Darkness

2. Autumn-Rose

Two

Autumn-Rose

Standing outside my flower shop–Sweet Rose—, I feel a sense of accomplishment. This was something I always wanted, but never had time because of my love for figure skating. I was in competitions, winning every single one of them. The ice rink was a place I loved being in. I still do. But I had to stop. I had to change everything about myself. All because of him.

To get far away from him, I left home and moved. Not just a city, or a town, I moved across the pond to America. All my family and friends are still in England. My parents are the ones who said I needed to leave because he wouldn’t stop coming after me. It's one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. When I first got here, I’d keep looking over my shoulder to see if he was here. Sometimes I still do. I don’t think I’ll ever stop. I have more than one lock on my door, I’ve got cameras looking at my apartment twenty-four seven. It’s been a year since I left England, and I don’t live with the same fear as I did when I first moved here. It’s even starting to feel a little like home.

I know it’s not home, but I’m hoping one day it will be safe enough for me to go back If I’m lucky.

Opening the door to my flat, I stop in my tracks. How the fuck did he get in here? Looking at all the flowers scattered around the living room and kitchen. Why didn’t my alarm go off? They’re supposed to keep me safe.

“You look stunning today?” My body tenses up hearing his voice. My heart beats faster, if I could run I would, but he would just find me. My hand grips tight around my bag strap as I slowly turn around.

I face him, the man who made my life a living hell for five years. My heart is pounding hard, I can feel it through my chest. He’s never hurt me, but the man scares me. How can you hide from the police? There is no way. “Do you like the flowers?”

“You need to leave?” I tell him, trying to open the door for him to leave, but he slams his hand to stop me.

“Or what? You’ll call the police?” He jokes, there is no point in calling the police when he owns the police force. He’s the head of the department, he’s the fucking commissioner. So, who will take me seriously? “Do you remember the first time we met?” he asks.

He always asks me the same question and I give him the same answer. “No.” I have no idea when we crossed paths, I’ve never seen him at the ice rink where I spend most of my time, or the coffee shop I go to every morning. My parents said they’ve never seen him before, so where did he see me for the first time?

“I do. You looked stunning. I knew I wanted you.” He tries to take a step forward, but I try to shut the door again. “Autumn, if you can just give me a-”

“I did, and you are-”

“What am I?” He demands.

When he first asked me out, I thought he was a nice guy. He’s a police officer, but I was wrong. From the beginning he was intimidating and knew things about me which he shouldn’t know, so he must have looked up. It was then that I knew he had been watching me.

“Autumn,” I smile as Katy pulls me away from the past. “Any ideas for the window display?” She stands next to me as I look at the front of the shop.

“I have a few, not sure which one to go with though.” I walk back inside, thinking back on how much time I spent making this into the perfect flower shop. I had the vision in my head for a long time. It just took time to finally get my vision out there and I love it. “What color will we go with?” I ask.

Every season I have one color theme at the front of the shop. Spring is about to start, so I need some fun spring vibes right now.

“Well, it’s spring.” Katy says, mirroring my thoughts. I smile as we are so in tune with each other. “You need sunflowers, so yellow.” Katy walks around the counter and grabs a notepad to make notes. Once we get busy, we will forget what we talked about, so it’s better to be written down.

Looking around the shop, I assess all the colors to see what will look best with yellow. “Purple, peonies would look nice.” I talk to Katy as she writes it down. I take a couple ready to see how they match. “What do you think about adding roses?” I pick up a few of those too, already getting a picture in my head. I smile at the fresh roses we got today. Roses have always been my favorite flower. Even after everything that happened in England, I still believe in love, in the beauty of the flower, they always give me romance vibes. Maybe one day I will find love without the crazy stalker part.

“Your Prince Charming will come, and your British accent will hook them in.” Katy takes the rose from me and smells it before giving it back to me. “You know, though, to find Prince Charming, you have to leave the shop and the ice rink. Unless, he’s a skater who loves roses.” She jokes, which makes me nudge her a little as I walk past her.

