A Single Daffodil

“Sshh! Stop being so loud, Jayden! You’ll wake her up.”

It was actually the sound of my bedroom door creaking open that woke me up and not the shuffling of Jayden and Sophia’s feet, but I pretended to still be asleep anyways.

“Isn’t that the whole point?” I heard Jayden whispered back harshly.

“Non, non. We have to do it heedfully or she’ll explode. It’s like waking up a bear from hibernation.” Sophia tried to whisper back. She really did. Sophia whispering was equivalent to the average human using their inside voice.

“Valid point.” Jayden whispered back. “How mad do you think she is at us?”

There was a little more shuffling before I decided to jump up quickly and yell loudly to give them a good scare. Sophia, who has always been the easiest to spook, screamed back in horror, immediately losing her footing and ultimately, falling on her butt. Jayden looked startled for only a second.

“Ay, Vita!! That’s not nice! My butt bone! Ow!” Sophia gave out, leaning sideways on the floor to rub her back.

“You mean your tailbone, idiot.” Jayden monotonously pointed out.

“That’s what you get for lying to me, kidnapping me, and then--oh yes, how could I forget this part-- LOCKING me in a room with a guy I hated, which I thought I made myself pretty clear about hating!”

“Like waking up a bear from hibernation.” Jayden confirmed, watching me with amusement. “Classic.”

“And, you.” I pointed the pillow I was holding in the direction of Jayden’s face. “You ain’t off the hook either, buddy. You’re taking your ass to the nearest children’s hospital ASAP and you’re gonna make out a nice, hefty check to whatever foundation that helps children with cancer. YOU CAN’T LIE ABOUT BABIES DYING OF CANCER!”

“Alright, alright. We get it. Is it all out of your system yet?” Sophia groaned, getting back onto her feet. “Because now I want to hear how it went! Will you tell us?”

“No.” I stuck my nose up and turned my head away from Sophia. “Shan’t.”

“That bad, huh?” Sophia started waltzing around my room with her hands hidden behind her back.

I dropped back down onto my bed, watching her carefully. Usually when Sophia did that, it was right before she would try--

“BECAUSE THESE PICTURES TELL ME OTHERWISE!” She shouted, whipping her iPhone out from behind her back.

--try to prove me wrong.

I grabbed the phone from her hands and stared at the screen. There, on Perez Hilton, were two extremely blurry pictures taken of me getting into Harry’s Range Rover. It looked like they were taken with a phone, and you can barely make out my face since it was dark. The title read above the picture: “Harry Styles’s Gets Himself A New Surfer Babe In South Beach!”

Jayden, who leaned onto the bed to take a better look at the screen, snorted. “Ha, you’re not a surfer!”

I slowly turned to Jayden and glared. He carefully backed away with his hands up, offering his surrender.

“Alright, everybody listen up.” I addressed the entire room, dropping the phone onto my bed and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “I can’t deal with any of this TomFoolery until I’ve had at least two sips of coffee.”

“Make yourself useful, huh?” Sophia motioned angrily to Jayden. “Go make us coffee!”

Jayden made a noise of protest whilst leaving my bedroom. He knew better than to argue with Sophia.

I sighed, throwing my whole body back onto my bed with frustration. “How bad is it? The post on Perez?”

“Well, they don’t know who you are.” Sophia replied, taking the phone back to scroll through the website. “But they’ll figure it out soon enough. You’re not exactly...incognito.”

This wasn’t the first time I’ve ended up on a gossipy website. Being my father’s daughter, wasn’t something that made me a celebrity, per se, but it definitely put in the public eye every once in a while. The minute I was associated with the coach of the Miami Heat, magazines became curious. I’ve had the occasional interview or two, and have even been photographed laughing with Lebron James and Dwayne Wade. Even being associated with Jayden, had a couple of gossip sights speculating we were dating (which makes me gag every time I think about it, by the way). Sophia would freak out every time she came across a picture of me on the internet, mostly because it was a rare occurrence, but also because I didn’t care much for it. I never really bothered to piggy back the spotlight that constantly shone onto my dad’s success.

I think my lack of interest kept the magazines and interviews at bay for the most part, but this kinda publicity --being pictured with a celebrity-- was a whole other ball game.

“Coffee’s ready!” Jayden called from the kitchen.

I rolled over and stood up from my bed with Sophia hot on my tail. “Well it should blow over within the next twenty-four hours, right?”

Jayden pushed one of the mug across the counter for me. I smiled gratefully, wrapping my hands around the mug. I walked around the counter and hopped onto one of the cushioned stools behind the breakfast bar.

“Vita, you went on a date with Harry Styles.” Sophia stated. “This won’t blow over for at least three years.”

“Oh yeah right!” I dismissed her ridiculous statement immediately. “Get real. No one cares that much about the damn pictures. Gossip is probably slow on the website today or something.”

