Beauty and the Botanist

Beauty and the Botanist

Vidal’s Florals sat wedged between two other shop spaces for the entirety of Rio’s life. It had first been her great-grandparents’ shop, where they sold all the flowers they grew in their own garden. Rio’s abuela had grown up there, the eldest of six siblings all packed into their tiny, three-bedroom home in Westview, New Jersey. She grew up toddling around the cramped space, learning which flowers she could touch and which ones had thorns on their stems that might ‘bite’ her (as bisabuela used to tease when Rio was just a little girl) and which flowers needed sunlight and which needed shade.

She passed that knowledge on to her son, Victor, who in turn passed it on to Rio when she was just a baby, barely walking when he started taking her into his parents’ floral shop. He would just scoop her up in his arms and carry her around the shop with him, showing her all the different flowers and spouting off facts about what they needed to eat and how often she needed to water them and what their scientific names were.

It came then as no surprise that Rio was a verbose child in school.

She enjoyed learning immensely. And she enjoyed sharing her knowledge with the other kids in her class. And her teachers. And pretty much anybody who would listen, actually.

At one point, she thought it might be fun to be a teacher. She was good at science stuff – especially earth science and biology – and her parents encouraged her to do whatever she wanted in life. The florist shop was their family business, sure, but it was definitely something they could handle until their own retirement, they said. Rio could take it over when she had a family of her own, they said. She had plenty of time, they said.

When Rio was in her last year of college at Columbia, she got a call from her abuela, asking her to come home as soon as she could. Rio took the bus in the same day, practically running straight to her abuela’s home to find out that her parents had been in an accident.

Her mother had not survived. Her father was in a vegetative state, unable to move or care for himself, let alone a busy florist shop.

“I can take over the shop,” Rio had said after her abuela had talked about going back to work after only a few years of retirement.

Abuela had tutted at her, shaking her head. “No,” she said. “You get your degree. Get an education. I will handle the shop.”

“Then I’m going to help you,” Rio insisted. “Papi taught me everything I know about flowers. I can help in the garden, and I can work around my classes. Let me help. Please.” She was desperate. Desperate to hold onto something. Desperate to not lose all she’d known so quickly. “I’m going to need a part-time job, anyway,” she reasoned. “I need to pay for books, still.”

Abuela had, reluctantly, agreed to that.

After burying her mother and making sure that her father was well taken care of in his nursing facility in town, she headed back to Columbia to finish her degree, visiting Westview every weekend to help out at the florist shop and visit her parents.

Abuela did not let her skip graduate school, but Rio was able to negotiate getting her teaching certificate somewhere closer to home than Columbia.

Around the time she finished her program, however, Abuela started to really struggle with her arthritis. Her hands began to cramp a lot more often, her knees creaking and causing her to need a cane to get around the tiny shop. She moved around a lot more slowly and required help to bend down to water some of the plants.

She could no longer work in the garden.

So Rio took over, officially.

She got her abuela situated in the tiny apartment behind the florist shop (the one they’d previously rented out to their seasonal workers during the summer when business was at its peak) and promised that she’d take care of anything and ask for help from her grandmother if she ever should need it.

Rio also hired Alice, which was one of the best decisions she could have ever made.

Alice grew up decently wealthy. Her mother was a famous rock star and had carted her around like an extra amp on her tours around the globe, so she’d been homeschooled. She was also exceptionally skilled in all kinds of instruments, having taken piano, guitar, drum, violin, and all kinds of other lessons growing up.

Unfortunately, she knew nothing about flowers.

“I follow directions well and I’m very loyal,” she’d said at her interview. “And I’m a quick learner. You don’t really have to repeat things too much for me.”

Honestly, Rio expected nothing less of somebody who could play seemingly every instrument known to man.

Besides, Alice was the only applicant.

“You’re hired,” she said, shaking Alice’s hand.

Alice became Rio’s most loyal friend – and her abuela’s obvious favorite grandchild.

She always insisted that Alice stay for dinner and take flowers to lay on her own parents’ graves after shifts. Alice was initially not used to the attention, but eventually learned to embrace it.

Mainly because Abuela gave her no choice. She practically force-fed Alice like a stubborn toddler and trapped her in hugs before she could leave the shop after her shifts. She made Alice join them for holidays in that tiny little apartment behind the florist shop and even knit her a sweater (which took a full year thanks to the arthritis, but that’s how you know you’re the favorite).

Rio was almost certain that, when Abuela passed, she was going to leave the florist shop to Alice rather than to Rio herself.

She didn’t leave the shop, but Abuela did leave a couple of heirloom pieces and money for Alice in her will, which made Alice blubber like a baby in Rio’s arms at the will reading.

After that, the only family that Rio seemed to have left was Alice. Her parents had both been only children, so she had no cousins. And Rio was an only child, so she had no siblings.

Alice was it.

And she was it for Alice.

And they were both lesbians, funny enough.

Rio hadn’t ever really thought of Alice in that way, however. The only time she’d brought it up to Abuela, the woman had laughed uproariously in her face.

“Don’t be silly, mi alma,” she’d said, patting Rio’s cheek. “You and Alice…you would never work.”

“Why not?” Rio huffed. “Don’t you think I’d make a good partner?”

“Of course you would, querida,” Abuela cooed. “That is not in question at all. But you and Alice are…not a match. I cannot explain it.” She had shrugged. “You work better as family.”

And she had been right.

Having known Alice for over a decade now, Rio couldn’t believe she’d ever entertained the idea that she and Alice could be anything more than best friends. Their personalities didn’t mesh well enough for them to be romantic partners, and they were both looking for different things.

For one thing, Alice had a thing for femmes. High femmes, at that. She blushed like a teenage boy whenever a woman in a colorful sundress and sky-high heels walked by the shop on their way to the nail salon next door.

“Gay!” Rio coughed into her elbow, snickering when Alice gave her the finger.

Anyway, Rio was pretty much the opposite of a high femme.

Not the complete opposite, but she had never enjoyed the feeling of makeup, so she didn’t wear it. She had also opted to wear a suit to any and all school dances since she was twelve, preferring them to skirts and dresses. Needless to say, her parents and abuela were less than shocked when she came out as a lesbian in high school, and they had all fully embraced her.

Still, Rio was more on the masc side, so she fell firmly outside of Alice’s preferences. And Alice wasn’t her type, either.

Rio couldn’t exactly pinpoint what her type was these days, however. She just knew it wasn’t Alice, who was also pretty masc, though she was into dark and sometimes heavy makeup and had been known to wear a dress a time or two.

Still, they weren’t each other’s romantic types, which was probably what made them work as friends and pseudo-sisters. And, now, business partners.

Sorta.

Alice was still technically an employee of Vidal’s Florals, but she now lived in the apartment behind the shop and was responsible for opening it every morning while Rio tended to flower deliveries and got orders ready for pick-ups.

Usually, Rio arrived at the shop when business was in full-swing at around half-past eleven, taking over for Alice at the register so that she could go for her first break.

She had just situated herself on the stool behind the register, in fact, when she heard a little voice from below.

“Ethcuse me?” A little fist appeared over the high counter, dropping a couple of wrinkled bills and some coins on the surface.

