Elly In Bloom (45 page)

“Good evening, Ma’am” he said stoically, backing away from Snarky Teenager, who looked at him with playful eyes. Elly noticed she was holding a belt in her hand, which she was twirling around like a whip
. She didn’t want to know.

Elly let out a sigh, feeling the weight of the day sink around her. “Try not to make this place even messier, okay? And be good.” She switched off the light and shut the door, muffled laughter and shrieks of delight following behind her.

At the top of the stairs, Elly noticed a familiar note on her door. With an exasperated eye roll, she ripped it off and opened it.

Elly, I’m so sorry about today. Please come over when you are done, Love, Isaac

She crumpled the note before letting it flutter facedown to the floor. Elly opened the door to her apartment and was covered in doggie kisses as Cadbury leapt joyfully into her arms. Burying her face in his soft fur, she headed into the bedroom. She kicked off her shoes and crawled into bed, her clothing still on, her shirt collar pressing uncomfortably against her neck. In the seconds before she was asleep, a faint smile flitted across her face. She felt the door in her heart open, and the dark smoke that had filled it was sucked out and replaced by cool, clean air. She could finally breathe. A deep peace swept over her, one she hadn’t know since those hot mornings in Georgia, with her mother humming hymns over her shoulder. Her last thought that followed her into the inky blackness was a small mix of sadness and relief that her and Aaron’s love story was finally over. Elly closed her eyes, and was wrapped in the gentle arms of unconsciousness.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

Elly woke up to a horrible smell. She brought her hands to her face, confused, smelling the earth and dirt that ran through the cracks in her skin.
Where was she? What time was it?
With a groan, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She was in her room, in her bed, fully dressed. Elly rubbed her eyes tiredly and grabbed her alarm clock. 11:00 am.
Eleven?!
Elly leapt out of bed, instantly feeling her legs go weak underneath her.

“Whoa,” she mumbled. “Slow down, cowgirl.” She sniffed her shirt.
Ugh
, most definitely the smell was her. She slowly unbuttoned her blouse and slipped off her work pants, letting them stay around her ankles as she limped to the shower.

She let out a low sigh of delight as the hot water cascaded over her sore shoulders and back. In the middle of working conditioner into her completely mangled hair, she inhaled sharply as the day before came rushing back to her.
Keith. Lucia. Aaron
. Elly stood shocked. Had that all really happened? Was she truly free of him? She rinsed her face in the cold water.
I slapped someone. I
slapped
him!
She danced around happily, stomping her feet in the tiny puddles on her tile floor. She sang into the water.

“Slap, slap, slap….”

Thirty minutes later, her mood had sobered as she prepared to head downstairs to a mess of enormous proportions. How long would it take to clean up? Five hours, maybe? She wrapped her hair up into a loose pony-tail (more like a loose nub) and headed down wearing comfy jeans and a dark blue v-necked t-shirt. Cadbury trailed along at her heels, whining happily to have some attention.

Elly stopped and scratched his head. “I know I haven’t been around very much lately. I’m sorry. We’ll go on a long walk today, I promise.” Cadbury seemed merely annoyed at such pithy penance. Elly gave a sigh and pushed open the studio door. “This is gonna be bad.”

It wasn’t.

It was…clean. There was no hint of the disaster that Elly remembered from the night before. The carpet was showing again! There were no flowers hanging from the ceiling like there had been some mad greenhouse rave! The place wasn’t exactly sparkling, but it wasn’t messy, either. Someone had been here. Elly raised her eyebrows, scouring her surroundings for any sign of life. Then she spied a post-it on the cooler door. She lifted it nervously.

This doesn’t make up for anything, but I had to try. Love, Isaac

Ugh…Isaac. Is there anyone left who doesn’t have a key to the store?
Elly sat heavily at the table and put her head in her hands. This was something she had hoped not to deal with today. Isaac was truly an innocent; a sweet, self-centered man-child who wasn’t always in control of himself. Idiotic and sometimes devious; yes. Manipulative; no. Ridiculous; yes. Evil; definitely not. He was however, a fantastic kisser
. That mouth…..
Elly pressed her fingers against her lips, closing her eyes ever so slightly.

Before she descended too far into fantasy, there was a bang at the shop door. She jumped to her feet, trying to arrange her v-neck into the least ample breast revealing shape possible.
Did I have a consult today?
No, she would have never scheduled one for the day after this wedding. She moved back the dainty curtain, squinting into the light. Sunny Kepke waved demurely back at her, holding a plant.

Elly turned around quickly, her heart hammering wildly and she pressed her back against the door. Oh no. Did she know? Was she here to yell? To scream at the woman who wrecked her daughter’s trip down the aisle? Had Aaron even made it there? Was she going to sue her? Not pay her? Elly put her hand on her chest and tried to breathe deeply.
Maybe she didn’t know. Maybe she was here to say thank you and pay you and be done with it. People didn’t bring plants when they were angry – right? Dear God
, she mouthed silently,
please let that be it.

She turned and opened the door, smiling uneasily.

“Hi, Sunny! Congratulations! What brings you here the day after the wedding? Aren’t you exhausted? I know I am.” Elly gave a lame, nervous attempt at a laugh.

Sunny smiled at her, lips pressed together. “Sit down, Eleanor. I need to talk to you.”

Elly felt her stomach drop, and she rested her hand on the table to steady herself. She took a deep breath and sat slowly, closing her eyes.
Here we go
, she thought,
I deserve this
.
At least if she decides to hit me, it will be with old lady force. How hard could that be?
Elly winced.

“Eleanor.” Elly opened one eye cautiously. “Look at me, darling.”