Jayden and Sophia shared a look of sympathy before turning back to me. I knew then and there, I was 100% incorrect. When Jayden and Sophia sided on something, that meant the world was out of tilt and an apocalypse was coming.

Before Sophia could describe to me in great detail about how wrong I was, I exploded again. “I didn’t even want to go on the date to begin with! It was a kidnapping mission! I was practically held hostage.”

“Doesn’t look like you were struggling to get into his car though.” Sophia’s mouth broke into a Cheshire grin. “Where did you guys go, anyways? Back to his hotel room?”

I gave her a disgusted look. “I ain’t no hussy.”

“Well, we’re not leaving until you tell us about your date.” Sophia crossed her arms and leaned against the counter. “So spill.”



“Vita, if you spray those roses any more, you’ll drown them!” Maggie’s voice shot right through the thoughts that have been distracting me all day.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed, pulling the spray bottle away from the bucket of soaked roses and putting it on the metal table text to me. “My mind’s somewhere else today.”

“I noticed when you almost gave a whole bouquet of flowers away for free earlier.” Maggie chuckled. “I’ll be leaving in a few. Will you be alright closing the shop by yourself?”

I smiled up at her. “Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

She grinned and walked back into her office. I let out an aggravated sigh and walked back out into the front area of the shop, only being met by the soft tune of an Etta James song and a room full of abandoned flowers.

After relaying how my date went with Harry to Sophia and Jayden this morning, I received a call from Maggie, asking if I could cover Ronnie’s shift at work today. There was some sort of scheduling conflict with Ronnie’s other job at the airport, so she called in last minute to tell Maggie she couldn’t come in. Seeing as I had no plans for the day, I came in twenty minutes later after the phone call.

However, by the early afternoon, I could tell that I was deemed useless at work today. I was so distracted and could barely concentrate on anything going on around me. I found myself over-spritzing the flowers, staring at orders like they were in another language, and I even forgot the Carnations were in the refrigerator. I wanted to kick myself a thousand times over. Of course the Carnations were in the refrigerator. I knew that.

What I didn’t know was why I couldn’t shake the smell of Harry’s cologne from my senses, or why every time I thought about last night caused my fingertips to tremble and lips go numb. Butterflies would erupt in my stomach every time I heard the doorbell chime when a customer came in. And when I noticed the butterflies, I also noticed how anxiously I waited at the counter, staring at the door, as if wanting Harry Styles to come in.

I didn’t want to admit it, but last night was something I couldn’t stop thinking about since I woke up today.

But there wasn’t a Harry in sight at work today. Which is fine, I guess. I wasn’t expecting him to show up. We didn’t make plans. We didn’t even exchange numbers, or confirm a second date.

I still found myself hoping he would show up anyways.

I heard shuffling in the back and then Maggie yelling out a good night as she was exiting the back door to the parking lot. I shouted a goodbye in return. The store always felt so lonely when you were the only person in there. Even amongst the rows of colorful, bright flowers, lining the whole room, it felt empty.

I jumped off the stool and sauntered around the floor, occasionally picking up a flower and twirling it between my fingers. I was in a complete and utter daze, and that daze was created by Harry. I was trying everything in my power not think about him, but I couldn’t stop. I found myself smiling at the thought of how nice he was last night, how he couldn’t stop thinking about me, how dimples appeared in his cheeks when he smiled really big.

I stopped abruptly, shaking my head momentarily. I was going mad.

I made a U-turn at the bucket of red roses and walked to the front counter, now humoring the idea of calling Grandpa Gene to check in. I haven’t seen him in a couple of days now, and I wanted to make sure that he was alright (and that he’s been feeding Robin daily.). After all, I did have twenty minutes left to kill.

Just as I reached for the store’s wireless phone, the sound of the doorbell chiming made my fingers curl back into the palm of my hand.

I couldn’t control the overpowering sense of delight when I laid eyes on Harry standing in Jane’s Flower shop. And then I felt a wave of embarrassment, for getting so excited that he came here.

My fingertips tingled as I tried to gather up my sensibility and astuteness. I stood up straight and cleared my throat. “Oh. Hello.”

Wow, that’s it? That’s all I could come up with? Goddamn it, Vita, you’re so awkward.

“Hiya.” His voice was warm and friendly. British, too. I couldn’t get over how lovely his voice sounded. It made me want to kick myself, which was weird. “I was worried you’d be gone already. I wanted to stop in earlier, but recording ran a bit late.”

He walked further into the shop, with his hands resting inside the front pocket of his black jeans. He looked effortlessly ravishing in a loose white t-shirt with a pair of white converse to match. Harry standing amongst the bright, colorful bunches of flowers was a very cinematic sight to see.

“I was actually about to close up now, actually.” I said.

“That’s alright.” He took a couple of steps towards the counter I was sitting behind and leaned casually onto the counter. “I just wanted to say I had fun last night and I’m sorry you were kidnapped in order to make it happen.”

