Chapter 2

The man nodded and followed her inside, leaving behind a trail of coffee stained pavement.

Ace Hudson watched as the woman who reminds him of his cousin’s hamster scurried to led him to the back. His eyes roamed the interior of the warmly decorated store.

The scent of blooming flowers and potting soil drifted toward him; the shop smelled like a garden, sweet and full of life. The wall was painted in warm earth tones, with sunlight streaming through the windows, reflected off ceramic pots full of plants.

A row of roses in a dazzling array of colors decorated the walls; one was white, another pink, another yellow, and so on. The sight took him back to his childhood, when he had played under rose bushes with his cousin at their garden back in the old family mansion. There were roses everywhere in their yard then.

“It’s still a little early before the shop is open,” Petal explained, guiding the man to the back, heading straight to the private staff room, “I’ll get you a towel and a change of clothing.”

When they’re inside the staff room, Petal went over to the cupboard, grabbing a towel and a spared tshirt handing it to Ace.

“Here, um… the tshirt is clean,” Petal said, “I’ll leave you to it.”

She said, grabbing an apron before she headed out.

Ace eyed Petal for a moment, before he uttered: “Thanks, I’m Ace, by the way.”

Petal responded him with a soft smile, “Petal,” then she exited the room, giving Ace space to get change.

He took a moment to dry off with the towel and swapped his clothes. He had to admit this was a lot better than his previous drenched clothes.

When he came out, the shop was empty. His eyes couldn’t help but wandered off to the roses again.

“They are beautiful right? We have cards in front of the roses with their meanings written on it for customers to see,” Petal came back with an ice pack.

Looking towards where Petal said, Ace saw little white cards with swirly golden font printed on it.

Petal handed him the ice pack, pointing to her cheek, “Your cheek is a little swollen.”

Ace touched his cheek and hissed, he didn’t even realized how hard that woman slapped him.

Taking the ice pack, he put it on his cheeks.

“Thanks, I will take my leave.” He said, placing a stack of cash on the counter.

Petal stared at the money that Ace put on the counter, her eyes were full of sparkles. Gulping, Petal shifted her eyes from the cash to Ace’s face and back again.

It was obvious to Ace that Petal desired wealth, probably just like all the other gold diggers that approached him because of his fortune and good looks. It was all people ever wanted from him. All men and women were the same, some revealed their greed honestly, while some hide behind an innocent facade.

Ace watched her with a smirk on his face, trying to read her expression. All of them are the same: greedy and selfish.

This hamster should be just the sa-

“Wait,” Petal said.

Before Ace could really process what’s going on, Petal was like a whirlwind, stuffing his face with a huge bouquet of roses, giving him a couple of printed message card and also a receipt.

“Here, peach rose stands for sincerity. I’m sure you’ll be able to show how sincere you are to your partner with this large bouquet of peach roses!”

The peach roses were bright, their petals so pure and vibrant that they glowed. They were well-arranged. Each of the single stems are twisted and braided together to form a beautiful bouquet.

Petal looked at the man who was staring at the bouquet she hold in her hands, blinking at the flowers with his sharp eyes, his icy eyes widen slightly. Petal pushed the bouquet to him, Ace found himself taking the flowers and was then being escorted to the door.

“Good luck with everything and please come again!” Petal said, in a sing-song voice, looking at him with her sparkling forest green eyes and a bright smile.

Ace stood in front of the cute little flower shop, holding a gigantic eye-catching bouquet of roses.

‘What on earth just happened?’

Looking back at the store through the large window, he saw the girl now standing in front of a beautiful looking man.

She excitedly said something to the man, there were a lot of hand movements going on as well as her expressions kept on changing. Then, she presented the pile of cash to the man and she looked expectantly at the man, her face was clearly saying ‘Please praise me’.

The man chuckled and his eyes soften as he ruffled the girl’s hair. When the girl caught him staring through the window, a huge smile spread across her lovely feature, her smile was wide and full of joy, and her eyes shone like the most precious emerald.

It was just for an instant, but Ace felt like his heart skipped a beat. He nodded to both Petal and Jaidyn before he turned around and left the place quickly, trying to hide the faint blush that slowly crept up his ears for reasons he don’t know.

~

At the end of the day around closing time, Petal asked before she leave after she finished all her tasks, “Jaidyn, can I come a little bit later tomorrow? I’m accompanying Camron to the doctor’s.”

“Oh, sure, no problem,” Jaidyn said, looking up from the cash register, “Is everything okay with Camron?”

“Yes, just a routine checkup,” Petal recalled Camron’s irregular heats and the corner of her lips drooped down.

Seeing Petal’s expression, being as sensitive as Jaidyn knew that she just thought about her brother’s condition.

Jaidyn went over to Petal, putting a hand on her shoulder, “And what about you?”

“Me?” Petal asked, catching on to what Jaidyn was trying to ask her and answered a few seconds later, “I’m still the same, I barely experience any omega symptoms.”

“You still need to be careful though, after all not getting any symptoms doesn’t mean that you’re not an omega,” Jaidyn said.

Jaidyn spoke from experience, the reason that he got pregnant with Ronin was because he took things lightly. That was what made him ended up with a hot and steamy night with…, if it wasn’t for that none of those will happened.

Just one look at Petal, he knew that she wasn’t taking this seriously. She might have nodded at what he said, but her mind had wandered off elsewhere.

That in fact was true, Petal was thinking about Camron’s condition and was nervous about his check up as well as what the doctor will say, even though the appointment wasn’t until tomorrow.