The Poppy Drop

by C L Bauer

  “Great,” Lily muttered. What could or would she do? She could go back to the shop and clean or she could stay home and clean. Which, oh which, choice should she make?

  “Did you lock up everything at the shop, Abs?” “Yes, of course. You know that call from Neal really weirded me out. I mean, why would someone break in there and not take anything?”

  Lily shook her head. When she was driving from reception to church she had been wondering the same thing. “I’m with you. Then the police there? I wonder why they were swarming the place…is that what Neal said?”

  Abby looked up from the bouquets. “He said they were crazy like bees. Not one thing missing but he said it seemed like there were at least ten officers, even some detectives. Men in suits. What do you think they were looking for?”

  “The police or the robbers?” Lily asked out loud. She cared about what was going on but she really cared if her wholesaler would be open on Monday and would they get their shipments on time for her three weddings next weekend. She hated to make it all about her but it was all about her business. There were never times that mistakes could be made when dealing with wedding flowers. You had to be one hundred percent, no, one hundred and ten percent perfect every time. Disappointment was not an option.

  “I’ve been thinking that maybe the robbers burglarized the wrong business. I mean who robs a flower wholesaler?”

  Abby had everything ready for the bride and all the corsages and boutonnieres were laid out on the foyer table. “What are you going to do tonight?”

  “Well, I could clean the shop or my house. Yep, that’s my life.”

  “Oh for heaven’s sake. Go do something. Get out. You’ve been moping enough already.”

  Lily glared at her assistant. “I have not been moping. I was dumped, sort of…well, I was supposed to be getting married and now I’m not.”

  It would be two years at the end of this year. Abby had heard it all before and had lived through the 'dumping campaign by god boy'. Lily’s boyfriend of three years had been a minister from a small church and had suddenly decided that he just couldn’t continue in their relationship. They had talked about marriage, been planning a wedding and one day he called up and said he had taken a church assignment in Alabama. He was leaving on Monday. He apparently had no room in the car, or even an airplane ticket for Lily. At the same time, Lily’s father was in the final stages of cancer. The minister wasn’t even there for the poor man in the final breaths of life.

  Abby pointed her finger at her boss. “When a man comes along I want you to go out and have a good time. You deserve someone special with special talents and good looks. Not that looks are important, your minister was cute but nothing special and you fell in love with him. I just think you can have feelings for handsome men too. Why not?”

  Lily had heard all this before and it was growing tedious. Why did she let Abby go on? Perhaps it was easier than trying to shut her up.

  “You have someone in mind or somewhere I should go to find this specimen?”

  “You’ll know him when you see him. Maybe he will just walk into the shop one day, who knows?” Abby knew it wasn’t that easy for her to meet someone and she went to college with thousands of men. Her Jeremy was the first guy she had dated in six months.

  “So we are back to the question of the night… clean shop or house?”

  Abby smiled as Lily changed the subject. “I’ll come in Monday and clean. Why don’t you take the weekend off and come in later Monday? I know we have the weddings this week but take some time, some down time before we get crazy busy.”

  Lily sat down in the back pew and looked toward the simple cross of the church. “So I’m cleaning the house.”

  Chapter Four

  Monday came soon enough. Abby had followed true to form and was just arriving at the shop at eleven in the morning when Lily was unlocking the door. She wouldn’t even say anything to her. She was a good worker but Abby needed to gain a little in the maturity department. Who was Lily kidding, herself? The girl needed to grow up a lot. In the Schmidt household there were no excuses for tardiness; there were no excuses for anything. Her responsibility gene was responsible for her life path and how she strode down it.

  Abby and Lily exchanged knowing looks and went into the shop. The phone was ringing when they entered. Abby ran for it.

  “Lily, its Neal. He wants to talk to you.” She handed her the phone.

  Great, just great. Something was wrong. Lily’s mind moved into overdrive with thoughts of no roses this week and she needed so many, over one hundred in a coral shade.