I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, fighting the prying smile that started to appear on my lips. “Yeah, I guess it wasn’t totally dreadful.”

Harry grinned at my obvious conflict of feelings. “I’m glad.”

It was silent only for a moment, as if he was waiting for me to say something. I could feel myself buckling under his unwavering stare, his eyes luminous.

“Well!” I piped up, feeling very self-conscious all of a sudden and unassertive under his gaze. “Since you’re here now, you might as well help me close up!”

I jumped off the stool and headed towards the front door and turned off the huge ‘OPEN’ sign with a single flip of a switch. After turning the first lock of the door, I turned around to find Harry already poking at the nearest Calla Lily flower.

“What do you suppose I can do?” He asked.

I grabbed two spray bottles that sat right next to the front display of flowers, walked closer to Harry, and threw one of the bottles at him. He caught it with surprise. “Nothing too difficult, Superstar. You’re just gonna help me spray the displays out here.”

He let out a chuckle and met me at the front of the store, waiting for further instructions. We stood right in front of the two rows of buckets, that held several different bouquets of flowers. “Alright you take the bottom row, and I’ll take the top. All you gotta do is spray twice on each bouquet.”

We started with the purple and yellow Asters and slowly made our way down the rows. He looked adorably clueless as he carefully sprayed each flower, watching me every other spray to make sure he was doing it correct. I couldn’t stop grinning. Mr. Hotshot wasn’t so certain now.

“These ones smell lovely.” Harry leaned in to smell the bucket full of Sweet Alyssums.

“Mhmm.” I hummed, spraying the bucket of Sweet Peas above them. “Those are the crowd pleasers. Big hit with the ladies.”

“A big hit, huh?” He glanced over at me as he sprayed the Sweet Alyssums. “What’s your favorite flower?”

“Daffodils.” I answered, without missing a beat. “Always the daffodils.”

“Oh the daffodils!” Harry laughed immediately. “The same flower you threw at me when you left in a huff. I looked up the meaning of the flower right you did that, you know.”

“You did?” I was genuinely surprised.

Harry nodded. “I found out if you only give one daffodil away, it means you wish them nothing but misfortune.”

Now I was laughing. “Oh God, I definitely didn’t even think about that when I gave it to you.”

“You’ve casted quite the misfortune on me, Vita.” He smirked, reaching under my arm to spray the bucket of red roses in front of me. “You have made it very difficult for me to court you.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

“It’s alright, I forgive you.” Harry was grinning, now walking around me to finish his spraying duties. Obvious our conversation had me completely distracted. I probably skipped a bucket of flowers, or two. “I can see now you’re finally warming up to me.”

“Barely!”

He gave me a look that told me he didn’t believe me.

Hell, I didn’t even believe me.

“Now these--” Harry picked up a Birds of Paradise flower in the last bucket on the bottom row. “--will have to be my favorite flower, only because they’re so exotic looking.”

I smiled. “Those are my Grandpa’s favorite flower too. He still uses their colors in his paintings.”

“Is he an artist?” Harry asked, eyeing the flower in his hand closely.

“Yes. He’s the strangest, underrated artist there is.” I answered. “He doesn’t even showcase his work. It’s all cooped up in his house.”

I looked up from the flowers to find Harry watching me with interest. My cheeks flushed, not realizing he’d been watching me.

Just as Harry was about to say something, his phone started ringing. He pulled out his phone with his free hand, looked at it, and sighed heavily. “Ugh. It’s my manager. I’m suppose to be at this event thing in ten minutes with the lads.”

“Oh.” I tried to hide my disappointment, but was failing miserably. “That’s fine. I need to finish some paperwork, anyways.”

“I’m sorry.” Harry frowned, completely ignoring the call and putting it back in his pocket. “It’s kinda mandatory with the label. I wasn’t even suppose to leave, really. Niall helped me sneak out.”

He snook out for me! A new batch of butterflies erupted in my stomach.

I walked him over to the front door and unlocked it. When I pulled it open, he stopped momentarily in front of it.

“You know, I’m still waiting for that confirmation of our second date.” He smirked. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten.”

My cheeks turned bright pink. I was scared that if I opened my mouth, straight dumb would come out so I ducked slightly, biting down on my lip. I guess a stray curl released itself from behind my ear and fell in front of my face, because suddenly Harry was reaching out to place the curl behind my ear once more. The gesture was so innocent and endearing, that I almost passed out. Thank God I was holding onto the door handle, because if I wasn’t, there was a good possibility my knees would buckle underneath me.

“Luckily for me,” Harry continued, clearly unaware of how my whole body was practically shutting down from his touch. “I get to see you tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah? How so?” Finally, I found my voice. I wanted him to touch my hair again.

“Because I’m going to the Heat game tomorrow with the guys.” Harry grinned cheekily, finally stepping out of the store. Pulling his keys out of his pocket, he turned back to me one last time. “Goodnight, Vita.”