Page 52 of Ruthless Contract
“I only have one thing left to prepare. And that’s the floral arch, which will be ready in the morning. I’ll go to the venue when it’s delivered to make sure everything is set up right, and I’ll be back here by noon to work the register while you assist a client with her wedding details. I’ve even added a vase of our pink roses for our mother-to-be’s display table. On the house, of course, since she placed such a big order of floral items from us.”
How sweet! Hearing that, no one would suspect that Ivy was actually called the Poison Princess by many.
“Thanks, Ivy. That was thoughtful of you.”
“I know, right. I know how to do more than just hack and kill. But I prefer those things over flowery stuff.”
I used to think the same way. These days, I preferred the flowery stuff over those things. Well, the hacking part was still fun. The killing... only when I had to.
“I know I’ve been working you like crazy this week. But we needed the help,” I told Ivy.
“I know. And I don’t mind helping out with the floral part. I really don’t. But don’t you think it’s about time you let Kelly return to working the store?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it, returning my gaze to my flowers.
“She does work in the store,” I said. After a moment, I added, “When we’re busy.”
“I mean alone. When are you going to let her work alone again?”
If she worked alone, she’d have to handle more than just the floral duties. And... she wasn’t ready for that. Yet.
“She looked so happy to be in the store with all of us this past week. But you should’ve seen her face whenever a Petal needed help, and you called on Dayana or me to handle it. She looked hurt, Blossom.”
“I know,” I muttered, wishing I didn’t know.
But I’d seen her face during those moments. I know she felt guilty about what happened in the past. That didn’t mean she could bypass the consequences just because she felt bad about what she’d done.
And no, the fault didn’t lie solely on her shoulders. Even so, I had to be able to trust her to make the right decisions in stressful situations. I didn’t think I could trust her with that. Not right now. Ivy started to say something else, but her tablet pinged. She glanced down at it.
“We’ve got something. A Petal in New York is having issues with her security clearance,” she told me as she swiped her finger over the screen. “I’ll go take care of this, and we’ll continue talking about Kelly later.”
“Alright. Holler if you need my help,” I told her.
“I got this. I need this to distract me from the boredom of the shop. You could at least call Kelly in to work the register while I help out a Petal.”
With that said, Ivy left to handle hacker activities that would allow one of our Petals to finish her job. As for me, I remained in the garden, wondering whether I should really give Kelly a call.
Other than helping out this past week, she hadn’t been scheduled much since the incident. I knew Kelly was good at her job. She was smart, organized, and able to catch details others missed or overlooked.
The problem was that Kelly cared too much about keeping the peace. She hated conflict. Hated disappointing people. Hated telling someone no. We’d all fucked up before. We were human. We made mistakes.
But her mistake could've been avoided if she'd spoken up. If she'd trusted her instincts and stood her ground. Even as I thought that, I knew it wasn't fair to her. I hadn't been in her position that day.
I hadn't been the one forced to make that decision. And if I was being honest, I wasn't just angry at Kelly. I was angry at myself for not being there when she needed me. Maybe that was the crux of the matter.
I blamed myself.
But I was doing everything I could think of to make sure no one found out about what happened. And doing that only made the guilt heavier. I could only imagine what Kelly was going through.
She probably thought I was treating her like she was a criminal. I mean, we were all criminals. But I was treating her like a supervillain or something. This had to stop. I’d already made sure no one would connect us to what happened.
It was time for me to give Kelly another chance. I slid my shears in the pocket of my apron and headed toward the back door of the shop. I’d just reached the door when Ivy came rushing out.
“Blossom!”
The panic in her voice alarmed me.
“What is it? Is something wrong in New York?”