  She cradled the phone, took a deep breath and tried to add a smile to her voice. “How are you? Everything all right?”

  “Yes. Just wanted to tell you that everything is coming in and we will be good for your pick up on Wednesday. We are up and running but we did have a big mess to clean up. I think the police made more of a mess than the jerks who broke in.”

  “So, did you find out what they were looking for?” As Lily listened to Neal she saw Abby beginning to dump buckets and clean out the back room. Good girl. “They really didn’t take anything?”

  “No, they just got into our computers and apparently they went through our packing slips.”

  Neal and she agreed that it was the funniest thing they had ever heard and that she would see him Wednesday. As she hung up she knew it was time to get to work.

  After two hours of emails and messages, Lily began to outline her schedule for Saturday. Great, they were working with one of the most difficult wedding coordinators in the city. It wasn’t that she was nasty; she didn’t exactly work. Right, that’s what you could say about her. She was all marshmallow fluff and no exterior chocolate bunny. She appeared to be working but more times than Lily could add up, the coordinator had added hours of more work to the florist or the cake decorator’s schedule. There were a growing list of churches who didn’t allow her to do anything in their facility. She made two major caterers so mad they demanded that any client who had employed her either kept her away from them or they didn’t take the wedding or event.

  “Abby, we’ve got Gretchen on the Hayden wedding,” she yelled to the back room.

  “Are you kidding me? I thought she was going to New York City to be some big deal.”

  “No such luck. I already warned the mom but they are in love with her. I’ve said nothing more but I did add a little more to our service charge.”

  Abby stopped sweeping. “Not enough! I’m sure you didn’t charge enough!”

  The bell on the front door stopped their loud conversation. It was a man in a suit. They didn’t see many of them in a flower shop. He probably had the wrong business.

  Lily popped her head up from the desk and smiled. “Hello. Welcome. How can we help you today?”

  He had his head down as he entered but as soon as he heard her it raised. Definitely, they had never seen anyone like him come into the shop. He had just a regular grey suit on but other than that nothing was regular about him. His almost military short hair cut allowed his green eyes to arrive before you saw the rest of his face, at least to Lily. On second look, his suit was the only thing that didn’t look military. She knew what military look liked with her own brother recently retiring from the Army and living near Washington D.C. She stood up to walk toward him and saw the well polished shoes, the tight tie, the starched, pressed shirt. His dark brown hair was in place but he did have a little stubble, just a bit. Maybe his shaver wasn’t his usual. Did he have to borrow one from someone or was he staying in a hotel? Then he smiled. She heard Abby behind her saying something like “hello gorgeous”.

  “I’m new to the area and I was just walking around.” He pointed to the display in the window featuring silk peonies, the china and real hydrangea and azalea plants. “Love the window. It works; it brought me in.”

  “Great, happy you liked it,” Lily said as calmly as she could. “So do you need some flowers today? We mostly do weddings and events but we
have some cut flowers.” She paused and then went for the question that her subconscious was begging her to ask. “Maybe for you wife or girlfriend?” Tacky, Lily, but you couldn’t help yourself.

  He shook his head, looking slightly embarrassed. Of course he was. She had made him. “No and no, just wanted to check out the local businesses,” he answered coyly. “But who knows? Some day I might need wedding flowers.”

  “Uh huh.” Grab hold of yourself, idiot, Lily was telling herself. You have been around nice looking men before. One of your best friends is a handsome guy, named one of the bachelors of the year in Kansas City. Why are you babbling? Check that, why can’t you speak?

  “So, this is your shop?”

  Abby punched her in the back to answer. “Ow, I mean yes. It’s a family business that began in the 1900’s. So do you live here in the neighborhood?”

