If he thought I was intimidated by him or that I was about to just back away because of the unspoken threat in his tone, he was very, very wrong. The malice seeping out of him rolled right off me as I curved my lips into a smirk. “I’m the new bookkeeper for the Watering Can and this delivery is only half of what we wanted.”
“Yeah, well. Nothing we can do about it. Like I said. My schedule is full for the rest of the week. You can sort it out with my office and I’ll be back next week.”
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough.” I cracked my neck and moved closer to the man, my smirk growing when he took a step back and paled a little. “We’re going to need you to sort things out with your own office and fix your own mistakes. We’re also going to need those flowers to be delivered tomorrow at the latest.”
He started to protest, but I held up a finger and locked my gaze on his. “I don’t give a fuck about your schedule. Move things around, go into work early, or stay late tomorrow to get it done. Ask another driver if you have to. I really don’t care what it takes, only that it gets done. If it doesn’t, not only will we be moving our business elsewhere, but I’ll also make a few calls that I guarantee will be detrimental to your job security and to your employer’s bottom line.”
He sputtered with indignation, but when he looked at me for long enough to realize I wasn’t joking and the threat was very real, he reared back and nodded. “I’ll have double what you ordered tomorrow.”
The beautiful woman next to me sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s really not necessary to double it. Just what I ordered will be fine.”
“We’ll expect double the order by this time tomorrow, not a minute later,” I said. “And without any extra charge. You fucked this up, so you’re going to fix it and make up for it all at the same time.”
The driver kept nodding and raced back to his truck as fast as his bulky body could move when I inclined my head toward the vehicle.
I shook my head at the coward who’d given in a hell of a lot easier and faster than I’d expected, and a chuckle escaped me. That had been fun.
A pair of cerulean, Caribbean-sea blue eyes latched onto mine the next second.
Right. The woman. The owner or manager or whatever.
She really was beautiful. As I’d rounded the corner to see if I could find another entrance to the locked shop Peter had sent me to, it had been her that had caught my eye.
Coming closer to ask if she knew about another entrance or when the shop would reopen, because I sure as fuck wasn’t coming back here if I could help it, I’d heard her pleading with the driver.
I raised an eyebrow at her now, shifting on my feet so I was facing her fully. “You have to learn to stand up for your company. I’m assuming you own the flower shop?”
She nodded, those eyes never leaving mine. They were wide and clear, open and honest.
Tendrils of pitch-black hair that had escaped the messy, windblown bun on top of her head framed her heart-shaped face, her skin pale and porcelain smooth. Her lips were bare but deliciously red.
If fact, she was like the living embodiment of that princess from the kids’ movie, the stupid one who ate the apple her stepmother gave her. I couldn’t remember the name of it since I didn’t make a habit of reading or watching fucking fairy tales, but it was one of those ones everyone knew about. Snow White maybe?
Giving myself a mental shake because it didn’t fucking matter anyway, I snapped back to reality just as she opened her mouth. “I do own the Watering Can, yes. Thank you for your help, but it really wasn’t necessary.”
“It wasn’t?” I very nearly started laughing. The only reason why I didn’t was that I could respect that she wanted to take care of business herself. “Look, there are a lot of bad businesses out there that will take advantage of you. That guy caved in less than three minutes and now you’ll have your delivery tomorrow instead of next week. Surely, that’s worth accepting just a little bit of help.”
She blew out a heavy breath, searching my eyes for something she must have found because she nodded after a few seconds. “I guess so. Anyway, assuming you’re not just some businessman on the prowl for spontaneous threats and negotiations, how can I help you?”
Her witty comeback surprised me and I chuckled as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “The shop was locked and I need your help with a wedding.”
“Now that, I can do,” she said, dipping her head in the direction of the building. “Come in through the back with me. You’ll have to excuse the mess there, but making you walk all the way around to the front door seems unnecessary since you just helped me.”
“It was no big deal.” I fell into step beside her and watched her unlock the door with an ancient-looking brass key. “I deal with people like that all the time. You’d be surprised what people would do if you threaten to take your business away from them.”
“You also threatened to ‘make a few calls.’” She put air quotes around the last part of the sentence and rolled her eyes, but a smile played at the edges of her mouth. “I can’t do that. The only calls I’d be able to make would have been to complain to customer service, if they even have that, which I doubt. It wouldn’t have done them any real damage.”
“But he didn’t know that,” I pointed out as the door swung open and she led the way inside.
Black plastic buckets in a variety of sizes littered the floor of the back room, along with random leaves and stems lying around a table I assumed she used for making arrangements.
The walls were lined with rickety wooden shelving holding different-shaped vases, green sponges, and a whole host of other things. It smelled vaguely musty beneath the sweet floral scent drifting in from the main area, like it had been damp for years and nothing could clear the smell out completely.
It wasn’t altogether unpleasant. It was earthy and familiar, just not something I’d caught a whiff of in a long-ass time.
“So,” she said as we made our way into the shop. “What kind of help do you need for this wedding?”
I lifted my phone and tapped my passcode into it, drawing up the pictures Jenny had sent as I joined the woman at her counter. She set down the purse that had been slung over her shoulder beneath it and then leaned over to peer at my screen.
Her nose wrinkled. “Darn. I don’t have any of that in stock right now. I’ve ordered it, but it was part of the shipment that wasn’t delivered today. Speaking of which, I’d better go grab the plants that were delivered. Give me a minute.”
She dashed away before I could offer to help, but I figured she’d turn me down anyway. The last thing I needed was to piss off the florist Jenny and Peter wanted to use and I was ninety percent certain that if I interfered with her business again today, that was exactly what would happen.
Besides, I’d seen carts back there. With the small amount of plants that had been delivered, it would take her two trips with one of those at most to get everything into the shop.
Deciding to use the time to get caught up on some business of my own, I scrolled through my emails and had only replied to three when she came back inside. Her cheeks were slightly rosier, but she hadn’t so much as broken a sweat.