DEAD FLOWERS

Olivia hummed to herself as she picked up the roses to give them a fresh cut before putting them back in the bucket. She found the work tedious, but therapeutic. The flower shop was quiet and customers had stopped coming in an hour ago. This gave her time to do her closing tasks. She had a lot to do being the only closer that night, but she didn’t mind. Olivia loved her work. Olivia picked up the bucket and walked towards the walk-in cooler to put it away. As she grabbed for the door handle, she suddenly saw a shadow in the corner of her eye. For a split second, she thought it couldn’t be a person, because the front door rings when a customer opens it and she didn’t hear anything. Olivia turned around and was startled to see Jose, the delivery driver, standing there. She jumped back letting out a scream.

“Jose! God, you scared me! I didn’t hear you come in. Did you come through the back door?”

Jose’s shift had ended two hours ago. They talked about how she was going to be alone that night and he had offered to stay and help. She told him she would be ok and thanked him anyway. So why was he now standing here and why didn’t he say something so as to not scare her?

Jose just stared at her, his eyes fixated on her face. Olivia noticed his fists were clenched and he was rocking back and forth, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

“Jose, you ok?”

Jose sounded nervous and jumpy, “Yes, sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s ok,” said Olivia. “So what’s up? Did you forget something?”

“No, I just thought I would come back and help you since you were alone tonight,” said Jose.

“That’s really nice of you, but I already told you I would be fine. Since you are here though could you grab the other bucket by the sink and bring it here?”

“Sure,” said Jose.

Olivia thanked him and turned around, grabbed the handle to the cooler, opened the door, and stepped inside. She did not realize that Jose had not gone to get the bucket but instead followed her into the cooler. Suddenly Olivia felt herself being pushed from behind making her lose her footing. Startled, she dropped the flower bucket causing it to crash to the ground and splash water everywhere. She felt the shockingly cold water soak the front of her jeans and fill up her sneakers as she struggled to regain her balance and turn around to face Jose. Instead, Jose pushed her a second time causing her to reach out in front of her body to brace herself as she fell into the cooler’s wall. The force of hitting the wall took her breath away as she felt herself being pinned under Jose’s body weight. Jose’s hands reached around her and went under her top. He groped her stomach then her breasts. Olivia struggled to break free, but couldn’t move. She could feel his breath on her neck. It was hot and smelled of alcohol.

Olivia screamed out, “Stop it! Jose, stop!”

“What are you doing?”

She screamed as loud as she could, “Jose! Please stop it!”

It was no use, he was not listening. She no longer was Olivia his friend, but an object he could control.

Olivia had just taken a self-defense class the week before and knew the only thing she could do in this situation was try to knock him out. She whipped her head back with as much force as possible and head-butted him square in the face. Jose pulled back and grabbed at his nose. Olivia then turned around and watched the blood run down his hands. In shock she stood staring at him, not knowing what to do next.

Jose turned and stumbled out of the cooler then left through the back door. She could hear his car as it screeched away. Olivia ran and locked the back door then turned around and ran to lock the front door as well. Only after the doors were locked did she notice she was shaking uncontrollably. She started to cry as she wrapped her arms around her chest feeling where Jose’s hands had just been. She wasn’t sure what to do next. All she could think was to call Monty who was the owner of the flower shop. On wobbly legs, she walked to the register and picked up the phone.

“Hello?” answered Monty.

Olivia started to cry, “Monty it’s Olivia.”

“ Olivia, what’s wrong? Is everything ok?”

Olivia doesn’t know what to say.

“Olivia, are you there?”

“Yes, sorry. Something happened.”

“At work? What? Are you ok?” said Monty.

“No, I am not.” Olivia started crying harder, “Jose assaulted me.”

“Jose did what?”

“Jose sexually assaulted me.”

“Jose? Are you sure? What happened? I mean that doesn’t sound like Jose,” said Monty.

Jose had worked for Monty for 10 years. They were friends. He went to his children’s birthday parties and they spent weekends at the beach with their families. Jose loved his wife and had never raised his voice or showed any aggression towards anyone at work. He knew him, but Olivia had only worked for him for 6 months and he didn’t really know her. Monty is not sure what to think or believe.

Olivia doesn’t know what to say. Does he think she is lying? Why would she do that?

Olivia’s voice is stressed, “Yes I am sure!”

“Monty, I don’t know what to do.”

“Where is he now?” Monty asked.

“He left. He drove away,” she replied.

She could hear Monty’s voice as he continued to talk on the other end, but the words were not making sense to her.

“I have never had an incident before with him and he has worked for me for 10 years. This just doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that to you?” said Monty.

Olivia started to shake harder as she gripped the phone so tight that her fingernails dug into her palm drawing blood.

“Ok, I have to call my lawyer and see what to do next. I will call you back,” said Monty.

Olivia hung up the phone and stood there looking at it for a second. She felt sick to her stomach. She hunched over and threw up all over her wet sneakers.

Standing up straight, Olivia could feel her body cold, exhausted, and dirty. She needed a shower, a long hot shower. She walked to the front door, unlocked it, walked out, locked the door behind her, and then slid the key under the door. She wrapped her arms around her chest and walked quickly to her car. Once inside the tears began to fall as she looked one last time at the flower shop then driving away.