up with multiple theories all seemingly impossible. Sophie's were entirely gruesome and always ended up with me being kidnapped by a lonely old man whether he be a farmer or a retired pirate while Jays were extremely romantic revolving around fairy tales.
Maggie had a lot of fun with Jays theories while she swatted at Sophie's head every time she heard one of her gruesome theories.