For someone who plans weddings for a living, you’d think she’d have a lover herself.
Teresa “Terri” Aquino, 24 years old, a renowned wedding planner. Yet, she had never been in a relationship herself. She’d always claim that she was “too busy with work,” or that she “wasn’t ready for that commitment.” In many ways, both of these were technically correct
Despite never being in a relationship herself, Terri somehow knew how to plan the perfect wedding based on how she sees her clients’ relationship. She’s never had an unsatisfied client. Practically everything about Terri was contradictory towards her profession. People frequently perceive her as intimidating and unapproachable, many of her coworkers believing that she was pretty much incapable of showing emotion.
Terri walked through the halls of her company, the clacking of her shoes against the marble flooring echoed across the mostly quiet area. She had her own floor in the building, and her own secretary, Kaia, who was now speed-walking to catch up to Terri. Kaia panted as she slowed down to walk beside Terri, taking a moment to catch her breath before speaking, “Terri, new client. It’s an expensive one.”
Terri glanced over at Kaia, nodding her head. They reached Terri’s office, Kaia rushed forward to open the door for her. As soon as Terri sat down, Kaia continued explaining, “Ysabelle and her fiance Steve. You know? The influencer couple? They plan on spending time around..” Kaia’s voice drowned out in Terri’s head, Terri focusing on the papers in front of her. She knew they were a popular couple on the internet, and she knew they would pay well. She would be stupid to decline them. Scanning the paper, her eyes locked onto a couple of words that were highlighted. It read, “Flowers are important.”
-
Bailey Santos, 25 years old, owner of a small flower shop. She was best friends with the internet’s favorite couple, Ysabelle and Steve. Bailey loved and took care of flowers as if they were her children. She took care of every flower in her shop with precision and gentleness. She knew the meaning of each flower like the back of her hand.
To many people, Bailey was loud and obnoxious. She admittedly got too loud sometimes, and she always felt terrible when people expressed their annoyance at her. Under her extroverted and outgoing personality, Bailey was simply a lonely girl who wanted to love and be loved. Her friends knew she was something of a hopeless romantic. She wanted love above everything else. After all, with how much time she had left, what else could she search for?
A few years ago, Bailey had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and recently, she had been informed that they could not treat it, and she only had a limited time to live, maybe a few months. Bailey lived her life with as much enthusiasm as she could, knowing she could die any day.
Now, wide eyed and agape, Bailey stood behind the counter of her store, staring at a large stack of money. Her eyes darted back up at the couple in front of her, Ysabelle looking at her with a large smile on her face, and Steve standing awkwardly behind her, grinning sheepishly. “Well?” Ysabelle looked at Bailey expectantly, pushing the stack of cash forwards a little, “You gonna accept my offer or not?”
That morning, Ysabelle and Steve had shown up to Bailey’s shop, holding a large sum of money, offering a job to be the florist at their wedding. After a few more seconds of processing, Bailey blinked slowly, taking in a deep breath before answering, “Okay. I’ll do it.” At that, Ysabelle squealed and leaned over the counter to hug Bailey tightly.
Steve was also smiling softly. His smile dropped momentarily as he remembered something. “You’ll have to work with the wedding planner we hired, if that’s okay with you?” Bailey nodded, before Steve spoke up again, “This person can get a little.. strong-headed? Just a heads up.” Bailey nodded again. It couldn’t be that bad.
-
Oh, was she wrong. Bailey huffed, glaring at the woman in front of her. Terri stared back, deadpan. Bailey couldn’t stand Terri any longer. They had been arguing for the last 2 hours about the flower arrangements. Terri had started it, with a claim that the flowers Bailey suggested didn’t match the theme, Bailey shooting back by saying that Terri’s clothes didn’t match each other.
Bailey groaned, tugging on her hair, “Ysabelle trusted me with the flowers for a reason! We could’ve been finished with this way earlier if you would just-” she was cut off when she suddenly broke into a coughing fit. Terri stared blankly, unsure if she should help or not. Bailey recomposed herself and cleared her throat. She muttered something incoherent to herself, looking down at the assortment of blue hydrangeas, baby’s breath, and white hyacinths on her lap, stroking the petals lightly with her fingers.
