Page 4 of Sweet Love From Saturn

“What seems to be missing? Everything is there,” I stated.

“I ordered two bundles of fresh lavender and there’s only one bundle there.”

Call me petty, but I loved to prove people wrong. Especially when the person was rude and hard to deal with. Retrieving a pair of scissors, I cut the wrapping paper and separated the two bundles of lavender before laying them in front of her. It took all my strength not to be a bitch, but knowing I had a brand to represent kept me grounded.

I pointed. “Two bundles.”

“Why the hell are they so skinny? I’ve been to many shops and the bundles are much fuller than these,” she complained, pushing the lavender toward me.

“Ma’am, how about we don’t complete the transaction?”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“For one, you’ve been very rude with me since you got here and I can’t seem to satisfy your needs. I don’t wanna take your money, however, I appreciate you for trying us out.”

Not giving her a chance to respond, I removed the flowers from in front of her and set them on the counter behind me.

“See, this is exactly why you can’t support Black folks. The customer service is terrible. What business owner would just let some money walk out of their establishment?” she yelled, causing customers to look our way.

“Ma’am, would you like me to walk you to the door?”

“I don’t need you to walk shit! Any smart person would’ve offered me a discount or gave me the product for free to satisfy me!”

“Grandma, why are you yelling so loud? I can hear you all the way outside,” a younger woman dressed in a purple maxi dress asked.

Thankfully, the woman was in good spirits and seemed to have a level head. I loved and cherished May’s Flowers more than anything but disrespect wouldn’t be tolerated. Especially when I’d done nothing wrong.

“Franny, this woman is scamming people. She’s charging twenty dollars for a bundle of lavender that barely has anything in it.”

My shoulders dropped and I was officially over it. My mental guard flew up when the woman looked at me with a blank expression.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. Please accept my apology on my grandmother’s behalf. Your shop was recommended by so manypeople, but I apologize. My granny can be a handful at times,” she explained.

Relief washed over me when she took her grandmother’s hand and led her out of the front door. Rude customers came with the territory, but I hadn’t had one this bad in a while, excluding the rude ass man who knocked the roses from my hand. He said he didn’t mean for that to happen, but I honestly didn’t know what to think. It all happened so fast. When I closed the shop that evening, I went through the online orders to see if the address was wrong. When I saw it was the right address, I called the number on file but got no answer. No one had called back or even stopped by the shop to inquire about the bouquet. It worried me because that was an eight-hundred-dollar order.

The shop made over seven thousand dollars that day and that had never happened before. I was excited because business hadn’t slowed down yet, but it was also frustrating. Not having a second person here to help was doing more harm than good. It crossed my mind to put an ad out, but I didn’t know how I felt about that. The next person I hired to work in my space needed to have an interest in flowers. That was where I went wrong with Steven.

As customers came and went, I was pulled in every direction, yet everything was going smoothly. That all went out the window thirty minutes before closing. I was so busy I hadn’t had a second to call my mom or sister for help. In the middle of helping a customer, the bell to the front door rang. Without looking up, I greeted the customer and kept on with what I was doing.

“Excuse me, ma’am, would you happen to have any more white roses?” a man asked.

Before I could respond, a deep voice spoke, causing me to look up.

“Right over here, sir.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face when I saw who the voice belonged to. I didn’t know why he was here in the first place, let alone assisting one of my customers. After he showed the man where the roses were, other customers started asking him for help and I knew I needed to hurry up. I didn’t need my shop turning into a shit show. While the mean ass handsome man helped direct the customers, I stood behind the counter and checked everyone out.

“Damn. You really need to hire some help. That was a big ass rush,” he stated as he walked toward me.

“Sir, thank you for your help, but what are you doing in my shop? And how were you helping people?”

“My name is Mccoy. I came down here to pay you for the roses and to apologize again. When I walked in and saw all those people, I thought I’d try to help. I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing, but it worked.” He smiled.

His pearly white teeth made his chocolate skin glow even more, causing me to smile unintentionally. Turning away from him, I gathered myself and hardened my expression before speaking.

“Well, thank you, Mccoy, but I don’t need your money. You can see yourself out,” I said as I pointed my finger toward the door.

Like he didn’t understand English, Mccoy walked behind the counter and stopped right in front of me. This was the same look he’d given me at our first run in. He was trying to read me and it made me uncomfortable.

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