Rio furrowed her brow, slipping off the stool and glancing over the counter to see a tiny face with big brown eyes and a wide smile, with the two front teeth missing, peering up at her.

“Hello there,” Rio said, tilting her head curiously at him. “What can I do for you, little buddy?”

“I wanna buy thome flowerth for my mama, pleathe,” he lisped, giving her that same charming little grin.

Rio did not consider herself a kid person, per se, but this one was adorable. And so polite! She felt that cuteness aggression thing that people talk about when they see fuzzy little animals.

But this was a child.

A child completely alone in her shop.

“Um, okay,” Rio said. “Where is your mama?”

“At work!” the child chirped.

“Oh, okay…” Rio glanced around the shop. There were no people in it. Her last customer had left a few moments ago. “Well, where’s your dad, then?”

“I don’t have a dad,” the boy said, as simply as announcing that it was sunny outside.

“Oh,” Rio said, suddenly panicking because where the hell did this child spawn from? Where was his (presumably) single mother and why wasn’t she watching her child?

“My mama’s a lethbian!” said child exclaimed, making Rio’s eyes go wide.

“Oh,” Rio said, apparently losing track of all other vowels.

“I like lethbians!” the boy added.

“Yeah,” Rio said, nodding awkwardly in agreement. “They’re…swell. Um, buddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Where does your mom work? Is it close by?”

“Yeah! She workth right nekth door!”

Man, the lisp made him even cuter. Rio felt like she was about to melt from all the cuteness.

“Cool,” Rio said, “and did your mama give you permission to come to my shop for flowers?”

“No…” the boy said, deflating a little bit. “I wanted it to be a thurprithe!” He threw his arms up in the air for emphasis, and Rio almost shed a tear. “She thaid she wath having a bad day, tho I wanted to make it better.” His brown eyes took on a shine that made Rio panic.

“Well, that’s so nice of you!” she said, looking at the money he’d dropped on the counter. “Why don’t you and I go pick out some flowers and then I’ll walk you back over so you can give them to her, huh?”

She did not want to make this tiny, adorable child cry in her shop, even if that meant she would have to accept six dollars and a Canadian penny for what was sure to be at least fifteen (American) dollars’ worth of flowers.

It was fine. She could afford it. And it was definitely worth those little brown eyes being dry and happy.

Rio walked around the counter and offered her hand to the boy.

“I’m Rio, by the way,” she said. “Rio Vidal.”

“Like the thign!” the boy gasped, his eyes going wider than before, like Rio was some kind of celebrity.

Rio chuckled. “Exactly like the sign,” she said. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Nicholath,” the boy said. “But everybody callth me Nicky.”

“Nicky,” Rio echoed. “Good name.”

“Thankth!” Nicky said, beaming up at her. “I like it.”

Rio was going to die of cuteness.

“Okay,” she said, “so what kind of flowers does Mama like? Roses?”

She was going to kick herself for saying that, but they already had some roses prepared from the day before, thorns all cut off and everything. Besides, a single rose only cost about ten dollars in her shop. She could get away with that.

“No, my mama ith allergic to rotheth,” Nicky said, frowning. “She liketh Athaleathhhh!”

Rio sighed. “Of course she is,” she murmured. “And of course she does.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, well, you’re in luck! We just got some azaleas in stock the other day. Come on.” She motioned for him to follow her as she started heading toward them.

To her surprise, Nicky reached out, wrapping his little fingers around hers as he followed her. Rio’s step faltered for a second before she continued, glancing down at the boy as he practically skipped along beside her. She pressed her lips together, shaking her head fondly as she led him to the newly stocked azaleas.

“Here we are,” she said, waving her hand over the blooms with a smile.

“Wow,” Nicky breathed, squeezing Rio’s hand as he looked at the variety of colors. “It’th like a rainbow!”

Rio grinned. Azaleas were her pride and joy. She grew many of them herself in the garden. She had spent years cultivating her azaleas so that she had pretty much every available color. She’d even worked with members of the Westview Garden Club to expand her inventory. They were one of her most popular blooms.

“Which color do you think your mama would like best?” Rio asked, smiling down at Nicky.

“Her favorite color ith purple,” Nicky informed her, beaming at the flowers and pointing with one tiny index finger.

Rio sighed, internally.

Of course he would go for one of the more expensive colors in the bunch, she thought. But whatever. It wasn’t like she couldn’t afford to lose a couple of flowers. She could use some of her cheaper fillers for the bouquet.

“Okay,” Rio said, reaching into one of the pockets of her apron for her cutters. She picked three flowers from the bush, then gathered some lilac and hellebores to contrast the deep purple color of the azaleas.

Nicky followed close behind as she constructed the bouquet, which she would have sold for probably over $50 to anybody else. He oohed and aahed at the pretty flowers, then held onto her apron as she walked him back to the front of the store, where she picked out some teal paper to wrap the bouquet in.

It was tiny, even with the fillers, but it was pretty. Nicky’s eyes went comically large at the sight of it all put together, his little mouth making an ‘O’ in astonishment as Rio tied the whole thing together with some twine. She handed it to him before placing the money he gave her into the till and subtly reaching for her own wallet to make up the difference so that she wouldn’t be short.

“Can I have a rethiet?” Nicky asked, politely.

Rio felt her heart swell with affection for him. “Of course, buddy,” she said, reaching for the receipt pad and writing out his order exactly…then writing $6 for the total. She knew Alice was going to laugh at her when she saw the copy of it later.

She handed the receipt over, and Nicky’s big brown eyes scanned over it for a moment before he tucked it into the pocket of his oversized hoodie with a decisive nod.

“All set?” Rio asked.

“Yup!” Nicky exclaimed, smiling widely, showing off the wide gap in his teeth that was doubtlessly the cause of his lisp. She wanted to pinch his cheeks.

“All set for what?” a voice asked as Alice came out of her apartment and into the store from her own private entrance.

“We’re gonna go give my mama thethe flowerth!” Nicky exclaimed, holding up his bouquet to show her.

“Whoa!” Alice said, immediately crouching down to his level (she didn’t have that far to go) and eyeing the azaleas and lilacs. “That’s awesome, little dude.” She glanced around the deserted store. “Where is your mama?”

“She works next door,” Rio informed her. “At the nail salon, right?” Nicky nodded. “Can you watch the store while I walk him back over there?”

“Is that where the hot bald lady works?” Alice asked, her cheeks going pink. “The one with the nose ring?”

Rio was about to say she had no idea, but Nicky spoke first: “That’th my Auntie Jen!” he exclaimed. “She’th a lethbian, too!”

“How did you know that I’m a lesbian?” Alice asked, furrowing her brow at the kid.

“Alice,” Rio sighed, “you are the poster child for lesbians. Also, you literally just asked about her in the most obviously gay way imaginable.”

“Shut up,” Alice huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Shut up ith a bad word,” Nicky said.

“It’s two words, actually,” Alice shot back. “But you’re right. Sorry, little dude.”

“It’th okay. My mama thayth the f-word a lot, which is thoooo much worthe.”

