Flowers//Elavan

~30~

Audrey Hepburn once said that to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. So that's exactly what Liz did— literally and figuratively. She invested time and love into her marriage with Avan once again, having faith that it would bring happiness to the both of them. Once in a while, weeds would have to be plowed out— dishonesty and arguments— but they lived on.

Liz was hunched over the new bed of petunia flowers she planted just last week. Her fingertips softly caress its petals and she smiled at how vibrant its colors were.

The lawn in front of their Tudor household was now littered with different flowers varying from wild flowers that would grow on their own, sunflowers, daisies and petunias. It became a beautiful sight for passersby and a lovely fairytale-like play area for their five-year-old princess.

"Can we water the plants again, Momma?" Mia's girlish voice chirps as she followed her mother outside of their house in her light yellow spring dress.

Liz chuckled and stood up straight, "Honey, we watered them this morning."

A small pout settles on Mia's pink lips as she squats on the gingham blanket that was sprawled out on the grass. Her small hands picked on the little clovers that grew amidst the green grass. The dark, wavy locks of hair she inherited from her mother was done in a half-up half-down do with a cute little white bow in the back. Amelia looked exactly like how her name sounded— sweet and pretty.

"Can I water them alone tomorrow?" she looks up at her mother, her eyes squinting slightly as the sun shone into them.

"Papa will be home all day tomorrow. Are you sure you don't want us to help you?"

"No, I'm a big girl."

"Who said anything about being a big girl?" Avan hollers from the door of their small car as he parked it in their driveway.

He makes his way to his girls with a goofy grin on his face and a brown paper bag. Nowadays, Avan didn't have to work as long as he used to since he now had Liz working from home as well. That meant he sometimes could come home after lunch.

His brown eyes sparkled with admiration as he looked up and down his wife's entire body. She was dressed in a floral off-shoulder crop top and white high-waisted shorts that did wonders to her backside. Her hair was pinned up in a ponytail. Her curves were accentuated by the hands that were settled on her waist, drawing attention to the sliver of skin that was bare for him to see.

"Me!" Mia exclaims, jumping up on her feet and tugging on her father's light blue shirt.

"Yeah, well you're going to be a baby forever, little miss," Avan pinches the young girl's nose between two fingers and stooping down to kiss her head.

"What's in the bag, Papa?"

His eyebrows lift the slightest bit as he gave a meaningful look to Liz, "It's for Mommy. Go play."

The innocent little girl nods and proceeds to skip around their lawn, looking for dandelions that she could braid into a flower crown.

"Greetings, wife."

"Husband," Liz nods in acknowledgement, a goofy smile plastered on her lips.

He hands her the small brown baggie with a small smile. Rocking on his feet, he watches as she opens the bag and peaks inside, careful so Mia wouldn't see its contents from the gingham blanket where she was playing with a singular dandelion that she picked.

Inside the bag was a couple of different contraceptives. There was a small box of condoms and a couple of birth control pills. Although the couple was now back to being sexually active regularly, Liz wasn't completely ready for another set of small feet to be running around the household.