Colton had little girls from PS 155 in his flower shop all the time. They looked at the arrangements and chatted about boys with Jamie who worked at the front counter.
Normally they stayed up front and didn’t venture beyond the back door marked
“employees only”. This girl, with her frizzy red hair, big glasses, and a cute splay of freckles across her pale cheeks, had found her way through the work room to the back storage area.
He was about to tell her that she needed to head back up front, when she laughed happily and hopped up a little to readjust her overloaded book bag that pulled her shoulders back.
The sound of her made Colton smile—the girl was pretty cute for such an awkward little creature. Her big blue eyes danced as she adjusted the straps of her bag again. The slight crinkle of pain at the corner of her eyes was probably due to the bag cutting into her thin shoulder blades.
“Minnie, your name is Minerva?” the girl cried, her excitement growing.
Colton grunted as his sister kicked him in the leg before turning to face the girl.
“Look, Paige, no one calls me that ever—not even you.” Minnie’s tone was firm but not as threatening as it would be if she hadn’t known the girl. Actually, when Colton thought about it, Minnie sounded sorta gentle and affectionate. “Got it?” Minnie demanded.
“But it’s so cool!” Paige hopped back and forth a little. “Did you know that Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter is also named Minerva? That’s really cool, Min, can I call you that?”
“No.” Minnie said firmly. “You can’t.”
Crossing his arms, he stared back and forth between the two. He was quite curious on how and why Minnie took up with a school kid. He smiled as Minnie turned her infuriated eyes on him and jumped back as she tried to kick him again. Her glare, which promised all sorts of pain and torture, lightened as she lifted the drinks and plastic bags for him to see.
“Lunch,” she chimed brightly. “Come on Paige… oh, Colton this is Paige—Paige, my oldest brother Colton Philips.”
Colton soon found himself being assessed by the flame-haired girl. Her stare and the slightly wicked and mischievous smile that slowly spread across her face brought blood to Colton’s cheeks. Paige was strange to him, but then he didn’t have much experience with little girls. Paige extended her hand out to him and smiled as Colton’s fingers engulfed her entire hand and wrist. Without saying a word to him, Paige ran to catch up with Minnie who had headed out to the small garden in the back of his property. Just before the girl disappeared into the sunlight, Colton was pretty sure he heard her whisper:
“He’s perfect!”
With a glance at the bag of spilled soil, Colton following Paige and Minnie out the back door. He paused along the garden’s cobblestone path and watched Paige look around the small English garden he had created to show prospective clients his work.
It was pretty picturesque sight: a little slice of England in the stone city of Manhattan where yards were scarce unless you were super rich. The small cobblestone pathway, lined with perennial blooms in a variety of colors and textures, lead to a small wooden bridge that crossed over medium-sized pond with a trickling stone fountain. Across the bridge, the path ended at a small wooden gazebo where there were benches to sit.
Minnie had been there several times so the beauty of the little garden was lost on her now. Paige, however, was staring at everything in awe and wonderment. The type of awe that was just perfect for Colton’s emotional ego.
He watched as she bent at the knee and ran little fingers, nails painted red, along the cobbles beneath her feet. Ignoring the flowers around her, Paige hurried forward to the bridge and stopped at the top of the arch. Leaning over the rail she pointed down at the fish, a huge smile on her face. She stood there for a long time, half dangling over the railing, her glasses slipping down her nose, her red hair blowing lightly with the breeze that rushed down the alley. The rustling of the takeout bags was enough to pull Paige from the bridge to the gazebo, which she also admired with bright eyes.
“This is the prettiest garden in the whole world!” Paige exclaimed as she shrugged out of her book bag and let it fall behind her ankles with a heavy thunk. “It’s like—from a movie!”
Colton felt a swell of pride pulse through him. He was quite happy with this little garden; it was a small little taste of his potential and was quite the selling point for most clients.