Rio had to grit her teeth to keep from laughing. Alice was barely keeping it together as she nodded. “Good to know,” she said. “Anyway, could you give your auntie Jen a flower from me?”

“Okay!” Nicky said, excitedly.

Alice grinned and walked over to a display of pink carnations, picking one from the vase they were in and handing it to Nicky. “I’ll put a ten in the till for it,” she told Rio as she straightened up. “Tell her the cute lady from the florist sent it,” she said. “I’m sure she’ll know who you mean.” She winked.

“Do you have thomething in your eye, Mith Alithe?” Nicky asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Rio was going to have a heart attack. They needed to leave before she could no longer hold back.

“Okay,” she said, “let’s go.” She took Nicky’s hand as he tucked the carnation next to the bouquet in the crook of his arm and he followed her out of the store. “I’ll be right back,” she promised Alice. “Let me know if we get any more orders.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Alice huffed, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest.

The walk to Coven Nails was a short one. The nail boutique hadn’t been there for very long, but it had garnered a lot of business in the last sixteen months since it moved into the space that used to house a small accounting firm that, ironically, went bankrupt only seven months into their lease. The aesthetic shifting from beiges and grays to bright pinks and purples had been jarring, but it didn’t entirely mismatch the sage green of Rio’s floral shop. In fact, it complemented it quite well.

The clientele was a little boisterous at times, though. Many of the women who came through the shop were from the wealthier side of Westview, with standing appointments every few weeks. Some of them stopped by the floral shop after their appointments, smelling of fresh nail polish and clicking their acrylics together as they perused the selection and asked Alice and Rio questions about the seasonal blooms.

And then they usually bought roses and orchids.

The nail salon also had a great deal of plants, both decorating the planters just outside the main door and scattered around the interior of the shop, which Rio saw as she and Nicky stepped through the door, a little bell ringing over their heads.

“Nicky?” a blonde woman at a nearby manicure table gasped. “Agatha!” she called toward the back of the shop. “Agatha, he’s here!”

From behind a curtain came a woman with bright blue eyes and a long, thick braid of hair swinging behind her like a rope as she rushed toward them. On instinct, Rio let go of the little boy’s hand and held up her own in surrender. Nicky, on the other hand, was nonplussed and held up the bouquet to her, proudly.

“Look, Mama!” he exclaimed. “I got you flowerth!”

“Nicky!” she gasped, falling to her knees in front of him and reaching out to cup his face in her hands. “Oh, my baby! I thought I lost you!”

“Lotht me?” Nicky echoed, frowning in confusion. “I wath jutht nekthtdoor, with Mith Rio.”

“Miss Rio?” the woman – Agatha, the other one had called her – blinked up at Rio, who still had her hands up like there was a loaded pistol pointed straight at her head. She narrowed her eyes. “Is that you?”

“Uh…yes,” Rio said. “I’m me. Rio, I mean. Hello.”

Agatha looked back at Nicky. “What have I said about talking to strangers, young man?” she demanded.

“She’th not a thranger, Mama,” Nicky huffed. “She’th Rio! The lady with the pretty flowerth!” He held up the flowers in his hands with a big smile. “I got you thome to cheer you up!”

Agatha’s eye twitch was subtle, but it didn’t go unnoticed by Rio, who fought back her own grin. “How…nice of you, baby,” she finally sighed as she carefully extracted the bouquet from his arms. “Oh!” she said, her bright blue eyes going wide. “Are these azaleas?”

“Yeah!” Nicky exclaimed happily. “Purple athaleath! They’re your favorite flower and your favorite color!”

“They sure are!” Agatha chuckled, somewhat nervously. She glanced back up at Rio, who shrugged, still holding her hands up like an idiot. “How did you get these?” she asked.

“Mith Rio thold them to me!” Nicky said, smiling brightly. “I uthed the retht of my birthday money to buy them!”

“Aw, bunny,” Agatha said, “you were supposed to use that money on yourself.”

“I already bought way too much candy,” Nicky said, patting his tummy. “It wath giving me a tummyache, anyway. And you were thad.”

Agatha furrowed her brow in confusion. “When was I sad?” she asked.

“Today,” Nicky said. “You were frowning a lot, tho I got you flowerth to cheer you up.”

Agatha’s eyes immediately went wet and she wrapped her arms around the small boy, pressing kisses to his face as he squirmed in her arms. “My,” kiss, “sweet,” kiss, “little,” kiss, “boy!”

“Mamaaaa,” Nicky giggled, playfully pushing her face away from his. “Stoooooopppppp!”

“Never!” Agatha said, punctuating the sentence with a big smacking kiss that left a stain on his cheek. “I will never stop loving you, my sweet little man. Where did you get such a big heart? Surely, it can’t be hereditary.”

Nicky rolled his eyes, looking back at Rio over his shoulder. Rio grinned and shook her head, her hands finally lowered.

“And you,” Agatha said, and Rio’s hands went right back up like a reflex.

“Yes?” she asked, grimacing slightly.

Agatha took a deep breath. “Thank you,” she said, “for returning my son to me.” She pressed another kiss to Nicky’s head before placing him on the ground. “But you,” she looked down at him, “ask next time you wanna go somewhere.”

“I did!” Nicky said.

“You said you were going next door,” Agatha huffed. “I thought you were going to Lilia’s deli to see your nonna.”

“Oh,” Nicky said.

“Yeah,” Agatha snorted. “Oh. Now go to the back and finish your homework. We’re going to have a talk later.”

“Okay,” Nicky sighed, pouting. “Can I give Auntie Jen thith flower? Mith Alithe athked me to give it to her.”

“Uh, sure,” Agatha said. “Be quick because she has a client.”

“Okay!” Nicky said, zooming off to one of the tables where a tall, bald-headed woman sat with the sharpest nails and eyeliner Rio had ever seen. She grinned as Nicky appeared next to her, glancing at him in between filing her client’s nails. The bleach blonde client seemed just as charmed by his presence as Jen was, especially when he presented her with the bright pink carnation and started rapidly explaining where it came from.

Rio watched with a small grin on his face, shaking her head.

“He’s cute,” she said, looking back at Agatha, who was also watching her son with no small amount of affection.

“He’s perfect,” Agatha murmured in return before looking back at Rio. “Thank you for bringing him back, really,” she said. “And thank you for the flowers, but I know six dollars isn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of a bouquet of purple azaleas and lilacs. How much do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rio said, shrugging as she felt her face warm.

“I insist,” Agatha said, reaching into the pocket of her dark wash jeans (which Rio couldn’t help but notice fit her like a glove) and pulling out a couple bills.

“No,” Rio said, taking a step back and raising her hand. “I’m not taking any of your money. He has the receipt and it says six dollars even. I can’t go messing up my books now, you know.”

“Then I propose a trade for the flowers,” Agatha said, reaching out and wrapping her hand around Rio’s wrist.

Rio’s eyes widened as Agatha turned and began dragging her toward one of the tables. It had a few personal touches, including a vase filled with mostly purple (and dead) flowers and a little bit of water. Rio felt the urge to take that vase to a sink in the back and replace the old water with fresh water and maybe add in a packet of plant food, as well. She was distracted by Agatha practically shoving her down in the chair across from her own before she took her seat, slipping the new flowers out of the wrapping and placing them amongst the dead in the vase with a smile.

