Just One Flower

‘Oh Mike, it’s wonderful.’

Ned watched as his parents looked around them with big smiles on their faces. A spring festival. That was all it took to make them happy. They loved anything to do with plants, flowers, gardening. He didn’t though. So why had he agreed to come along with them?

He followed them towards where all the stalls and exhibitions were, feeling a bit mean to have thought that. It had been a long and difficult winter. His mother had been very ill with a chest infection that had led to pneumonia, and his dad had taken time off work to care for her so that Ned could continue to go to his own work and college. It was a small thing to do to share their first proper day out in a long time. And as luck would have it, the miserable weather had suddenly changed in the last few days so that late March had turned into proper spring.

It was not long though, before Ned realised that they were not going to be making any rapid progress through all of the attractions that his Mum and Dad found so delightful. They were ‘Oooh-ing’ and Aaah-ing’ at just about everything, and there were only so many flowers that Ned could pretend to admire before everything became a blur. He gave it a little while, and then decided he needed to make a break for freedom.

‘Mum, Dad, I’m just going to go and get some water,’ he said casually. ‘You just carry on and I’ll catch you up. I’ll phone you if I lose you.’

‘Oh, alright then,’ his Mum said, picking up a pot of something and not even looking at him.

‘See you in a bit then,’ his Dad said over his shoulder.

Ned smiled and shook his head. They would be preoccupied for ages. He could afford to take his time and have a look round by himself. He might be lucky and find something interesting among the bits of machinery he’d noticed on display. If not, there seemed to be plenty of coffee and food outlets where he could idle away a bit of the day. And as it happened, it was one of those outlets that was to cast a brighter light on his day altogether.

The smell of good coffee invited him in, and he found a seating area surrounded, of course, by planters full of flowers and small shrubs. It was fairly crowded but he managed to find a seat, and it was not long before someone was asking what he would like. He looked up to see that the person asking the question was a very pretty girl about his own age. He took in the blonde hair and the green eyes, but was not quite able to remember what he was supposed to be saying. She smiled in amusement. This probably happened to her a lot, he thought.

‘Oh, er... Coffee please,’ he managed.

‘Just coffee?’ she asked. ‘Black coffee?’

He nodded and she smiled again. He watched her walk away, feeling like a complete idiot. He never drank just black coffee. A couple of minutes later she placed his cup on the table.

‘Are you enjoying the show?’ she asked.

Taken by surprise, he realised she was actually being friendly and he had to keep this going.

‘Sort of,’ he said. ‘I’m not actually here for the plants and stuff, but I’ve found some interesting machinery.’ He hoped that didn’t put her off.

‘Machinery? Is that what you work with?’

‘Well, sort of. I’m an apprentice mechanic. I just came along with my parents. They’re mad over gardening.’

‘Oh. Are they here?’ she asked, looking round.

‘Er, no. They’re somewhere about, surrounded by plants by now.’

‘While you look at machinery.’ She smiled again and seemed about to leave, then turned back to him. ‘Have you seen all that big stuff over the far end of the grounds?’

‘No. I didn’t know there was any. Where is it from here?’

‘Well, you go out of here, then you go left as far as the...’ She stopped and thought for a moment. ‘I’ll tell you what,’ she continued. ‘I’m finished here in a few minutes. I’ll show you where it is. If you’d like me to that is.’

Ned thought he saw the hint of a blush, but it was all he could do not to jump off his seat. ‘Oh, that would be lovely,’ he said, thinking he would wake up in a minute.

‘Great,’ she said. ‘See you in a few minutes then.’

Somehow he managed to drink the coffee and sit still long enough to wait for her to come back for him. ‘I’m not taking up your lunch break am I?’ he asked.

‘Oh no. I’ve finished for the day now. My Mum and Dad own the place. They go to all the shows. They’re mad gardeners too. I just help them out whenever I’ve got a break from uni, like this week. I’m Flora by the way.’

‘Flora?’

‘Yes.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Don’t laugh. I told you my parents were mad gardeners.’

‘Oh yes, of course, it means flower. I won’t laugh. I think it’s pretty. Well I’m Ned. It’s short for Edward.’

They carried on walking and talking as though they had known each other for years, Ned still wondering if he was dreaming it all. He listened to everything she said, trying to find out all he could that would help him to see her again. He discovered that she was studying architecture at uni and was back home for another week. But best of all, she had no current boyfriend, and no nasty hangovers from any previous ones. But he needed to think up a strategy before they got to the machinery she had spoken of. What if she just showed him where it was and then left? His mind was buzzing.

‘Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?’ she asked, pointing to the big exhibition opening out in front of them.

It was an amazing collection. There seemed to be everything for gardens of all sizes and types right up to estates and farms. There were planters, pickers, sowers, mowers and some things he couldn’t identify. Yes, it was all very interesting, but at the moment his mind was on other things.

‘Wow, this is amazing,’ he said. ‘Thank you for showing me how to find it.’

‘You’re welcome. Are you going to go and have a look?’

He was interested, but he didn’t want her to go. What could he say? Then a sudden thought occurred to him.

‘I’ll go and have a look in a while. You must be hungry after all that work. Fancy getting a bite to eat? If I’m not keeping you from anything?’

She smiled, and her green eyes twinkled. ‘That would be very nice. I’ll have to go back in a little while to help Mum and Dad to clear up, but not just yet.’

They found somewhere to sit and eat and talk some more. Ned had never met anyone like Flora before. She was so easy to talk to and he very much wanted to see her again. It was only when she looked at her watch that he suddenly found the courage to ask her if she would like to go for a drink one evening. He held his breath as she seemed to hesitate a moment.

‘I would love that,’ she said at last. ‘Any evening would be fine.’

Ned was still waiting to wake up as they exchanged numbers and discussed where to go. Out on the main concourse they finally took their leave of each other, neither one of them in a hurry to go their separate ways. It was only Ned’s phone ringing that created the right moment.

‘See you soon,’ she called as she waved and went back to her parents’ coffee shop.

It was Ned’s Dad on the phone, wondering where he’d wandered off to, and dropping hints about how much stuff there was to carry home. Ned smiled and shook his head, heading off to meet up with the happy gardeners.

‘We wondered what had happened to you,’ his Mum said as she saw him. ‘Did you find anything interesting, seeing as you don’t like gardening?’

‘Oh, there were one or two interesting things,’ Ned said casually as he gathered up some of the bags filled with plants and other things they had collected.

‘I don’t suppose it was anything to do with flowers though,’ his Dad said.

Ned turned away to hide the big grin on his face. He heard his Mum chuckle behind him.

‘I expect it was all the machines he was looking at. Can’t quite see our Ned looking at any sort of flowers.’

It was all Ned could do not to laugh out loud. Before today he would have thought the same. He would never have imagined himself to be interested in flowers. But he was thinking about his date in the coming week, happy to be proven wrong.