Colton was proud of his work, especially the gazebo, which he had built himself. He had drawn in hundreds of clients with the gazebo alone.
“We picked up tacos,” Minnie said as she flipped her duo-toned hair behind her shoulder.
Colton never understood Minnie’s hair, blond on the top, black on the bottom, like a modern skunk that somehow managed to look fashionable. Their mother didn’t understand it either, in fact, Claire Philips hated it; probably a reason for Minnie to keep it that way Colton decided. He watched as Paige checked the tops cup lids carefully before easing one of the larger 32oz cups from its cradle. She walked across the gazebo and handed it to him with a soft, shy smile. He smiled back and said thank you.
Paige nodded at the same time her cheeks flared with blood, Colton smiled and looked back at Minnie who was approaching him with a small handful of tacos wrapped in white paper. Paige helped herself to tacos from the bag and then sat down. She spread a napkin daintily over her khaki skirt-shorts. As she began to unwrap one taco, an odd frown appeared on her face.
“I didn’t think the taco shack looked very sanitary, but Minnie said that you both eat them all the time,” Paige said as she grabbed a handful of napkins and the smaller drink from the holder. “I was concerned that perhaps after spending years getting lunch there that your stomach is used to putrid meat. I’m a little more concerned about my own gastrointestinal issues. Zoe only takes me to Taco Bell, but I suppose life is about taking risks, right?”
Colton moved his gaze to his sister and shot her a questioning look. Was the kid for real?
She looked so young and yet spoke better than he did most of the time. And all that hair—that big red frizz of hair that surrounded her little, delicate face, making her look just a tad clownish, but kept her seemingly innocent.
Minnie handed him a few Tabasco packets and then sat down on the same bench Paige was on and crossed her legs. She was far less dainty than Paige. She didn’t use a napkin across her lap and she didn’t pick off the lettuce and cheese that flew out of her wrapper and dotted her pants.
“Colton, do you remember my friend Zoe?” she asked as she shook the contents of a hot sauce packet down before tearing the corner off with her teeth. The red sauce squirted into her taco and immediately began dripping out of the end as Minnie took a huge bite.
“Zoe?” Colton asked.
“Zoe Rayne,” Minnie nodded and glanced at him. He felt like she was staring at him funny, like he was expected to say something specific about Zoe, a girl who he had heard about frequently but couldn’t remember meeting. “Do you remember when she came by the shop with me—you were still dating the whore at the time, but it was probably a year and a half ago.”
Colton felt himself bristle at Minnie’s words. Cara was a lot of things, but she wasn’t a whore. He glanced at Paige to see if she was shocked by Minnie’s language—she wasn’t.
The girl was staring at him in the same way Minnie was, with curiosity and maybe a little insistence and hope. Hope for what, he had no clue. Looking away, Colton sunk his teeth into the crispy shell and stared at his taco. He should have washed his hands first, he realized after noticing the fine layer of dirt on his fingers and under his nails.
“Um… I’m not sure, can you describe her?”
“Beautiful,” Paige said quickly.
“Smart,” Minnie added.
“She’s got really nice hair and eyes,” Paige continued. “She dresses nice.” Minnie nodded in agreement, “She’s taller than me by a few inches, nice skin, great personality—”
&nb
sp; Did that mean she was ugly, Colton wondered. He thought hard, scrambled his memories for a girl named Zoe who he’d met officially a year and a half ago.
“Was she sort of—” Colton’s voice trailed off. He didn’t want to say fat per say, because she wasn’t really, if he was remembering the right person, but definitely bigger than average. He did remember her a little, mostly because Minnie rarely brought friends by to meet her family—probably because the Minerva thing would probably slip out.
“Sort of…” Minnie prompted bringing Colton back to the present.
“I don’t know—round?” He asked quietly.
“Oh no!” Paige said so drastically you’d think her dog had been killed. She looked completely drained and rather sad. She stared at her taco as if it were a foreign object that gave her much pain and then looked at Minnie. In a whimpering voice, she said, “This isn’t going to work after all.”