“Uh,” Rio said, glancing between the flowers and the woman in front of her, who had started opening up the drawers on her little desk and pulling out files and small tubes of product. “What kind of exchange, exactly?” she asked. “Because I left my employee in charge of the shop and business usually surges around this time, so…”

“Nothing too complicated,” Agatha said. “Just a simple manicure. Your nails look like they could really use a little TLC.”

Rio looked down at her fingernails, frowning. She chewed on them a decent amount, honestly, and she’d never been the type to get them professionally done or even really paint them herself. Sometimes, she filled them in with pen or green highlighter when she was bored, but that was about it.

“I do a lot of manual labor,” Rio told her. “You know, with the flowers and all. I work in the garden and get dirt on them and under them a lot. The nail polish won’t stick.”

“Still,” Agatha said, “I can make them look nice, if only for a little while. As a thank you.”

“Really,” Rio said, “you don’t have to—”

“Hands,” Agatha said, tapping the small rectangular cushion in front of her. Almost without thinking, Rio immediately rested her hands there, and Agatha began to spray them with some kind of solution that tingled. “Long or short?” Agatha asked.

“What?” Rio furrowed her brow.

“Your nails,” Agatha clarified. “Do you like them long or short?”

“Oh,” Rio said, flushing. “I usually keep them short.”

“Hmm,” Agatha hummed, “good to know.”

Rio felt her face begin to burn at the spark in the other woman’s eyes as she began to massage Rio’s palms and fingers before placing them into some kind of tiny bath that she hadn’t even noticed was there before, filled with a purple-ish solution. Whatever it was tingled.

Rio let herself relax as her fingers soaked. Alice, she decided, could handle the shop by herself for a little bit. Especially if it meant Rio could stay here, continuing to stare at Agatha’s face, gorgeous even in her concentration, as the other woman expertly did her nails.

It was a fair trade for the flowers, after all.

Nearly an hour after she left, Rio returned to the shop with a full manicure, her nails feeling tingly and a little sensitive after the treatment they received.

“Where were you?” Alice huffed, counting the till. “You missed the whole lunchtime rush! What the hell makes people rush out on their lunch breaks for flowers, anyway? Why can’t they wait until they’re on their way home?”

“You’d rather deal with a rush at the end of a long day?” Rio snorted.

“Fair point,” Alice conceded. Her nose twitched. “What’s that smell? Is that…nail polish?” Her eyes narrowed on Rio’s hands as they tied her apron around her waist. “Did you get a manicure while I was drowning in sunflowers and roses? What the hell, dude?”

“Agatha insisted on it,” Rio sighed, holding up her hands for Alice to get a better look. “Nicky picked out the color to match the shop,” she said, grinning slightly.

“How cute,” Alice said, hand over her heart. “Who’s Agatha?”

“His mom,” Rio said, feeling her face warm up and praying Alice didn’t notice as she turned away and started fussing with some of the flowers, taking inventory of what must have been sold while she was away. “She knew the flowers I sold him didn’t really cost six dollars.”

“Six dollars?!” Alice exclaimed. “You sold that bouquet for six dollars?!”

“No,” Rio huffed. “Obviously I covered the difference. I’m not an idiot.”

“You bought a fifty-dollar bouquet for a woman you hadn’t even met,” Alice pointed out, “because her kid was cute. And then you let her keep you away from your shop at the busiest time of the day so you could get a manicure that’s going to be ruined within the next couple of days.”

“Yeah, well…” Rio shrugged. “Like I said, she insisted, so…”

“Is she hot at least?”

“You’re no better than a man,” Rio grumbled.

“You take that back!”

“I shan’t!” Rio said dramatically, shoving her out from behind the register. “Now, go make yourself useful and take inventory. I’m gonna look over the receipts.”

“Bossy,” Alice huffed.

“I’m the boss,” Rio reminded her. “Oh, also that woman you sent the carnation to?”

“Yeah?” Alice asked, turning around with wide, hopeful eyes.

“Simp,” Rio snorted, pulling out a pink post-it from her pocket. “She gave me this to give to you.”

Alice snatched the note from Rio’s hand and her cheeks bloomed pink. “It’s her phone number,” she whispered like she was holding the Holy Grail of Lesbianism.

“S-I-M-P!” Rio spelled, clapping between each letter.

“You’re just jealous,” Alice said, sauntering off toward the back, the little pink note raised above her head.

Rio rolled her eyes, reaching for the receipt book to look over the copies and tally up their profits for the day.

As she did, she caught sight of the sage green nail polish and the little black hearts Agatha had painted on her thumbnails and she couldn’t help but smile softly to herself as her heart did a stupid little flip in her chest.

Blue Hydrangeas

It took less than two days for the first chip to appear in Rio’s nail polish. She was expecting it, of course, but she was still bummed. Agatha had done a really good job on her nails.

But Rio still had to work in the garden. She still had to move bags of soil and pour manure. She had to wash her hands about a million times a day to get the dirt out from beneath her fingernails. She had to pull weeds and help move the new plants around when they were delivered. She had to work a lot with her hands.

By the time two weeks had passed, her nails were nearly bare of all polish. There were a few chips of sage green left on her pinky and ring fingers. Half of one black heart was left on her thumb, and she had the urge to go next door and have it painted back. She hesitated, though, thinking it would probably be weird of her to just start going to the nail salon out of the blue after not going all this time.

Wouldn’t it be?

It didn’t matter much that Alice was now basically dating the bald-headed woman (Jen) from the salon or that Nicky popped in to say hello to her every time he got off the school bus before he skipped off to his mom’s shop. Rio was growing pretty fond of the kid. He was cute and friendly. He always waved to Rio through the window when he passed by with his mom on their way home. Agatha often waved, too, shooting Rio a smirk as she tugged her son along by his hand.

She was sure it would be weird if she, a mostly masc lesbian with no prior inclination for painted nails, suddenly decided to get her nails painted after hemming and hawing at her first ever manicure just a couple weeks before.

Still, she caught herself staring at her chipped nails way too often as she worked in the garden.

“Will you just go to the salon?” Alice huffed one day, knees dug into the soil next to Rio as she tugged on some stubborn weeds. She wiped the sweat off her forehead, leaving a trail of dirt in its wake. “Nobody’s going to think any less of you for pampering yourself a little bit, princess.”

“Fuck off,” Rio had huffed, but she continued to stare down at her nails, which had even more dirt under them from harvesting the hydrangeas. She ran a finger along one of the petals and pushed herself to her feet with a basket full of flowers, bringing them inside to prep and put on display.

Later that day, after they had dealt with an influx of customers all demanding different flower arrangements and discounts on their apology bouquets (mostly husbands who had to apologize for their own fuck-ups), Rio finally got a chance to breathe, slumping onto the stool behind the register, her forehead pressed to the wooden top of the counter.

“Hiya, Mith Rio!”

She jumped, blinking as she looked down at the little boy in front of her, giving her that same gap-toothed grin from a couple of weeks ago (and pretty much every day since). She offered him a soft smile in return.

