24 - Marianne

"You're working way too hard. How about you give yourself a break and get some rest first?"

I turned around and saw Ryan standing at the entrance door of my flower shop. I smiled and replied, "You know I can’t. Besides, there are lots of orders today. It would be a waste of today’s sales if I don’t move and make the most out of it today.”

Ryan smiled and sat in his favorite spot near the counter. "Where’s Amy?"

"She was sleeping soundly when I left her. I left her with Gio, her new best friend," I replied as I started to arrange the 20th set of flower bouquets on the table.

"He doesn’t have classes today?" Ryan asked further. He rose up to his seat and almost grabbed the basket of flowers I just picked up - an action he had been doing for the past few months whenever he visited my shop.

I quickly retracted the basket from him. “You don’t need to, I can handle this.” I positioned the basket on a separate table nearby. “And, uh, yes. He has planned to play basketball the entire day actu