-
In the next month, Terri and Bailey have spent more time together in preparation for the wedding. Everything else was pretty much completed, but they couldn’t decide on a flower arrangement, needing it to be especially perfect, to the request of Ysabelle. Their arguments had toned down from fights to more professional conversations. They had become friends in the time that they’ve known each other. Despite being practically polar opposites, they definitely connected with each other easily. Terri looked down at the singular stem on her own lap. A forget-me-not.
Terri recalled one of their previous meetings. Bailey had brought a few forget-me-nots, explaining that they were frequently used in a wedding as a symbol of true love. Otherwise, they were associated with remembrance and Alzheimer's. Truth be told, Terri found these flowers perfect, but had told Bailey otherwise. In fact, Terri loved every flower that Bailey brought with her. Even the first arrangement she had come up with was already perfect. Just like her. In Terri’s eyes, Bailey was perfect. Just like all her flowers, her shop, her smile, and her personality.
Terri’s breath hitched as she realized the truth. She was in love.
-
“You’ll marry a nice, rich man when you grow old, won’t you, Teresa?” Terri vividly remembered her mother’s question. That day, she considered love and marriage, and from then until now, Terri believed she could only marry a wealthy man.
Bailey was certainly not rich. They lived in a city, where a flower shop would definitely not be the ideal business to run. She made enough money to feed herself everyday, but she never made huge numbers. Bailey was also certainly not a man.
Pacing back and forth in her office, Terri’s mind was full of Bailey. What would her mother say if she found out Terri loved a woman? A middle class one at that?
Terri had been born into a family of extremely successful businessmen and women. Terri was expected to take over her parents’ company, start her own, or marry into a bigger company and take over there. When Terri found no interest in her parents’ company and the wealthy men her mother set her up with, she started her own company.
Wincing as her hip hit the corner of her desk, Terri stopped pacing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Terri pulled out her phone, opening messages and pressing on Bailey’s contact. She’ll have to tell Bailey when she gets the chance.
-
A few weeks. A few weeks was how long the doctors predicted Bailey had left to live, maybe even shorter. They wanted Bailey to stay hospitalized, but Bailey insisted and fought to be able to stay free-roaming.
Bailey looked up at the afternoon sky. She looked down at her phone, her lockscreen a selfie of her, Terri, Ysabelle, Steven, and even Kaia. Bailey reminisced about the times she partnered with Kaia to bother Terri. It was currently 7:20 P.M. She smiled weakly, unable to cry any longer.
-
“Didn’t expect you to be into this stuff,” Bailey chuckled besides Terri as they walked through the flower garden. Terri glanced to the side, feeling her face burn slightly.
“I’m not,” Terri replied quickly, “I invited you here for.. Uhm.. Inspiration.” Terri frowned when she heard Bailey trying to conceal her laughter from beside her. Bailey spotted a large wall with lots of writing on it. She took Terri’s hand and dragged her over to the wall. The stone had rows and rows of inscriptions, explaining the symbolism of many flowers and their color variations.
Terri looked at Bailey, who was scanning the wall with wide eyes. She herself didn’t care so much about the flowers. Obviously, she was mostly lying when she said she asked Bailey to come with her for inspiration. Terri took in Bailey’s features. She had a tiny mole on her left cheek, her natural eyelashes were a little longer than average, and the bangs of her short wolf-cut covered her eyes slightly. She also noticed that the bags under Bailey’s eyes were significantly deeper, and she seemed much more skinny than usual. Bailey coughed lightly, covering her mouth. Terri reached her hand out and tucked a bit of Bailey’s hair back behind her ear.
Bailey snapped out of her daze and looked at Terri, her face dusted a light pink. They stared at each other, the silence tense. Terri cleared her throat after a few moments, muttering, “I.. Let’s go.” Bailey blinked quickly a few times and nodded.
-
As the hours passed, their conversations strayed farther from the topic of flowers and more towards their personal lives. They had left the flower garden a few hours ago, and it was dark as they walked along the sidewalk, talking. Well, Bailey was the one doing the talking, but Terri glanced over fondly every now and then, and made comments to show she was listening.
Confessing was difficult, most people would say. If you liked a person, you wouldn’t want to risk it all by confessing and potentially ruining your relationship with that person, wouldn’t you? Terri had never felt this way towards anyone before, so she couldn’t tell you. But now, she could see what people meant by that. As she listened to Bailey ramble, she thought about how Bailey might react if Terri were to tell her how she felt. All Terri knew was that she didn’t want to lose Bailey, even if it meant she would never tell Bailey how she felt. Was this what it was like to be in love? She didn’t like it.