“Hey, buddy,” she said, resting on her folded arms on the counter-top. “What brings you here? Does Mama know you’re here this time?”

“Yeth,” he sighed. “Mama knowth. She thaid I could come thee you!”

“Oh?” Rio asked, still smiling. “And why do you wanna do that?”

“I wanna learn more about flowerth!” he said, giving her those big brown eyes. “And altho I need a job.”

Rio snorted in surprise at that. “A job?” she asked. “Aren’t you, like, five?”

“I’m thikth and a half!” he huffed, giving her a glare that made her want to squish his face.

“Still,” Rio snorted, “you’re a little young to enter the workforce, buddy.”

“Pleathe, Rio,” he begged, sticking out his bottom lip. “Mama’th shop ith thooooo boring! I need thomething to doooooo!” The face he gave her was diabolical, his bottom lip sticking out and his brown eyes big and watery. Rio’s resolve was crumbling. “I’ll work for flowerth,” he offered as a last-ditch effort.

Rio groaned. “Flowers?” she asked. “Why flowers? You can’t exactly use them to buy candy.”

“My nonna and auntie Jen buy me candy,” he said. “And I like flowerth! Maybe you can teach me about them!” He gave her a big smile at that, and Rio practically turned to jelly.

“You are unfairly adorable,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“I know,” Nicky replied with a big grin. “Tho…am I hired?”

“I’ll give you one flower,” Rio said, “if you help me water my flowers in the afternoon. Only after you’ve done your homework every day.”

“Two flowerth,” Nicky bargained.

“One flower,” Rio retorted. “Any flower you want, but you only get one per day. Deal?” She offered her hand.

“Deal,” Nicky sighed, shaking it.

“Awesome,” Rio said. “You can start today. Alice!” she called to her friend, who had just stepped in through the back door, covered in dirt and a little bit of mud. “Show Nicky which flowers need to be watered, please.”

“You replacing me, boss?” Alice asked, chuckling.

“Not quite yet,” Rio said, grinning. “But we’ll see how his training period goes.”

Alice gave her a faux pout. “He’s not taking my apartment,” she said.

“I have my own apartment,” Nicky said, rolling his eyes.

Rio snorted, shaking her head. “Go with Miss Alice,” Rio said. “She’ll show you what to do.”

“So,” Alice said, as Nicky skipped up to her, “how much do you pay for rent?”

Nicky rolled his eyes at Rio over his shoulder, and she snickered as she went through the receipts from the morning.

An hour later, he returned to the register, peering up at her over the counter while she organized the receipts into a box.

“You done, buddy?” Rio asked, glancing up at him.

“Yup!” he said, popping the ‘p’. “Can I have a flower now?”

“Let me see,” she said, slipping off the stool and walking around the counter. She slowly strolled around the store, perusing the flowers in the shop, checking them. Most of the flowers were dry as they didn’t need to be watered quite every single day, but the ones that were due for a spritz were satisfyingly damp. Rio ran her fingers over the petals of one of her delphinium flowers. “Nice,” she said. “You did a good job today, Nicky.”

“Thankth!” he said. “Now can I pick my flower?”

“You’re very impatient, do you know that?” Rio snorted. “Okay,” she said, “you can pick a flower. Go on.”

Nicky gave her a wide grin and ran straight for the basket of freshly-grown and picked hydrangeas, plucking one up and holding it over his head. “Thith one!” he exclaimed, grinning wildly at her.

“Amazing choice,” Rio said, nodding. “I just picked those from my garden this morning!”

“Really?” He gasped. “You grew thith? It’th tho pretty and blue!” He looked down at the flower in his hand, holding it delicately like it may shatter. “What’th it called?”

“That is a hydrangea,” Rio informed him. “That one’s blue, but it comes in pink and purple, too. I only have the blue variety today, unfortunately.”

“That’th okay!” Nicky said. “Blue ith my favorite color!”

“Well, that’s good,” Rio chuckled. “Do you wanna know the scientific name for it?”

“Yeah!” Nicky said, practically bouncing on his heels.

“Hydrangea macrophylla,” Rio told him. “And it’s that color because the soil I grew it in is highly acidic. I can grow pink ones, too, but I need to change the pH-balance of the soil to be more alkaline.”

Nicky blinked slowly at her. “I don’t know what any of thothe wordth mean,” he said, “but it’th really pretty!” He smiled down at his hydrangea.

Rio snorted. “Thanks, buddy,” she said. “Now, I’m sure your mom is wondering where you are, so we should probably get you back to her. The shop is about to close, anyway. Alice!”

Alice popped her head out from a display of vases they had on sale. “’Sup?” she asked.

“Can you close up shop? I’m gonna walk Nicky back to his mom.”

“Aww,” Alice said, “I wanna go.”

“You can see your girlfriend later,” Rio snorted.

“Well, so can you!” Alice retorted.

Rio’s face turned bright pink at that. “Shut up!” she huffed. “Just close the dam—ahem darn shop! I’ll be back.”

“Whatever,” Alice huffed, slumping toward the register while Rio took Nicky’s hand and led him out to the sidewalk.

“What did Mith Alithe mean about your girlfriend?” Nicky asked. “Are you a lethbian, too?!”

Rio flushed at that, clearing her throat. “Yup,” she said. “Sure am, buddy. I thought you knew that.”

“No…” Nicky said, shaking his head. “Mama thaid I’m not allowed to jutht athume people are lethbianth anymore.”

Rio pressed her lips together at that to keep from laughing. “Was that a problem you were having before, buddy?” she asked.

“….maybe,” Nicky responded, looking down at his feet as they walked.

Rio snorted. “It’s okay,” she said. “We all make assumptions sometimes…I guess.”

Agatha was just saying goodbye to a client when they walked in, the bell chiming above their heads. Nicky immediately let go of Rio’s hand and ran to her, holding out the hydrangea.

“Mama, look!” he exclaimed. “It’th called a hy…hy…” he looked back at Rio.

“Hydrangea,” Rio aided, grinning.

“Hydrangea!” Nicky echoed, smiling brightly up at his mother. “It’th pretty!”

“It is pretty!” Agatha agreed. Her eyes flickered toward Rio. “Did you say thank you to Miss Rio?”

“He doesn’t have to thank me for that one,” Rio said. “He worked for it.”

“He worked for it?” Agatha asked, furrowing her brow.

“Yeah!” Nicky said. “Mith Rio gave me a job!”

“Oh?” Agatha looked fully at Rio now. “What kind of job?” she asked, dubiously.

“He just watered some of our plants,” Rio said. “No big deal.” She shrugged. “He’s really good at it. My flowers have never looked better.”

Nicky beamed at that, puffing out his chest proudly as Agatha looked back at him. She cupped his cheeks and placed a kiss on his forehead. “Good job, baby,” she said, affectionately. “Go put that in some water, okay?”

“Okay!” Nicky said, skipping off toward the back.

When he was gone, Agatha once again looked toward Rio. “Thanks for watching him for me,” she said. “I had a…difficult client.”

