Sunflowers and Freckles

He tugs at his sleeve with one hand, the slight wrinkling of patterned parchment in the other. He stops his nervous tugging long enough to fix the bow tied around the bouquet of massive sunflowers he held. Smoothing the leaves of a couple of flowers down, he deems the bouquet perfectly fine, and he takes a breath to calm himself down. The sound of his footsteps up her driveway seem much too loud for his liking, but the thought quickly dissipates when he thinks of her smile. The corners of his own mouth twitch upward a bit as he thinks about how he got here, seconds away from your first date.

He worked at a florist shop, quite the small and cozy place that didn't get too much foot traffic, mainly just large orders for the fancy parties uptown. So it was interesting when she stumbled in one day.

"Can I help you?" He asked when he heard the bell on the door ding. He hadn't hadn't turned around yet. He finished putting a flower in a vase and turned to greet the mystery guest with a smile. "Hi. Welcome to Sunflowers and Sunshine." He says brightly, freckles kissing his nose and cheeks. "I'm Felix." He looked at her fondly. Something about the way the morning sun glowed warmly around her mad her seem like an angel. "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked after deciding he had taken far to long to take in the woman in front of him.

Felix cocked his head slightly to the side, nodding as you tell him a vision of what she needed. "Yeah I can do that. Do you wanna come have a seat? I can sketch it out for you real quick?" He wiped his hands on his apron before leading her to a wooden two person table, littered with a sketch pad and colored pencil. "Can I get you anything? Water? Tea? You sure?" He asks when she politely declined. He sat down in front of her, the light from the window shining on to them still. He quickly began to sketch what she had described to him moments ago.

"There. How's that look?" He asked, presenting a sketch. A toothy grin appeared across his lips when she told him how much you liked it. He always took pride in his work. Especially smaller projects like this. He didn't tell her, but he took inspiration from her. The color of her eyes, the polish on her nails, the color of her jewelry. Whatever he could see of her. "Perfect then. I can have it ready for you tomorrow?" He reached out to shake her hand, eyes locking with her as he bid the woman he felt himself falling for after just a small conversation farewell.

He remembered how he thought of her all day, and even made sure to look a little extra nice when she came in the next day to pick up her order. He was afraid he had missed his chance to get to know her when he watched her walk out.

But much to his surprise, she came back. Again. And again. And each time, the sketch sessions took a little longer. And the offer of tea turned in to him knowing exactly how she liked hers. And that she preferred chai when it rained and chamomile when it shined. How she had a cat named Winston and she was redecorating her bathroom. How she was trying to figure out her path in life and something about this shop just made her worries disappear.

It was about the 6th arrangement he made for her before he got the courage to ask her out. The look of happiness and the small "finally" the graced her lips made him realize he had made the right decision. Which led him to where he was now. Standing in front of her front door with his signature bouquet of sunflowers, knocking, hoping this wasn't the last time he would get to make an arrangement for her.