Bailey was pointing and laughing at the name of a store they were about to pass when she stopped, clutching her hand to her chest, coughing violently. Terri placed a hand on Bailey’s back, her eyes widening. Terri could see Bailey beginning to cough up red droplets, her coughing still not ceasing.
Heart racing, Terri quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket, her hands sweaty. She dialed 911 as she led Bailey to a nearby bench. Bailey’s coughs seemed to get weaker, but so was she. Terri quickly explained the situation to the operator, thanking the woman when she said help was on the way.
The wait for the paramedics was excruciating. Terri had to listen to Bailey’s weak groans and coughs, her eyes drooping. Terri tried her hardest to keep Bailey awake, frantically saying anything she could to keep Bailey’s attention on her. Beads of sweat trickled down Terri’s neck, and she breathed out a sigh of relief when she heard the sirens of an ambulance.
Moments later, Terri stared off at the back of an ambulance as it drove away, narrowing her eyes at the flashing red lights. Three words rang in her head the rest of the night. “Please be okay.”
-
Terri stared down at Bailey, the formerly glowing and bright woman now draped in a hospital gown, pale with sickness and thinner than ever. The white walls of the hospital room were blinding. Terri’s mind was overflowing with thoughts. “Are you going to leave me? Please don’t leave me.” She could almost hear Bailey’s response, her laugh echoing in Terri’s head like a distant memory, “Don’t be silly, I always get back up.” It had only been days, but to Terri, it felt like months.
Months. Months since Terri had seen Bailey’s optimistic and comforting eyes. Months since Terri heard Bailey ranting about the meanings of different flowers and how to take care of them. Bailey was the light in Terri’s life. Terri wasn’t one to cry, but now, she felt like crying a whole ocean. But nothing came out.
The long beep of the heart rate monitor broke the deafening silence of the hospital room. The tears that glossed Terri’s eyes obscured her view of the straight line that displayed on the monitor. One of her tears fell and landed on Bailey’s cheek, nurses rushing in, one asking Terri to leave. Terri stumbled out of the hospital room, sitting on one of the chairs. She could hear the faint voice of a nurse from inside the room, “..Time of death, 7:20 P.M.”
“Why did you leave me?”
-
Terri stood in her office, staring out the unnecessarily large window that took up the entire wall. Ysabelle’s wedding was postponed, but Terri had finished the planning, deciding to use the first flower arrangement Bailey had suggested. Bailey’s funeral happened a few days ago, Terri providing most of the funding.
The night Bailey was hospitalized, Terri learned that Bailey had lung cancer. Terri visited her everyday, trying to talk to Bailey as much as she did. Bailey could only respond with a few words and a smile. Everyday, Terri had brought her a different flower, remembering the meanings of each of them. On the last day, coincidentally, Terri had brought a forget-me-not. Terri glanced over to her desk, where a small vase inhabited a singular, wilting flower. That exact same flower.
Looking out the window again, Terri spoke to herself, her voice quivering, “Don’t worry, Bailey. I’ll never forget you.” She unlatched the singular window panel in the wall that could open, feeling the breeze from the highest floor in the building. Terri took a deep breath.
She jumped.
-
“Terri, do you really not like the flowers I suggested? I feel like I’ve told you about every flower you could use for a wedding at this point.” Bailey pouted. She saw Terri look away, a hint of shyness in her eyes. Bailey hid her smile. She could tell Terri liked her. She wanted to tell Terri she liked her too, but she knew that wasn’t possible.
Bailey had never been more energetic to wake up every morning since she met Terri. Despite their arguments, Terri always made Bailey’s days better. Before Terri, Bailey lived her days only waiting for death to grab her. Now, she had something to look forward to.
But Bailey knew it wouldn’t last long. Her cancer was getting worse, and she knew she didn’t have much more time left. She looked at the flower in her hand, a forget-me-not, and took an empty glass cup from Terri’s desk and filled it with water from her water bottle, delicately placing the flower inside.
Inside Bailey’s head, she thought to herself, “Terri, never forget me.” She looked at the mentioned woman, who was rummaging through her papers, “I’m sorry that I have to leave you.” A stray tear rolled down Bailey’s cheek, but she quickly wiped it away before the other could notice. “I love you, too.”