  His smile suddenly disappeared. Lily noticed him fidgeting with one of her photo books on the table. “Right now I’m living out of a hotel room. Soon though…”

  Ah hah! She was right. He had to use one of those disposable hotel razors. Those things never gave a close shave unless you were using it on your legs. Then you ended up with small cuts all over. Edward Scissorhands couldn’t have done a better hatchet job.

  “Well we’re here.” Lord, she was an idiot. We’re here, for what? We’re here, take me out? We’re here in case you want a good laugh at an idiot!

  “So, do you bring in a lot of hydrangeas? They were my mom’s favorite flower.”

  “Hydrangeas? Yes, we just had a wedding, a rather large one, with hydrangeas on Saturday. I have some photos on my phone if you want to see.” Lord, would her idiocy ever end? She still grabbed her phone and showed it to him. She was committed, or rather she should be committed.

  By now Abby was standing next to her, equal to the insanity, with her broom like Cinderella, smiling at the poor man like she had never seen the male species before this Monday. She was humming “So This Is Love”.

  A sensation rolled up Lily’s back and it wasn’t love. Lily could tell he was lying, but it was nice of him to say he would love to see the tiny camera photos.

  She came nearer, barely coming to his shoulders. He was over six feet tall but that she was used to. Her former boyfriend had been just under that height.

  “Here’s the church, this is her bouquet. This girl really liked color. Now here are the hydrangeas on the aisle,” she said as she flipped along. He was pretending to really look but she could see him gaze up now and then, looking around the store. Quickly, he even managed a smile to Abby. “This is the reception. We did the pinks on the tables, see? Then on the head table we did all white hydrangeas. Your mother would’ve liked that.”

  He stopped looking and gazed directly into her face. “My mother?”

  “Your mother. You said hydrangeas were her favorite flowers.”

  He smiled and suddenly she felt a hand midway up her back as if to distract her. It was working. “Right. Sorry. Yes, she would have absolutely loved these flowers. You do great work.” He pulled his hand from her quickly and stepped away.

  “We have really fresh flowers,” she answered. She was feeling something but now her giddiness was turning to suspicion. He didn’t remember for one minute that his mom loved hydrangeas? “In fact this week we had a problem with a shipment. We had to throw them all out and they had to Fed Ex a box in from South America.”

  “Wow. South America? Amazing,” he was looking around again, clearly looking all the way past Abby to the back door. “Well, it was lovely meeting you both.”

  He was turning to leave.

  “I’m Lily, that’s Abby and your name is?”

  “Oh sorry. How rude. I’m Dev Pierce. Hope- fully I’ll see you both around when I’m settled. Have a good day.”

  His hand was on the door and he was out of their shop and placing his sunglasses on before Lily got all of her “you too” out.

  “Do you think he’ll be back? He was cute.”

  Abby was speaking but Lily wasn’t answering. She was getting one of those feelings, usually reserved when she just “knew” that a member of the family was dying. It was prickly, she was getting a little nauseous, and she was thinking that, yes, he would be back. She wasn’t certain that was a good thing. He had the looks, the name of a romance hero, the smile…he was too good to be true. He had secrets, probably too many to count. Too much of anything, especially a good thing, Lily had learned was never good.

  Even though there was a sinking feeling in Lily’s stomach, the day was going pretty well since the visit from the mysterious stranger. He had been lying and it wouldn’t really matter but after the wholesaler’s break-in, something just wasn’t right about his little visit into her shop. He had been looking around the store for something and it wasn’t his mother’s favorite flower!

  Just shake it off.

  If she had flowers come in on time this week everything would be back on course. Abby was content sprucing up the front displays. She’d been a good worker today. It was Lily’s time to take a turn cleaning.

  “Abby, I’m going to the back.”

  There were tons of boxes from this weekend that needed to go to the recycling bin behind the store. Lily made another mental note to add to her list. Saturday, she had unpacked the van at her house and left several of the boxes in the garage, with three or four other boxes. She was getting quite a pile. She needed to get those back to the shop tomorrow and see if there was anything in them to clean out. Tuesday mornings there was a company that picked up all the cardboard so hopefully she’d get them here before they arrived.