“I do other things, too. I teach.” Giving up skating is something I don’t want. It’s all I ever wanted to do since I was little. Just because I had to leave my dream behind doesn’t mean I can’t help another little girl live it in my place. There is a little girl I see three times a week,it will take some work to get her to competition level, but she is strong and I know she will get there.

“You need to come out with us. “ Katy says. It’s not the first time she’s asked me. “We’re going to a club tomorrow night for my friend’s birthday. You’re coming.” Turning around to face her, she smiles and puts her hand up, stopping me from talking. “And before you say no, I’ve already said yes. Come on, it will be fun.”

Rolling my eyes, I grab my bag. I need to get out of here before she talks me into it. Hopefully she’s forgotten about it by the time I get back. “I’m getting coffee and need something sweet. Do you want anything?” I ask her as I say hello to the customer walking into the shop.

“Coffee and a cupcake,” Katy says as she turns back to the customer, and I make my way over to the bakery.

Four of Hearts Bakery is only three shops down from my flower shop, and if I’m honest, they have the best white chocolate brownies I think I’ve ever had in my life.

I love the summer weather, something about it always makes me smile. Everyone is always happier, the birds sing more, and the flowers all smell amazing. What’s not to love?

Walking into the busy bakery, I get in line and smile at the guy behind the counter. It’s the same guy I seem to always have, I still don’t know his name because he never puts his name badge on. The rest of the staff wear their names with pride.

“Hot water with a tea bag, milk on the side, and no sugar, until you want to add it.” He smiles at me. I have no idea how anyone drinks tea here. The tea bag, milk and sugar all go in together. No! That can not happen. That’s not how you should make tea. The tea bag has to be in the hot water for at least five minutes.

“Yes please, can I also have one coffee, and a cupcake - you can pick one for Katy, and for me-” I look to see which treat I’d like today. “-The white chocolate blondie please.” I smile as he watches me, giving him my order.

“How many bruises did you get by the end of the day?” He jokes with me. “I say, four.” I can’t help but burst out laughing. A couple of weeks ago, I came in with a bruise on my arm. It looked bad, and he thought someone was hurting me. Before he could call the police, as he was worried about me, I had to show him all the other bruises I had on me, and explain how they all happened. I bruise like a fucking peach. I can knock into something, and a bruise will appear within seconds. The bruise on my arm was from walking into the door, yes I’m that clumsy. I’ve been living in my apartment for just over a year, and still walk into things.

“Two, I was careful yesterday.” Taking the box with our sweet treats inside, I grab our drinks from him and say, “but the day has just started, so we’ll see tomorrow.” Thanking him for my order, I make my way to the door.

“I’m going with three.” I go back to him, and tell him I already have two from this morning, which gets a laugh from him.

Walking back into the Sweet Rose with our treats, I place them on the counter for us.

My mind wanders to the window display and how I need to finalize it soon. The only thing is that I’m not getting the picture in my head, at the moment. I guess it’s time to spend the day scrolling Pinterest and hope something grabs my attention. The best idea I have at the moment is to have a wall with wine glasses hanging off it, with some flowers in them. It’s something I hope a bride would want for her special day as a seating plan. All I need to do is find some nice wine glasses, which make a statement and customers will stop to look at the window.?

“I do have this single friend—” Katy starts the second I walk through the door. “—e’s tall, has blonde hair, he works at the bank-”

“Katy, are you talking about your brother’s best friend?” I ask, hoping it’s not him. I believe he’s slept with half the women in this town from the stories I’ve heard about him. From her.

“Fine, not him. How about-”

“How about we not talk about my love life and find you a man instead?” I cut her off and hand her cupcake and coffee.

I can see today is going to be a day of matchmaking and not creating a beautiful spring window display.

You never know, she might talk about a man who is worth me investing my time in.