Rio furrowed her brow. “I wasn’t aware I was babysitting,” she said. “He just came to say hi and find a job – at least according to him.”

“Well, I told him to go see Lilia at first,” Agatha said, chuckling. “She’s usually happy to keep him distracted when I have somebody sitting in my chair telling me that I’m doing everything wrong.” She sighed. “I just hate for him to hear that kind of thing. Mainly because he can’t stop himself from telling those clients how rude they’re being and that’s not good for business.”

“Who the hell is rude to the person doing their nails?” Rio huffed, suddenly feeling very annoyed and somewhat protective. “Don’t you work with sharp objects and chemicals? Sounds pretty reckless of them to me.”

Agatha snorted. “You’d be surprised,” she said. “Anyway, he asked if he could go visit you instead, which honestly shocked me.”

“What, like I’m not a good time?” Rio huffed, playfully.

Agatha snorted again, and Rio’s stomach flipped at that sound. It was cute.

“Well, Lilia always offers him a snack and lets him rant about all his favorite dinosaurs as he sits next to her at the register. She even lets him count out change for her customers. It’s how he got good at math. That he would turn that down for a woman he’s spent all of, like, twenty minutes with, collectively, over the course of two weeks was the shocking part. You must have really made an impression on him.”

Rio shrugged, her face going warm. “I think he just wanted more flowers,” she said. “He talked me into giving him a job.”

“I heard,” Agatha laughed. “One flower for watering plants? What a deal.”

“We negotiated,” Rio said, scratching the back of her neck. “I probably would have given him the two flowers he requested, but I gotta stay in business somehow, you know?”

Agatha nodded, giving Rio a soft, lopsided grin. “Come on,” she said, “sit down.”

“Sit down?” Rio asked. “For what?”

“Your nails are looking a little rough,” Agatha said, “and I have some time.”

“Oh,” Rio said, looking down at her hands. “You really don’t have to—”

“Sit,” Agatha said, snapping her fingers.

Rio sat in the same seat she’d occupied a couple weeks ago like a well-trained dog, her face flaming hot as Agatha grinned at her.

“Ooh,” Nicky exclaimed, skipping back out. “Ith Mith Rio getting her nailth done again? Can I pick the color?”

“Sure can, buddy,” Rio said, giving him an easy grin. “Let’s try blue this time.”

“Like the hydrangea!” Nicky exclaimed, bouncing on his feet. He ran off to the wall with all the colors, stopping right in front of the blue section. Rio smiled softly at him before turning back to Agatha, whose gaze flickered to her hands but had obviously previously been on her face.

Rio didn’t mention it.

After a few minutes, Nicky ran up to her, excitedly showing her the color he’d found.

“Rio!” he exclaimed. “Look! Thith color ith called,” he squinted at the label on the underside of the rounded bottle, “‘Hydrangea Dan-gee-uh.’”

“I think it’s pronounced like ‘danger’, buddy,” Rio said. “Looks pretty.”

Nicky beamed, placing the bottle on the table. “Can you do little flowerth on her nailth thith time, Mama?” he asked. “Thinthe she workth in a flower shop?”

“Sure can!” Agatha said. “What kind of flowers?”

“Well, you can’t do hydrangeath,” Nicky said, pulling a chair from an empty station so that he could sit next to Rio, “becauthe you wouldn’t be able to thee them.”

“She could do purple or pink hydrangeas,” Rio pointed out.

Nicky’s eyes widened at that. “Oh yeah!” he said. “Mama, can you paint purple hydrangeath on Rio’th nailth?”

“Can you find me a picture of them?” Agatha asked. “I don’t know what they look like from memory.” She had already moved onto filing Rio’s nails for her. She nudged her phone in Nicky’s direction with her elbow.

Nicky picked up the phone and aimed it toward his mother, who made a face to unlock it while he giggled and Rio let out a soft puff of air.

He started to type, then stopped, looking up at Rio.

“How do you thpell ‘hydrangea’?” he asked.

“Well, what do you think it starts with?” she asked.

“An ‘H’?” Nicky asked. Rio nodded. He typed ‘H’. “Then ‘I’?”

“Y,” Rio corrected gently.

“Becauthe I wanna type it in,” he huffed.

Agatha let out another snort, trying to hide it with a cough into her shoulder.

Rio pressed her lips together and cleared her throat to keep from laughing.

“H-Y,” she said, “as in the letter.”

“Oh.” Nicky’s cheeks turned pink as he typed.

“D-R-A,” Rio continued, “N-G-E-A. Hydrangea.”

“Why ith it thpelled tho weird?” Nicky huffed.

Rio shrugged. “That’s just how it is, buddy,” she said. “Did you find a picture?”

“Yeah!” Nicky said, turning the phone around to show her. “It’th a real pretty color. Look, Mama!” He turned the phone to his mother, who glanced at it with a wide grin.

“Very pretty!” she agreed. “And I think I have that exact shade of purple, too. Good job, baby!”

Nicky beamed proudly, placing the phone back in front of his mother on the table before turning back to Rio.

“Tho,” he said, settling into his seat, “what’th your favorite dinothaur?”

Envy Zinnias

After her second manicure with Agatha, Rio made a recurring appointment. Every other Wednesday at five, she let Alice close down the store while she walked next door for her manicure. Usually, that was with Nicky holding her hand, talking her ear off about what he learned in school, which he continued to do as she got her nails done.

He was making regular visits to the florist shop now, helping Alice water the plants and sometimes even pull the weeds in the garden. It was starting to get colder now, as October rolled in, bringing the usual northeastern chill with it. Most of Rio’s flowers had already bloomed and were sitting inside the shop, waiting to be bought, but she had some late bloomers in her zinnias. Their color was vibrant and they were perfectly fluffy (thanks to some tips from her local gardening group) but they weren’t quite ready to pick yet until the month was already halfway gone and there was a stiff chill in the mornings.

Finally, though, Rio was able to work through the morning to pick them all from the garden, carrying in five large baskets as Alice flipped the sign for operating hours. She helped Rio make a display of them front and center in the shop, stopping every so often when the bell above the door rang and they had to attend to their customers.

By the time Nicky strolled in at half-past three, the majority of the freshly-picked zinnias were gone, leaving a lot of the smaller and less vibrant blooms behind. They were still perfectly fluffy, though, sitting proudly in their baskets.

“Hi, Rio!” Nicky greeted, skipping into the store and padding to the register where Rio was counting the till to make sure everything was balanced.

“Hey, buddy,” Rio replied, offering him a brief grin as she organized the bills into neat little piles. “You clocking in?”

“Yup!” Nicky exclaimed. “Got any new flowerth?” His eyes flickered around the shop.

“A few,” Rio said. “Most of the good blooms were sold, though, but you can take a glance after you help Alice with her daily chores, okay?”

“Okay!” Nicky said, glancing around. “Where ith she?”

“Right here!” Alice said, peeking out from a multi-colored display of wildflowers. “Just picking out some dead blooms to toss.”

“You throw away flowerth?” Nicky asked, frowning at her.