“Shh,” Minnie hissed.
“What’s not going to work?” Colton asked quickly.
He felt like an asshole for some reason, probably because Paige was on the verge of tears and had started to sniffle and murmur about things not being fair and that everyone was superficial. That, Colton took slight offense too because he wasn’t superficial, he was just describing a girl that he met eighteen months ago, and she had been—round.
He thought hard, hoping for another memory of the girl to show Paige that he wasn’t just focusing on her "round" physical appearance. The more he thought about it, the more he started to remember.
“Was she the girl who knocked over a hundred dollar arrangement of tropical flowers?” He asked. He remembered that suddenly because Cara had been furious and, until she learned that the girl was Minnie’s friend, demanded that the flowers be paid for. Colton remembered calming Cara down and he also remembered how embarrassed Zoe had been—on the verge of tears, if he remembered right. He had given her a flower in hope that it would stop the tears. It had only made them worse.
“Yes, that’s her!” Minnie said with excitement. “Well, Paige here is Zoe’s Little Sister.”
“Oh,” Colton really felt like a jerk suddenly. He didn’t mean “round” in a negative way, it was just an adjective, but obviously Paige didn’t see it that way. She kept her head down and nibbled on her taco; she refused to look at him again. “I don’t remember Zoe having red hair.”
“She’s my Big Sister,” Paige said as she visibly shook herself and maybe the sadness away. She lifted her blue eyes to look at him and sipped from the straw in her cup. After a few seconds she set it down and pushed her glasses back up her nose. “You know, like the Big Sister Littler Sister program—or the Big Brother Little Brother program—heard about it?”
“Oh sure, of course!” Colton nodded. He gestured back and for the between them. “You two are just spending the day together?”
“Yeah, Minnie picked me up from school for lunch,” Paige said. “I sometimes go with her to the court house after school, usually on Mondays and Fridays. I get to see lawyers in action and look at criminals. It’s pretty fun.”
“That’s awesome,” Colton said genuinely. He would have never pictured Minnie hanging with a kid she was more that two-times older, but they made a unique paring. “And you both decided to come visit me during lunch?”
“I like flowers,” Paige said simply. She suddenly flipped the conversation completely, leaving no out for Colton to grab onto. “So… do you have a girlfriend?” Colton glanced at Minnie who took that time to stare at her taco meat curiously. He quickly finished off his first taco and started unwrapping the second one. Instead of answering Paige, he shook his head no. She followed up her question by asking if he was dating anyone, and when he said no she asked if he wanted to date someone.
The sudden interest in his personal life made him feel uncomfortable. Colton had to think fast because he felt some type of trap being set. Maybe Paige was just a curios creature, he thought, or maybe there was something going on that he was missing. There had to be something that he wasn’t catching on to, because Minnie never brought him lunch. Sure they’d meet at the taco stand a few blocks away, but he’d end up buying her lunch. In fact, Minnie said a few months ago that she wouldn’t set foot in his store until he got rid of Cara’s floral design shop, and yet here she sat.
Minnie brought him lunch, she brought along a little red head that he assumed no one could say no to, and she was acting a little too innocent.
He sat up straight and sighed, “Alright, Minnie, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she answered causally. “You always buy me lunch so I thought I’d do that same for you. That’s all.” Colton didn’t miss Paige’s momentary look of confusion at Minnie’s words. And he didn’t miss the look that Minnie gave Paige; a look that prompted her to repeat her last question about dating.
Confusion gone, Paige began hounding him again. “So, do you want to date someone?”
“Are you asking me out?” Colton teased. Paige’s cheeks and neck turned red as she laughed and shook her head no. She unwrapped another taco and used her finger to examine the meat that had fallen out.
“I would though, if I was older,” she said shyly. “I think you should date—it’s really sad that your old fiancée left you, but there are loads of fish in the sea.” Colton lowered the taco he was holding and looked at his sister incredulously.
