Elly In Bloom (7 page)

This person is crazy
, thought Elly.

“The color is actually called wisteria. I was wondering, for the grandfather’s bouts, could we maybe use something that just has a HINT of wisteria, instead of the actual color?”

Elly could feel her palms digging into the chair for a confrontation. Instead, she forced herself to smile, which made her sound nicer than she actually was.

“Brooke. I know that we have talked before about how flowers aren’t paint colors. We can try and get as close as possible to wisteria, but it’s not something we can match 100%. And the grandfather’s bout is not something you should be worrying about. I will put down that you want a pale blue or lavender accent. Is that it?”

Brooke paused. Lord,
please let this be it
, Elly prayed.

“On last thing. I read on the internet that peonies might not be available in late July…is that true?”

“No, Brooke it’s not true. Remember, we talked about not believing every single thing we see online. We will be fine to get peonies then.”

“Are you sure? Because this wedding website said…”

“Yes. I’m sure. Okay! Brooke, good to talk with you, I will note the changes on your contract.”

The bride sounded defeated. “Okay, thanks.”

Elly hung up the phone with a sigh. Brooke called every single day, with minute changes to her contract. She did not work, and had a very rich and distant fiancée who was paying for their large wedding, but left her alone most of the time. Planning their wedding had become Brooke’s job. She had changed her colors three times already, deciding that yellow was too bright and pink was too cliché. Now they were on to cool shades, purples and blues. Elly fully expected her to make another two or three color changes before the wedding in July. Brooke drove her nuts – she was definitely one of her bridezillas – but she also sensed loneliness in her desperation. That alone gave her more patience than she would have thought possible. She quickly noted her contract on the computer: “
Crazy wants lavender for grandfather’s bouts
.”

Elly wheeled her chair around.

“Kiiiiim!” she hollered.

Kim strolled in, drinking greedily from a water bottle and sat down across from Elly.

“It is SO hot out there. Ugh.” She pushed back her bangs from her eyes. Elly looked at her, exasperated.

“You don’t even look hot. You never sweat. You just glow. I want to hit you. In a nice way.”

Kim grinned. Her olive skin had a shining line that ran down her arms and legs. Her long legs were tucked under her light coral sundress, accented with a pearl shell necklace and black flip flops. Knowing Kim as well as she did, Elly knew that this gorgeous ensemble had taken her two seconds to put together, and she probably hadn’t even showered. Elly, on the other hand, had taken an hour to get ready. She showered, carefully chose a cute outfit, applied her make-up and attempted to curl her unruly hair. She was wearing khaki shorts and a yellow scoop neck tank, and she already had sweated off all her make-up, pulled her hair up into a ponytail and swapped her cute clip flops for unattractive but comfy Crocs. It was 11 am and she was already experiencing what she liked to call the “afternoon stink”.
Awesome.

“What do you want for lunch? I was thinking Keith’s,” Elly suggested.

Bald headed, charming and stocky, Keith Carcelo owned the deli next door to their studio. They had fantastic sandwiches: warm Italian breads were covered with every veggie, meat and cheese a person could imagine. The yeasty smells from the sandwich shop wafted through Posies, mixing with the fresh, light aroma of various flowers. The result was Elly’s favorite smell in the world. Besides knowing Elly’s favorite sandwich down to cucumber count, Keith was the best neighbor a girl could ask for. He was always helping out, whether with tossing out the trash, washing down her sidewalk or even taking Cadbury for walks occasionally when Elly was under the weather. Keith was wonderful, and Elly was glad to call him a friend.

“Yes. Keith’s sounds great,” Kim replied, leaning on the table, “but I need to talk to you first.”

A small twinge of alarm sounded in Elly’s mind. Kim sounded serious.

“Um, what’s up? You seem concerned.” She straightened her papers.

Kim sat up straight and took a deep breath and pushed her long hair behind her shoulders. “There is no easy way to say this, so I’m just going say it. I have to leave Posies.”

