—— The eyes that studied her weren’t a bother at all, she was used to it.
When he agreed to try her own seeds, she unveiled a leather pouch
that hung from the belt around her waist.
Three, four, five small baby irises ended up in the palm of his hand,
and her four long, thin fingers made sure his fist was shut.
"Water them at 6 o’clock in the mornings and in the evenings,
and they will bloom beautifully.
But if you need some for roses…
I recommend these.”
A bag was plucked off the shelf, and she held it up so he could read the back.
—— Once he took it, the girl strolled over to the counter to pay,
her bare feet not making a sound.
"Say, how would you like a nice cup of apple cider?
I heard the ones from this year are very good!
Unless you don’t want to, but I could help you figure out your flowers.”
A hand was held out invitingly, a lineless palm upwards.
Everything about her was odd and off, yet it all was so.natural.
"It’s on me.
I’ll show you the best bar to get cider.”
Dani offered a warm smile as he was handed the seeds out of her own collection; that was an awfully generous notion and he told himself he would have to return the favour one day - should the two ever meet again. He hoped they would, if luck was on his side. This woman seemed as though she was from out of town, but with how she spoke of certain locations in the area, he realised that assumption was incorrect. Then, he began to wonder how he had missed her before - if she did live around here.
He made it a point to avoid familiarity with the town he lived in, with there being a number of people wandering in and out of the shops every single day. Tourists? there was a possibility they could be, but he seldom hung around long enough to figure it out. All he wanted was to return to his hometown, surrounded only by peace and quiet; no struggle to breathe during a weekly shopping trip. Toni enjoyed it more than he did and that was evident with how often she chose to go a-waltzing about every now and then between morning and evening. It gave him time to himself, sure, but he missed the company.
"Six in the morning — six in the evening, got it" he chuckled, storing the information away in a spot he knew he wouldn't forget. 'Course, there had been a number of times whereby he'd forgotten even the most simple of tasks. For that, his nymphette had given him an earful. He made sure from then on that he never forgot a single thing; and he wasn't about to start with that - it wasn't too difficult to remember, after all.
The male was snapped back to reality at the mention of a nice cold beer and her statement told him then and there she was definitely not from out of town. Feeling a little down and out for not having bumped into her until now, he gave a nod, pouting as he did so, though trying desperately not to let it show. "I'd like that, very much. I'm just wondering... why I've not seen you around here before. Surely, you live nearby? You seem to know the area pretty well, and that kind of knocked my prior assumption that you were a foreigner." He did feel rather daft - the woman probably heard that a lot and it was no doubt grinding on nerves.
Stepping forward, he set his own items down upon the counter as she packed hers away in a small basket and turned to face her. That same smile lingered and he offered his arm, as only a gentleman would; he'd had a lot of practice in that department. "Shall we?"