  Grabbing a couple of boxes, she opened the back door to throw them in. All she saw in the alley were flower boxes and stems of dead hydrangeas from last week’s chaos. They were strewn everywhere, thrown in a complete mess where delivery trucks usually drove.

  “What the heck? I don’t have time for this.”

  She began to pick up the boxes and stack them where she always did. Then, one by one, she picked up the dead, brown hydrangeas.

  “I hate hydrangeas. I hate whoever did this,” she yelled out to no one in particular. The other shop keepers already thought she was a little off, this outburst wouldn’t change their opinions. In fact, it would solidify them. Stem after stem there was not one flower with a preservative packet wrapped at the bottom. Had Abby suddenly become the dumbest girl on the block and tried to save them? They couldn’t be used for anything or another time with a flower. What was going on? Had Abby put them in the freezer with the ice packs?

  Lily stacked the stems by the doorstep. Once she’d finished cleaning, she grabbed the hydrangeas and brought them inside to count… one, two, three…twenty, twenty-one…twenty- nine, thirty. They were all there, all of the dead hydrangeas from the box and not one stem had a solution packet attached.

  By the time Abby entered the back area, Lily was just sitting there looking at the dead and decaying stems.

  “What on earth are you doing? You going to save them for some dead flower delivery joke?”

  She looked up at Abby and stared for awhile. “Did you freeze the solution packets from the dead hydrangeas last week?” Lily knew she didn’t but she wouldn’t mind the answer being yes.

  Abby laughed out loud. “Of course not, silly. I froze the ice blocks but not those. I left them on and in the box and just threw them all out Friday when I left the shop.”

  It was confirmed Abby wasn’t the dumbest girl on the block; she ignored the dead flower delivery comment.

  “I went back to the dumpster and all of these stems were laying in the alley and not a one of them had a packet on.”

  “So?”

  Lily looked at Abby as though she’d suddenly grown two heads. Really? Was she the only one finding something peculiar with the entire situation? Her stomach was churning. There were voices in her head yelling that line from a very old television sci-fi show, “Danger, danger, Will Robinson”.

  “Abby,
someone was in our dumpster sometime this weekend, going through these dead hydrangeas. I went straight home Saturday and didn’t even bring the van back. You went on your date. Neither one of us came in Sunday. Someone was looking for something and it was in those packets. By the way, I need a ride home tonight.”

  Abby nodded affirmatively. “No problem.” She tilted her head as thought she was deep in thought solving the world’s problems. “That’s so silly about those packets. It’s not like you can use them again.”

  Frustration was the only consequence of continuing this conversation with Abby. “Never mind. Just go back to doing what you’re doing.”

  Lily just kept looking at the dead flowers as Abby left her alone. What in the blazes was going on around here? This was not normal. Her stomach was doing flip flops. She was afraid and she didn’t know why. She did know that all her weird feelings of uncertainty centered around those hydrangeas.

  Chapter Five

  It was already warm by nine in the morning and that only meant one thing in Kansas City on Memorial Day weekend… humidity hell. Lily was already sweating and she was just taking the short walk from the parking lot to the front door. The front door.

  She stopped short on the sidewalk and saw the open door swinging on its hinges. Holy crap. Don’t go in, just call the police. Grabbing her cell, that’s exactly what she did. As she told the 911 operator about the break-in she scanned inside to see how bad the damage was. There wasn’t any that she could see. No broken glass, no stolen vases or flowers. The showroom refrigerator’s door was open and she could see their personal fridge was wide open. Someone broke in to steal some ice cubes and an old ham sandwich?

  Two officers pulled up within minutes. It wasn’t a joke but they probably really had been at the doughnut shop up the street.

  “You the owner?”

  “Yes, Lily Schmidt. I called 911. The door was wide open when I arrived this morning.”