“Only the ones that we’ve had for a few weeks that haven’t been chosen,” Alice explained. “They get all dried up and their petals and leaves start to fall off, even with the water we give them. It’s okay, though,” she assured him, when she saw his eyes starting to get wet, “because we put the dead flowers into a compost and we use them to help new flowers bloom! That’s good, right?”

“I gueth…” Nicky said, still looking glum. “But it’th thad.”

“It is sad,” Alice agreed, “but that’s the circle of life, you know? Some things die, some things bloom.”

“The thircle of life?” Nicky asked. “Like The Lion King?”

“I guess…” Alice said, chuckling. “Anyway, come on. Help me pick out the dead flowers so we can mix them into the compost.”

Nicky sighed. “Okay…” He trudged after Alice, helping her walk around the store and pointing out which flowers had dried up petals and leaves and were clearly beyond saving. When they had a whole basketful, she brought him outside to the compost heap, where they tossed the flowers while Alice explained how they used it as a fertilizer to help new flowers grow.

“It thtinks!” he exclaimed, holding his nose.

Alice laughed. “I guess I’m just used to it by now,” she said, nodding in agreement, “but yeah, it does. But it’s good for the flowers, I promise.” She had Nicky hand her the flowers one at a time while she cut them into pieces and tossed them into the compost, stirring it a bit at a time to bury everything.

When they were done, they walked back inside to meet Rio again. It was a quarter to five now, and she was just closing up the register as a customer walked out with a massive bouquet.

“Celebration or apology?” Alice asked.

“A little of both,” Rio retorted. “He missed the birth of his twins because his flight got delayed. Didn’t want to show up empty-handed.”

“He should have bought diapers,” Alice said. “And a toy.”

“He’s heading to CVS next,” Rio laughed. “Don’t worry.” She looked down at Nicky. “Did you have fun with the composting?” she asked.

“It thmelled really bad,” Nicky said, wrinkling his nose and looking so much like Agatha that Rio couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah, it does,” she agreed, leaning in and lowering her voice to a stage-whisper. “That’s why I make Alice do it.”

“Hey!” Alice huffed as Nicky giggled.

“Go pick out your flowers,” Rio instructed the little boy. “We’ve only got ten minutes left before my appointment.”

“Flowerth?” Nicky asked, his eyes going wide. “I get more than one today?”

“Only because I’m feeling generous,” Rio said. “And they have to be the same kind, okay?”

“Okay!” Nicky exclaimed, turning on his heel and sprinting through the shop to locate his pay for the day – double today, actually!

“Watch him pick the most expensive—” Alice started, but she was immediately interrupted by Nicky’s cry of “found it!”

Rio snorted and walked around the counter, allowing Alice to take her spot on the stool at the register, and walked in the direction of Nicky’s find, finding him staring at the zinnias.

“Green flowerth?” he asked, his eyes wide as he glanced between Rio and said flowers. “I didn’t even know thethe ekthithted!”

“You’ve never seen clovers?” Rio asked with a soft snort.

“Are thothe flowerth?” Nicky asked. “I thought they were just grath…”

“Weirdly-shaped grass, I guess,” Rio commented, picking out the two fluffiest zinnias she could find and handing them to Nicky. “Here you go, buddy,” she said. “Give one to your mom, too.”

“Okay!” Nicky said, smiling brightly. “I think she’ll really like it! It’th tho pretty!” He smiled down at the flowers in his hand.

“It is,” Rio agreed. “Envy zinnias are one of my favorite flowers.”

“Really?” Nicky asked, taking Rio’s hand as she led him out of the shop, onto the sidewalk.

“Yep,” Rio confirmed with a nod. “They kind of look like green marigolds.”

“What’th a marigold?” Nicky asked, peering up at Rio with those big brown eyes of his.

“It’s a type of flower,” Rio replied. Obviously, said the little voice in the back of her head and the eye roll Nicky gave her. She snorted, reaching into the pocket of her jeans to pull out her phone. “It’s kind of an orange-y flower. Or yellow-ish? It depends on what kind of marigold, actually…” She quickly did a one-handed internet search and showed the boy clinging to her other hand the pictures that came up.

“Whoa,” Nicky breathed, looking at the search results. “That’th really pretty! How come you don’t have any of thothe flowerth?”

“I’m about to get a shipment, actually,” Rio said. “They should be in store next week, just in time for Dia de los Muertos.”

Nicky furrowed his brow. “What’th that?”

“Do you even go to school?” Rio huffed, playfully nudging him. “I’m just kidding, little dude,” she said when he wrinkled his nose at her, looking very much like his mother. “It’s a holiday in Mexico where people reunite with their deceased loved ones.”

“What ditheatheth do they have?” Nicky asked.

“Ditheatheth…?” Rio murmured under her breath. Then it clicked. “Oh,” she said. “Deceased, bud. Not diseased. Like people who have passed away.” She was trying to be delicate about it, but she had no idea if this six-year-old (and a half, Nicky’s voice said in her brain) knew anything about Death.

“What’th pathed away?” Nicky asked.

“Um,” Rio said as they approached the nail salon. “I’m not really sure how to explain it…”

“It’th okay!” Nicky said, letting go of Rio’s hand as he pushed his way into the shop. “I’ll juth akth my mama!”

“Nicky, wait!” Rio exclaimed, following him inside as he trotted straight toward his mother.

Agatha was cleaning her station as she laughed with her co-workers about something. She gave Nicky a big smile as he ran up to her, standing and holding out her arms to welcome him into a big hug, pressing her lips to his forehead and stroking his round little cheeks.

Then she looked up at Rio with that same easy smile, and Rio’s stomach clenched slightly. It wasn’t a new reaction to seeing Agatha, by any means. It had been happening, to some degree or another, since the first day they met.

Agatha was obviously attractive. She had crystal-blue eyes and a smile that sometimes took up her whole face. She was easy to talk to and funny as hell. Rio found herself blushing sometimes when all of her focus was on her while Agatha did her nails. She felt like a bashful teenage boy when Agatha complimented her clothes or hair. She hoped she didn’t blush too fiercely when Agatha first touched her hands at her appointments.

Every time, it felt as though she were suddenly engulfed in flames, especially where Agatha’s hands held hers. She wondered what it would feel like to fully feel their palms touch as they walked down the street together, hand-in-hand, shooting each other affectionate smiles and—

“Mama, what doeth pathed away mean?” Nicky asked, twisting his hips back and forth in that way that little kids do when they can’t stand still as he looked up at his mother.

“Passed away?” Agatha asked. Nicky nodded. “It means that somebody died, honey.”

Nicky stopped twisting. “Like Mr. Davith?” Nicky asked.

“Just like Mr. Davis,” Agatha confirmed.

“I mith Mr. Davith,” Nicky sighed, pouting slightly. “Can I have a thnack?”

Agatha let out a soft chuckle as she reached out, running her fingers through her son’s hair. “Of course,” she said. “You know where to find them.”

“Yay!” Nicky exclaimed, turning on his heel in the direction of the backroom. He walked (bounced) two steps before turning back. “Wait!” he said, returning to his mother’s side. “Mith Rio thaid to give you thith flower!” He held out one of the flowers Rio had given him.

