“I know it’s last minute,” she said. “I wouldn’t ask unless I really needed you.”
I looked around the flower shop.
Buckets filled with roses stood beside the cooler.
My assistant was already sorting the day’s deliveries.
Everything inside me wanted to refuse.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
For illustration purposes only
Several hours later, I was arranging flowers at a reception venue I had never visited before when I noticed a familiar woman standing near the entrance.
Colleen.
For one second, I wondered whether grief was playing another cruel trick on my mind.
Then she turned slightly.
There was no mistake.
It was her.
I almost called her name.
Then she noticed me.
Her expression changed instantly—not into sadness or surprise, but into something that looked almost like fear.
She turned away at once and vanished into a side hallway.
It made no sense.
Colleen and I hadn’t spoken very often since Adrian died, but why would seeing me make her hide?
I followed her.
“Colleen?”
She stopped walking.
For several seconds, she simply stared at me.
“Meredith?”
“What exactly are you doing here right now?”
She appeared nervous.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’m working. I’m the florist.”
“Here?”
“Yes. Why?”
Before she could respond, a wedding coordinator hurried toward us.
“Ms. Colleen, we’ve been looking everywhere for you. The groom needs his mother.”
I stared at Colleen.
For a moment, everything suddenly seemed understandable.
Adrian had an older brother, Julian.
Of course.
It had to be his wedding.
Julian and I had always gotten along.
He was quieter than Adrian, but he had always treated me kindly.
During holidays, Julian was usually the person helping me carry dishes into the kitchen while everybody else argued about football.
I won’t pretend it didn’t hurt a little that he hadn’t invited me.
But since Adrian’s death, I had barely spoken to anyone in his family.
Maybe they assumed attending a wedding would be too painful for me.
Maybe Julian worried that watching him stand at an altar would remind me too strongly of everything I had lost.
I tried not to take the exclusion personally.
Then I noticed the corsage around Colleen’s wrist.
I had personally made it that morning.
It belonged to the groom’s mother.
Colleen glanced toward me and quickly followed the coordinator down the hallway.