This was a new low. He knew that his family talked about his love life all the time. His mother was gently encouraging, his father didn’t say too much about it other than he needed to get back into the saddle, and his kid brother Preston, who was unbelievable direct and slightly unfeeling, was the worst. Preston was always on him about going out with other women—he even sent some of his girl friends over to the shop to flirt. Colton could admit that the girls were unbelievably sexy and he had failed temptation more than once, only to feel guilty about it later. And Minnie was direct and to the point. Colton would have never expected her to talk with kids about his issues. Not that he had issues.
“Look, Colt,” Minnie sighed. “I need your help—a friend of ours,” she gestured to Paige
“needs your help.”
“My help with what?” He asked setting the taco he was holding down.
Minnie put down her food as well and Paige mimicked her. Both turned to face him fully, and in perfect unison they re-crossed their legs and sat up a little straighter. Colton had seen this move by Minnie before—a negotiation stance he would call it. Minnie did the same thing with their father a few years ago when she convinced him to loan her five grand for a car.
“With Zoe,” Paige said sweetly.
“What does she need my help for? Does she need some landscaping done? I can do it at the family discount rate, but nothing’s done for free.”
“She doesn’t need plant landscaping,” Minnie said.
“She needs man landscaping,” Paige retorted.
Minnie held out her hand and Paige gave her a high five. Then very seriously—so serious it was actually quite charming—Paige held out her hands and looked at him with earnest eyes. “Can I be frank with you, Colton?”
Grabbing his drink, Colton began sucking down Dr. Pepper. He nodded to Paige and kept his eyes focused on her because if he looked at Minnie he thought he might explode with anger.
“Minnie and I would like for you to become a starter boyfriend for Zoe,” Paige told him.
She ignored the fact that Colton started to choke and the sign of Dr. Pepper coming out of his nose as result. She even ignored the loud honking blows that he made into a handful of napkins. “She’s never dated anyone before and feels pretty clueless about men. So we thought that it would be great to find someone to show her the ropes.” Rubbing his burning nose, Colton turned to Minnie. “Is she serious?”
“Yes,” Minnie answered. “We’re not asking you to do anything that would make you uncomfortable—you should consider this an extended blind date, only you won’t be blind, Zoe will. And we’re not a
sking you to invest more of your whore-tainted heart—no falling in love required, although it would do you some good.”
“Don’t talk about his heart like that Minnie,” Paige whispered firmly, her face splashed with horror and outrage. She lowered her voice even more when she noticed Colton watching her again. “You’d be broken hearted too… even with all that bravado you put on you’d be really sad.”
Colton smiled at Paige’s keen eye and noticed that Minnie almost looked abashed and put in her place. He continued to smile until he heard the rest of Paige’s comment: “You’d be especially sad if you were left to face so many disappointed people at your wedding!” Paige folded her hands on her knees again, turned to him, and smiled sympathetically. It was as if she had been watching too many TV shows with psychiatrists in them, or maybe the kid saw someone herself and was mimicking what she knew first hand. She was doing a damn good job in Colton’s opinion—he felt like he was sitting with two therapists picking unnecessarily at his flesh.
“I think that you would benefit from this arrangement too,” Paige said encouragingly.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to think about someone other than your ex-fiancée from time to time?”
He opened his mouth to retort, but Paige hurried on: “And Zoe is an excellent friend—I think that you’d actually get more out of it than she would. Don’t you agree?” She asked Minnie who nodded quickly while unwrapping her third taco.
“Look, Colt,” Minnie said quickly. “All we’re asking is for you to take Zoe out a few times. Show her some genuine interest. Show her what to look for in a good boyfriend.
Give her tips that will help ease her worry about dating. You’re not required to get physical and you don’t even have to kiss her.”
“And she’s not round anymore either,” Paige added quickly. The look she gave him briefly was one of disgust. Under her breath she muttered something about all boys being the same.
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