“What do you mean you have to leave?” Elly stammered, “Like on vacation?”

“I mean, not work here anymore.”

Elly looked at Kim, slack jawed.

“I knew you were going to be upset and I don’t want this to affect our friendship,” Kim rushed on, “but I needed to tell you. I’m quitting.”

Elly felt her stomach drop. Kim reached across the table and grabbed her hand.

“Please don’t be mad at me. This isn’t about you. I can’t imagine my life without you in it every day. But I need to move on from here. Sean and I have reached this decision together. This is the best decision for our family, and designing is not thrilling me like it used to.” She paused and looked into Elly’s face. “Are you okay?”

Elly was silent. Hurt, she lashed out at Kim. “How could you do this to me? It’s right before wedding season!”

Kim nodded, “I’ll work for you until you find a replacement, but I’m hoping to be done around June 1
^st
.”

Elly snapped. “Well
that’s
a huge help. I need you. You are the only one who knows how to really design besides me! Why are you quitting? Are you unhappy? How long have you been unhappy?” Her voice caught awkwardly in her throat. Kim pursed her lips. Elly could see she was trying not to get snarky in return and told herself to calm down. She reached for a tissue. “I’m sorry. I’m just taken off guard.”

Kim smiled at her. “I knew you would be. I should have told you sooner. I put it off because I knew it would rough. For both of us.”

“Are you unhappy here?”

“I love the shop. I do. But I need to do other things now. C’mon,” she shrugged and looked like she wanted to say more. “You know I don’t have to work. I choose to work. But Sean needs me home more. I will probably stop in everyday, you know. I go crazy in my house. You understand.”

Elly did not understand. Kim lived in a huge house on Magdalyne Drive, which was just up the street. The community was gated, a lush park full of flowers and large stone houses, all of which were paid off with old money. Clayton was full of old money. Families that had made their fortunes during the time of the 1904 World’s Fair passed it down through generations, leaving many a young couple with more money than they ever dreamed. Kim’s husband Sean was a urological surgeon and made a pretty good living, but the house had been bought by his mother, who was the heir to the famous Creeden fortune. Their home was amazing. It was a combination of exquisite stones, rich fabrics and cutting edge art, picked by Kim’s eclectic eye, and old world furnishings, worth thousands of dollars. Elly loved going to Kim’s house. She was there practically every other day.

“No, I don’t understand. You don’t have to do
anything
. Are you just going to lay by the pool all day and drink mai tais? Why are you quitting? Is there a real reason?”

Kim’s face, even though Elly had just insulted her, stayed unruffled. “No. And I know that will upset you. I don’t have to justify myself to you…can’t you understand? Sometimes you just need to do what’s best for you.” She looked straight at Elly. “I would think you of all people would understand that.”

Elly sat back like she had been slapped. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Kim leaned forward. “I didn’t mean anything.”

“No, what did you mean? TELL me. I mean, you obviously have no problem inconveniencing me.” Elly stood quickly. Kim stood as well.

“Okay. Fine. You left everything behind in Georgia. Your friends, your job, your house. You stopped going to church. You seem to have no problem doing what is best for you. I’m glad that you did, because if you hadn’t I wouldn’t have you in my life. But it’s wrong of you to sit there and judge me for quitting. This is my life, and I need to not work here anymore. That is the bottom line. This conversation is over. I knew you would freak out, but I didn’t know you would be so mean.”

Kim stood up and walked out the door, the bells clanking behind her. Elly wiped a tear from her eye. It had been years since she had fought like this with someone, and she had never fought with Kim. From that moment in the coffee shop, where Kim had saved her, they had been inseparable, the kind of adult friendship that she had always wanted. Most Sundays, Kim and Elly laid on bright pink rafts in Kim’s pool, floating lazily, her fingers trailing in the cool water, drinking smoothies and watching Sean fight with the grill. There was no way around it; Kim was her family here.

