Episode 311: A Dozen Roses

No beautiful wife and daughter. "The nail salon closed and-"

I’m actually in a hurry to get home to dinner with my girls. It’s our wedding anniversary."

"Oh." The smile on her red lips wavered a moment, then returned to slightly less than full blast. Her stilettos clicked past him. "Congratulations. I’m betting Justine likes things expensive huh? Long stemmed red roses, right?"

"Right, a dozen please," Quent confirmed with a frown, watching Mariah grab the flowers, bring them back to the counter and wrap them in green tissue. "Justine’s not a snob or anything you know despite whatever my sister might’ve told you."

Mariah’s hooded eyes peeked up at him. "You married the girl Quentin, I never thought for one second she could be as bad as a lot of the girls in the neighborhood say."

His frown turned to a scowl. They couldn’t buy a break. Practically Romeo and Juliet. Her parents hated him. His entire community disapproved of Justine. "She’s a lot like the girls from our neighborhood. She grew up different yeah, but ultimately family’s what matters most to her." She’d been feeling so down ever since that garden party fiasco even though she did her best to hide it for his and Tansy’s sake.

"Do you have any of those little white flowers to sprinkle in there?" He asked.

"Baby’s breath? Sure."

"Tans loves to put flowers in her hair, flowas, she calls them. She’ll like those." The only fun part of the garden party was letting the little girl pull out flowers by the root and make a mess of the lawn. The memory made him grin.

"Lucky little girl to have you for a dad. Lucky wife too," Mariah said and swiped his credit card. The flirty look in her eye quickly vanished. She made a whispered phone call and handed him back his card. "The credit card company wants me to cut it up but I won’t. Got any cash? Or has the girl from the neighborhood spent all that too?"

Episode 312: Home