#I’m giving bracken and his family accents in my head btw if that matters at all to anyone 😂

[aerinsfables]

Can I get a part 2 of that flower shop AU? Pretty please with a bit of “slink back to your hole you wyrm” on top???

Okay! 😊 The wyrm part is gonna have to wait for section 3 though. 😂

Part 1 is here.

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Flower Shop AU, Part 2

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Bracken hustled through his errands in an effort to try and make it back to the store in time to see Kendra’s reaction to the bouquet he’d put together. It had been a fun, very novel project, and he wanted to be there when she picked it up, but traffic was terrible on the interstate thanks to a car accident which had blocked off the left lane. He looked in his rearview mirror at the tall stalks of fresh flowers he’d had to pick up that morning from one of the farms out toward the countryside and said aloud, “I’m not going to be very happy if you’re the cause of me being late today.”

The clock on his dashboard told him he had 10 minutes to make it to the shop in order to meet her and see her reaction to his work. He let out a loud exhale and tapped his hands on the steering wheel. Traffic was at a standstill. He glanced at the clock again and then reached for his phone and dialed his mother.

“Hello?” came her cheerful voice.

“Hi Mum,” he said. “I’m stuck in traffic and there’s no way I’m going to make it to the shop in the next 10 minutes.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Bracken,” she replied. “I’ll be sure to assist Kendra when she arrives. I’m looking forward to meeting the patron of such an interesting arrangement.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, unable to hide the minor disappointment in his voice. “Listen. I had made a little sign with the die-cut machine yesterday, and was waiting until today to put it in with the bouquet. Could you do that? You know. Center it in with the blossoms?”

She laughed. “Is that why there’s a pretty, cursive ‘good riddance’ on the counter this morning? I had wondered.”

He grinned and chuckled. “Yeah, that’s for her. I also wanted to give her the option of pouring an entire tube of glitter into the packaging, that way when the plastic is opened or the bouquet is held upside-down, it’ll dump everywhere.”

An amused sound met his ears. “Do we even know what the perpetrator did in order to deserve such punishment?”

“She didn’t say. But she was terribly upset.” He patted the steering wheel again. “I was hoping to cheer her up a bit, so I put together a little bundle of pink and white hyacinths for her. They’re in a small vase next to her order. Will you please make sure she receives those as well?”

“Of course,” his mother replied. “That’s very thoughtful of you.”

“I wish I could be there,” he said. “Please tell her I’m sorry to have missed her. The flowers I picked up for the arrangements for that wedding tomorrow are in the back of the car, by the way, so we can finish those up whenever I can finally get off the freeway.”

“Thank you for doing that,” she said. “I think our new favorite customer is standing outside already. She looks nervous. I’ll see you soon.”

“Yep. I’ll be there in a bit.”

He hung up the phone and looked at the flowers in the back of his car through the rearview mirror again. “You’d better cooperate with me when we get back,” he said. “No drooping stems or anything crazy. You owe me now.”

It looked like the accident up ahead was finally being cleared. Vehicles started to inch forward.

He really hoped Kendra would be okay.

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“She was surprised by the hyacinths,” Mother said.

“Surprised in a good way, I hope,” Bracken replied.

She hummed in response. “I liked her.”

He smiled. “What did she think of the bouquet she ordered?”

A glint of what looked like mischief crossed his mother’s face. “She was most pleased with your extra touches, and gave many thanks. I wished her well. Really had hoped she would share her story, but I didn’t press her for details. I did take a picture of the bouquet for your portfolio before she left, by the way. Honestly, my son, that was well done and very thoughtful.”

Bracken waved a dismissive hand at her. “It was a fun project. I’ll bring in the rest of the flowers from the car, then email Kendra her receipt.”

A few trips to the car and back, and about ten minutes later, Bracken sat down in front of the computer at the register and clicked on the necessary mail merge templates which ultimately generated the shop’s standard “rate your service” email. He typed Kendra’s email address into the recipient field, attached a PDF copy of her receipt, and sent the message on its merry way.

He never expected to see or hear from her again.

He was wrong.

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Part 3 is here!