Page 60 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
Jake winds his passenger window down as his van pulls to a stop, and two heads poke through the gap.
‘Hey, Jake, hey, Miley,’ I say, smiling at them both.
‘It’s a windy day for a walk,’ Jake says, shifting across to the passenger seat. ‘Poor Basil will blow away.’
Miley leaps from the window down to the pavement to see Basil, who she absolutely adores. Basil, in his usual aloof way, allows Miley to hug him, but doesn’t respond.
‘Aw, Basil, we know you love her really,’ I joke, leaning down and fussing him.
Basil eyes me, then shakes himself, so Miley gets covered with the remnants of sand still left in his coat.
Jake and I both laugh as Miley tries to do the same, and gives herself a full body shake like a dog.
‘Are you busy today?’ Jake asks. ‘Only I was going to ask if you wanted to come up to the nursery later. You said you’d like to visit sometime.’
I don’t think I did actually say that. It’s more a case of Jake having asked me once and me mumbling something that sounded affirmative to be polite. For weeks he’s been offering to show me around his nurseries so I can see where most of the flowers for the shop come from. So of course I’ve had to keep making excuses not to go. I’m just about coping with a shop full of fresh flowers these days – as long as we keep the door propped open to let in lots of fresh air. But I doubt I could cope with polytunnels and greenhouses stuffed full of the things.
‘Yes… and I will,’ I say, about to make my usual excuse, but I’m saved by my phone suddenly ringing in my back pocket. ‘One moment,’ I tell him, reaching for the phone. ‘It’s Amber. Hi, Amber, what’s up?’ I ask. ‘No, I’m not at the house – I’ve taken Basil for a quick walk… Oh, right, have you tried— You have? Right, well, I’d best come back and take a look then… No, no plumbers yet, it’ll cost too much. Let me have a look first. I’ll see you in a few minutes.’ I end the call.
‘What’s wrong?’ Jake asks.
‘Apparently the sink is blocked at the shop, and Amber doesn’t know why. I’ll have to go and take a look. So, sorry, it’s no-go on the nursery visit today,’ I tell him, trying to sound disappointed.
‘Aw, shame,’ Jake says. ‘Look, I’m heading in the direction of town; would you and Basil like a lift?’
‘That would be great, thanks.’
Jake slides back over into the driver’s seat, and Basil and I climb into the passenger side, Basil sitting in the footwell, Miley sitting on my lap.
Jake grins as he sees us.
‘Quite the menagerie you have there, Miss Carmichael.’
‘Can you try and get us there as quickly as possible?’ I ask. ‘Cutting Basil short in the middle of his walk isn’t usually a great idea. He likes to pace himself, and…’ I hesitate, trying to find the polite way to phrase it: ‘hisofferings.’
‘I’m on it!’ Jake says as he indicates and pulls out into the road and a not-so-delicate aroma begins to fill the van.
‘Perhaps you’d better wind down the window,’ I tell him apologetically. ‘He is an elderly dog.’
Jake hastily opens his window. ‘No worries,’ he says kindly. ‘Miley often has a similar problem. I’m used to it!’
On my lap Miley hides her face in her hands.
When we arrive at the shop, Jake drops the three of us outside and drives off in search of a parking place.
‘Hey, you got here quickly,’ Amber says as we pile through the open door. She looks with interest at Miley as she immediately leaps straight for the rolls of ribbons – her favourite items in the shop. ‘Were you with Jake? I thought you were walking Basil?’
‘We bumped into Jake on our walk and he kindly gave us a lift back,’ I tell her while I remove Basil’s lead and get him settled with fresh water in his bowl. ‘What’s up with this sink?’
‘It’s blocked,’ Amber says, as we leave Miley happily playing with the ribbons and head for the back room to examine the sink. ‘I tried to empty a vase of water down it but it won’t go – look.’
I peer inside the large Belfast sink and see dirty flower water lying stagnant at the bottom of the ceramic white porcelain. I wrinkle up my nose. ‘Yuck, it stinks!’
‘I know, that’s why I was changing the water in the bucket.’
‘Do we have a plunger?’ I ask.
‘A what?’