She opened her eyes. Sunny was slowly removing tan leather gloves. She was immaculate as always in a matching pink suede jacket with a pale sage scarf tied around her neck. Her eyes, however, played sadly over Elly’s face. “Dear, go get yourself a glass of water. You look like you are about to faint, and we don’t want that to happen again.” Elly nodded, grabbed a bottle of water out of the cooler and sat back down gingerly, as not to set off Sunny.

Sunny took a deep breath. “I want to start by telling you that I hope that you will forgive an old woman for her best laid plans. Sometimes I can be a little too…well, let’s just say too
reaching
for my own good.”

Elly frowned. “I don’t follow. Why are you apologizing to me? I should be apologizing to
you
. Sunny…”

Sunny raised up her hand. “I know what you’re about to say, but let me go first. I know about you and Aaron, Elly. I’ve known for awhile.”

The silence in the store was deafening. Elly’s mouth hung open, and then it seemed there were too many words to fit inside of it.

“How did you – wait, you knew? You knew that and you still hired me?” Elly’s voice was rising steadily.

“No darling, you have the details mixed up. There was no deception at the beginning. I had no idea that you were Aaron’s ex-wife when I hired you. It was exactly like I told you: I had received some arrangements from you and loved them. There was nothing more than that.” Sunny wiped her forehead and it occurred to Elly that she was also nervous. “You should know that I love my daughter. I
love
Lucia. She is my last born, my baby, my only girl. She was always a wild child, precocious and demanding, but I love her more than I love anything else in the world. I would do anything for her, even look the other way when I sensed that something wasn’t quite right with her fiancé.

“From the very beginning, it seemed that there was a large piece missing in their relationship. Oh sure, they were infatuated with each other, all lusty-eyed and brilliant, and yet there was a heart of sadness about the whole affair. I tried talking to Lucia about it, but she defended it so passionately that I immediately picked up on an underlying panic. It all seemed…off. Lucia had mentioned that Aaron had an ex-wife in passing, but never delved into the subject. I had decided to ignore it until the day you fainted, right here in this shop. I knew that the painting had upset you, and I needed to figure out why. I casually dropped your name in front of Aaron – and well, it was like his heart stopped. He’s very bad at hiding his feelings, that one, and I could tell that the mention of you shook him to his core. He never mentioned it to my daughter, which further convinced me that he – and she – had something to hide. Why did he care so much about YOU, a florist he had never met? So, I did what any old woman with too much money does…and I hired a private investigator.”

Elly leaned back in her chair, feeling awash in paranoia.
Did he know everything about her? Her bank accounts? Her history?
She clenched her fists tightly.
Her weight?

“He told me everything I needed to know. That Aaron had an affair with Lucia while you were still married. That you left everything behind, came here and started a new life. That you were dating an attractive, albeit poor, musician. I figured, with everything that you had been through, it could be my gift to you, this wedding. I’m sure you could use the…” she paused, then continued delicately, “the business, if you will, and I didn’t want to punish you for what Aaron did. I knew that you could reject it at anytime, and you didn’t, which showed your true character.”

Elly bit her lip. “I wanted to, Sunny. I wanted to every single day. But I had good people who steadied my hand, and my will. I also had a lot of wine, and that helped.”

Sunny gave a weak smile. “Oh Elly, you really are a delight. I had thought that everything was going smoothly, and that’s why I brought Lucia to you. I thought it would help bring you closure, bring you peace, to face her. Lucia needs discipline. She gives no thought to her actions, never has. I thought seeing you would show her what she had done to you, to Aaron, to everyone involved. I should have known better. Lucia has always been ridiculously arrogant, and aggressive. The hell she put you through that day will be on my conscience forever. I felt it was too late to step in, and she was like a wolverine, tearing into you again and again…although your co-worker did put up a good fight. Brave girl.”

Elly smiled. Sunny paused, and Elly saw her eyes brimming with tears. “I know what it’s like, you know, to have your husband be unfaithful. I would have given anything to look his many lovers in the face, to have that sense of finality. I wanted to give you that…even if that woman was my daughter.” She wiped her eyes with a withered hand. “If you can someday forgive me for what I have done to you….then, please…just know that I’m aware that I should never have meddled in your life, in your past. I tried to give you resolutions that I never had, living vicariously through your chance at closure. Elly, dear, I’m so sorry.” At this, Sunny bent her dignified head over the table and wept.

Elly jumped up and gave the tiny woman a fierce hug. “Sunny, look at me.” Sunny looked up, her mascara running down her cheeks. “I’m going to say this, and I need you to believe that I am not saying this for your benefit.” Elly took a labored breath and let the next words pour out of her mouth gloriously. “You hiring me for your daughter’s wedding was the best thing that ever happened to me. I won’t go into it because frankly, I’m tired of talking about it, but Aaron took my life away. I have spent the last two years trying to get over the moment that I found him in my bed with Lucia.”

Sunny covered her mouth and widened her eyes. Elly guessed she hadn’t found out about that part. “Aaron took away every ounce of confidence that I would ever be truly loved again. I never got over him, and even when a wonderful guy” – she couldn’t bring herself to call Isaac a man, not quite – “took an interest in me, I wasn’t able to fully be with him, because Aaron was still there. He was always there, lurking at the back of my heart.” Sunny nodded empathetically. “But yesterday, I saw Aaron at the wedding. I talked to him, and he begged me to come back to him.” Sunny’s mouth twitched, but Elly bravely continued. “At first, I fell into him, and had that moment that I’d been waiting all these years for. He said and did all the things that I had built up in my mind that I wanted, and I was so ready to throw this all away, just for his kiss, just to be with him again.”