Elly instantly felt a painful twinge of remorse.

“Kim!” she walked outside, and saw Kim sitting at one of the small tables on the patio area, wiping her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She wrapped Kim up in her arms. It was so easy to hold skinny people. “I’m just sad you won’t be working for me anymore. Does that mean I have to promote Mood Swing over there?”

Kim laughed as they both looked through the window into the store. Snarky Teenager was designing at the window-side table and chatting on her cell phone at the same time. She popped the head off a rose, mouthed a curse word and flung the rose stem against the window. “She’s hopeless,” Elly sighed, “but maybe she just needs more direction.”

“I know,” Kim said, as she nuzzled her head into Elly’s shoulder. “I will always be around. Just not on the clock. You know I’ll be here every day anyway. You’re okay, but what I really need is my daily grilled cheese from Keith.”

Elly smacked Kim’s arm and they headed into the shop to finish out the day’s work. When Elly arrived at her apartment hours later, with a pastry bag in one hand and a bouquet of blue delphinium in the other, there was a note posted on the door in a simple white envelope which read “Elly.” She frowned. She hadn’t been late on rent, had she?
Crap,
she thought, as she stuck the envelope between her teeth and opened the door. Thirty minutes later, after letting Cadbury pull her around the block several times, she sat down at her tiny kitchen table and wiped a bit of cannoli cream off her face. The note was written on some sort of red, thin paper with Indian ink drawings.

Elly
, it read,
I’m having some people over tonight for a sort of house-warming - stop by? Anytime works. I’ll even order you some Chinese! – Isaac
.

Elly felt her heart-stop, mid-beat. The neighbor. The insanely handsome neighbor wanted her to come to his party. She wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or elated by the Chinese food comment, but it didn’t matter at the moment. She had been invited to a party. By a man.
This was monumental.

She touched the invitation softly. She shouldn’t go. It had been a long day with Kim announcing her decision, and Elly was exhausted both emotionally and physically. She crumbled her cannoli into the wrapper and tossed it in the trash. Elly turned around and flipped on the TV. Cadbury whined at her. She walked back into the bedroom, grabbed his little squeaky squirrel, and stomped back out to the living room. She threw the toy at Cadbury, who scampered madly down the hall.

It was then that she saw herself in her mirror above the dining room table. Blond curls falling over her face, thick tortoise-shell glasses hovering on the edge of her nose. Her curvy, rounded body was hidden under a bright blue t-shirt that was half-tucked into black gaucho pants. She was a mess. Was she just going to stay inside her apartment for the rest of her life? Live vicariously through Kim and Sean? Had Aaron (she winced at the name) taken everything from her? Cadbury leapt up at her with his toy hanging out of his mouth.

“I can do this,” Elly confirmed to herself. “I can be hot.”

Ten minutes later she was still staring at her closet, trying to find something that wasn’t even hot, just mildly attractive. Designing flowers was hot, messy and wet. She mostly wore tank tops and shorts, or, when she was alone in the studio, a camisole and underwear. Finally, she found a sheer black and white polka dot top, low in the front, and pulled that over a black tank top. She had one pair of slim khakis and slipped those on with some black flip flops. Her curly hair was unmanageable, so she pulled it back loosely with some bobby pins, put on some lip gloss and mascara and slipped out the back door.

A narrow walkway lined the apartments above Wydown Street, connecting them all through a series of fire escapes and tiny patios. She had been outside for barely a minute when she headed up to the apartment above Keith’s deli. As she lingered in front of the door, she smelled warm bread. It was both comforting and annoying – she was on the way to a party, thrown by a gorgeous man and now she was hungry.
Thanks, Keith
, she noted, annoyed. She arrived at the door, which was plastered with various band posters
. Okay, Elly, breathe,
she told herself.
Please let me not embarrass myself.
She closed her eyes and knocked on the door.

CHAPTER

FIVE