Mona Lisa Bouquet

A huge bouquet greeted her from the coffee table without a card or explanation. The flowers just sat there looking gorgeous and mysterious like the Mona Lisa.

Kate felt relief wash over her. Maybe they were a peace offering. Maybe she wouldn’t have to go to the consultation with the attorney after all. The fork in the road was ahead of her, with the road endlessly shifting like a warped nightmare. Sometimes a few steps away while other times so far on the horizon that the fork was barely visible. 

Kate reached for her phone and snapped a few photos from different angles. She would admire their beauty from her desk at work. Meanwhile, she had to shower and get ready for the day. Glancing at the clock, she was grateful to be on schedule, determined not to let the drama of her personal life interfere with her new job. 

The high she had felt when she unfolded the Christmas bonus check returned, making her smile as she closed the bathroom door behind her, checking the knob as an old habit to make sure it was locked. She hit the jackpot with her new job. She was proud of herself for making the move after agonizing over the decision for years. What if it’s worse than her current job? What if she regrets it? What if there’s gossip, negativity, yelling in the office? Maybe she was too old to learn new procedures. The negative self-talk went round and round as she had continued showing up to a job she was miserable at during the day, then scrolled through Indeed clicking “Apply”, “Apply”, “Apply” in the middle of the night. The calls for interviews she received in the aftermath of the storm only put a knot in her stomach. What had she been thinking? She would never have the nerve to quit a job and start something new. 

But she did make the change, she reminded herself, as the hot water pounded her body. The heat from the shower was almost painful, but she let it work its magic on her sore muscles, tight from the anxiety of recent weeks. 

***

Arriving at work at 9:00 am, she was again amazed at the simplicity of sliding into her new job. It had been six months since that dreaded first day, and her coworkers and boss couldn’t have been nicer.

“Sorry, no card. I’m really scrambling this year,” her boss had said Friday afternoon while handing her a folded check. She was so flustered she just laughed and tucked it under her keyboard. Unfolding it a few minutes later, Kate was shocked at his generosity and instantly wanted to share the news with her husband. Picking up her phone, she froze. Why should she tell him? It was her bonus check, her gift from her boss for her hard work. 

Her fantasy came floating back to her as she had carefully placed the check in her wallet. The apartment. The safe space. Her haven to listen to her music, dance in the kitchen while preparing her meals then curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and a good book. 

She desperately craved an escape from the constant ups and downs that her marriage had become, like an out-of-control roller coaster. The nasty comments from the night before came back at her, “If I knew what you were before I married you, I probably wouldn’t have married you.” 

What had been her crime? She had been horrified when the argument broke out during their holiday dinner. The ringing in her ears was only matched in volume by the pounding of her heart when he shouted at their son and future daughter-in-law, cursing at them as a hair trigger response to a silly joke. Why hadn’t she defended him, he had screamed in her face the night before. She had been waiting for an apology for his despicable behavior, and apparently he had been waiting for an apology from her. Meanwhile, weeks had gone by living in hostile silence.

Her thumb went to twist the wedding band on her finger, a habit from their thirty plus years of marriage. “I’m done with this,” she had shouted, throwing her precious gold ring at him, distinctly hearing the ping as it hit the wooden floor. Now she sat at her desk, the nervous habit finding an empty ring finger. 

What would the attorney tell her? After imagining herself pursuing the path for years, she finally had clicked on a link for a free consultation. She didn’t know the facts, how to file, how to disentangle herself from the toxic relationship. If she had done the work years before, she could have had a lovely Christmas dinner with the family without him. How many more fights was she willing to put up with? The family occasions were few and far between, and after yet another nightmare get together, they would certainly continue to dwindle.

Hearing her boss’s voice on the phone, she knew she had some time before he came out of his office. She studied the photos of that mysterious bouquet on the coffee table. The flowers were gorgeous, no doubt about it, but something was off. Roses were not her favorite flower except to admire in their natural setting. Otherwise, they were too expensive, their life in the vase too short. This was not a bouquet in a vase, she realized, it was more of a low, sprawling arrangement. The feeling that something was not quite right intensified.

When did he purchase those flowers? She thought back, trying to piece the puzzle together. He left the house around 8:00 pm the night before to drive for Uber. She knew that for certain as she had looked at the clock to see how much alone time she had, hoping to fight the Sunday scaries. Then she heard the front door open as she had started unrolling her yoga mat. “Damn”, she had whispered as her inner peace was again threatened. The slam of the door moments later had signaled his going back out. Starting the yoga flow, she had assumed he stopped in for a bathroom break, and she forced his abusive comments out with a deep cleansing breath. It was at that point he must have dropped off the bouquet, she realized, looking back.

***

“Good morning. How can I help you?” With one eye on the photo, she transferred the call to her coworker as a new realization grew. Those colors. Not the usual vibrant reds and whites of roses but more of a muted hue of pinks and creams. What was bothersome about that?

If the flowers were meant to be a peace offering, an olive branch of sorts, they had the opposite effect, filling her with anxiety that grew as the hours at her desk slowly went by. The idea of going home to see those flowers mocking her from the living room made her almost physically ill. 

Why no card? What would it say? I’m sorry? Forgive me? I’m an asshole. I ruined the holiday. Would she forgive him? She could sweep it under the rug, pretend none of it happened and continue on with life as she knew it. The kids were forgiving, texting her the morning after the blow up saying every family has drama. But that’s all they knew; cursing and bad temper was their norm. She wanted better and felt she deserved it.

***

Opening the front door when returning home from work, she saw the flowers immediately. They really were massive, Kate thought as she approached them with a fresh eye. They took up most of the coffee table, the colors reminding her of a wedding, the size like a centerpiece.

Then it hit her. The scene played itself out in her mind like an actual movie. He left to drive for Uber, picked up a guest from a wedding who had a centerpiece and didn’t want it. “Hey, man, want this? I got no room for it,” the passenger says in her scenario, to which her husband replies, “Sure. My wife will love it. Thanks, man.” 

He didn’t go to a florist feeling badly, trying to make up with her. Florists weren’t even open late Sunday nights, were they? 

Then again, who cares if it was from a wedding? They were beautiful and a fun addition to the holiday decorations. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, isn’t that what they say? He hadn’t claimed to rush out to sweep her off her feet, did he? 

As the speculations swirled around her mind, her husband nonchalantly walked in smiling. She decided to approach him with direct questions fired at him, leaving no room for bullshit. 

“What’s with the flowers?” Kate blurted out.

“I got them for you, silly, to cheer you up.”

Plunging ahead, she continued. “Oh yeah, from a florist?”

“Yup!” He smiled looking pleased.

“Wow! Which florist?”

“The one downtown, on the corner of Main near the movie theater.”

"They must have been expensive,” she pushed on.

“They were.”

“How did you pay for them?”

“I put it on my credit card.”

Okay, Kate thought, he’s either lying to her face going in deeper and deeper or telling the truth. It was time to know for sure.

“Would you mind showing me the transaction on your bank app?” She knew it was an absurd request, but it was now or never and there was too much at stake. 

He looked at her stunned. She held her ground.

“Well, actually an Uber passenger gave it to me.”

There it was. The lie uncovered. Maybe a small lie, maybe a white lie.  Perhaps he was trying to save the marriage while she was planning on ending it. She had eleven days until her consultation with the attorney. She had a lot to think about as she faced the fork in the road.