Rio watched as Agatha’s cheeks bloomed visibly pink, her eyes going a bit wider as she reached out for the zinnia Nicky was offering her. “Oh,” she said, her eyes flickering to Rio, who felt as though she’d just been turned to stone, her entire body burning up in flames, waiting for hell to open and swallow her whole.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, Agatha just gave her a shy smile and twirled the zinnia in her hand. “Well, thank you, baby,” she said – to Nicky – and then, “Thank you, Miss Rio,” she said to the woman who hadn’t blinked in at least thirty seconds now, whose eyes were starting to feel the pain from that, actually.

Rio forced herself to blink as she cleared her throat and nodded. “Anytime,” she said, her voice still squeaking slightly despite the effort. Agatha gave her another smile as she turned and placed the flower into the small vase that she kept on her desk. It had a few other flowers that Rio recognized as the ones she’d “paid” Nicky in over the last couple of weeks. Some of them were just barely clinging to life, but most were still pretty vibrant. She took decent care of them.

“You coming?” Agatha asked, which seemed to break the concrete curse on Rio’s feet and she stumbled slightly in the direction of Agatha’s station, dropping heavily into the rolling chair across from Agatha, sticking out her hands, wiggling her fingers. Agatha gave her an odd look before taking her hands, gently, and placing them on the handrest on her table. Her fingers were warm and strong and lithe, and Rio’s heart was pummeling her ribcage as she watched and felt those hands begin to give hers a massage.

“So,” Agatha asked, as she had the last few times Rio had gotten her nails done, “how was your day?”

Rio swallowed thickly as she looked up into those fathomless blue eyes, suddenly feeling like she was drowning in them more than ever before. She cleared her throat.

“G-good,” she said, her head bobbing in a nod. “Really good. Yours?”

Agatha shrugged. “Eh,” she said. “Can’t complain. Though somebody made me explain what the term ‘passed away’ means and bring back painful memories of our beloved late neighbor.” She gave Rio a judgmental look, and her shoulders hunched.

Then Agatha snorted. “Relax,” she said, “I’m just kidding. The Davises were nice,” she said. “They used to babysit Nicky. When Mr. Davis died…” Agatha shrugged. “Nicky didn’t quite understand it all the way. He thought that that just meant he was going on some kind of vacation but that he’d be back.”

“Oh shit,” Rio murmured. “Sorry if I brought back any bad memories.”

“You didn’t,” Agatha said. “Probably. We had a long discussion about what death means and why Mr. Davis wasn’t coming back. He cried a little, but he mostly got over it.”

“Mostly?”

“If he has a nightmare, I’m charging you triple next appointment,” Agatha warned. There was mirth in her stern gaze, but Rio had a feeling she wasn’t joking.

“Sounds reasonable,” she said, swallowing thickly.

“Agreed,” Agatha said, grinning. “So what color are we doing today?”

“Can I pick?!” Nicky exclaimed from behind Rio, making her jump. Agatha tightened her hold on Rio’s hands, clasping them as Rio fought to regain her breath. Nicky appeared at her side with a big smile and a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos half-eaten in his little hands.

“You need to start wearing a bell,” Rio told him. He rolled his eyes.

“Tho can I?” he asked. “Can I pick the color today?”

“You pick the color every day, buddy,” Rio snorted. “Why would today be any different?”

“Awethome!” Nicky exclaimed, running toward the wall of nail polishes, still munching on chips.

“Nicholas,” Agatha said in a stern voice, “what have I said about eating and running?”

Nicky immediately slowed down, placing his chips gingerly on Jen’s table, and walked at an exaggeratedly slow pace to the nail polishes.

Jen stole two chips from his bag.

“Hey!” Nicky exclaimed. “Auntie Je-en!”

“Taxes,” Jen retorted. “You know the drill.”

Nicky pouted at her for a few seconds before turning back to the nail polish wall and perusing his options.

“He’s very cute,” Rio commented, glancing back at Agatha, who had placed her fingers into some kind of bath as she prepared her tools for the manicure.

“Thanks,” she said. “I made him from scratch.”

“Impressive,” Rio snorted. “Must have had good fertilizer.”

“Eh,” Agatha said. “It was store-bought.” At Rio’s furrowed brow, Agatha snorted. “Cryobank,” she explained.

Rio flushed. “Oh,” she said. “Right. Nicky mentioned that you were…uh…”

“Gay?” Agatha asked when Rio couldn’t seem to get it out, fumbling with her words and blushing up a storm. “You can say the word, you know?” Agatha snorted. “It’s not a slur.”

“I know that,” Rio huffed. “I’m gay, too.”

Agatha’s eyebrows rose at that. “Are you?” she asked.

Rio took one of her hands out of the water. “You couldn’t tell?” she asked, motioning to herself.

“I didn’t want to just assume,” Agatha retorted.

“I’m also surprised that Nicky didn’t say anything,” Rio murmured. “That’s the first thing he mentioned about you.”

“That kid,” Agatha groaned, sitting back in her chair. “Oh my God…”

Rio snorted. “He’s cute,” she said. “And he’s proud. We love that for him.”

“It’s very nice,” Agatha agreed, “but he used to walk up to every woman we saw in public and ask if they were a lesbian like his mama.”

“Don’t you mean a lethbian?” Rio asked, grinning. “That lisp is so cute. He could achieve world domination with it, I bet.”

Agatha cackled at that. “He didn’t always have that,” she said. “It’s new. It should go away when his teeth grow in, but yes, it’s adorable.” She sighed, pulling out a file for Rio’s nails. “Anyway, I used a cryobank for the donation when I got tired of waiting for my life to ‘slow down’ to have a baby. I figured if I didn’t do it by then, then I was never going to. And my clock was ticking, so…”

“You hit the jackpot with him,” Rio said, glancing over her shoulder to where Nicky was perusing the pinks. She frowned. “Except for his taste in nail polish.”

“Not a fan of pink?” Agatha asked, snorting. “You can ask for a different color.”

“And get that pout of his?” Rio snorted. “That is lethal. Nah. I’ll deal with the pink nails. I’ll probably only have them for a couple of days, anyway. I’ll live.”

“Good choice,” Agatha said, nodding, just as Nicky returned, brandishing a bottle of dark pink nail polish in his hand.

“Thith one ith called ‘Duthty Rothe’,” he said, reading it off the label. “I think it’th pretty.”

“It is pretty, sweetheart,” Agatha gushed. “And I think it will go nice with the pretty white polka dots Miss Rio asked me to put on her fingers, as well, don’t you?”

“Ooh!” Nicky said, his eyes shimmering as he gave Rio a big smile. “Yeah!”

Rio gave him a smile that was more of a grimace. “Great,” she said. “Can’t wait for that.” She looked back at Agatha, who was giving her a slightly evil grin. “Fantastic,” she said, through clenched teeth.

“That’s what you get,” Agatha whispered, as Nicky ran to rescue his Doritos from Jen’s clutches, “for reminding my son about the heartbreak of death.”

“But, I—”

“I’m back!” Nicky interrupted before Rio could finish her protest. He pulled over a chair and plopped down next to her, already talking a mile a minute about what he was learning in school as his mother worked.