of a street drug for the feelings of closeness, happiness and pleasure that she experienced last night while in bed with James? That is absurd, she said to herself. Let’s just put that behind us and move on with the day.
She had a quick check around the house to make sure that James was not watching TV or reading the morning papers and there was no evidence left of his presence anywhere. So she decided to try and catch up with the day: brief exercises, shower, make up and clothes and then coffee.
Rose was making her morning coffee when the doorbell rang and instantly she caught herself hopping it was James. She admonished herself for the wishful thinking and told herself to just forget about it. A delivery boy smiled at her and handed her a bunch of tulips.
‘They are for you, ’ he simple said.
‘But you don’t know my name, ’ Rose pointed to him in a good humored way.
The little boy smiled again and confidently repeated: ‘They are for you, ’ and left. When Rose looked at the card it said PRAWNS. The flowers looked lovely. Not a lot of aroma with tulips but the bunch of red ones that she was holding in her hands was impressive and delighted her girly senses.
Tulips and prawns? Rose asked herself. Is this a joke, an invitation to lunch or what? She recalled that she had another bouquet in the living room and started to consider the most suitable place for the current one. Rose was reaching for a new vase when the phone rang.
‘Do you like the flowers? ’ James said directly.
‘Lalele. In Romanian, ’ she said.
‘Symbol of paradise, abundance and indulgence, ’ he said.
‘Aha, that view, ’ she said.
‘Is there another one? ’ he asked surprised.
‘Briefness of life. The Dutch view, ’ Rose said. There was a pause and then he replied.
‘Last night was great. Nothing brief about that one, ’ he said. Rose did not know what to say and there was a brief awkward silence between them.
‘No comments? ’ James said with a soft voice. Was he expecting praise? Then he went on: ‘I find you similar to tulips: enchanting, inspiring and bewitching, ’ he said. ‘I have to take you to see the Tulip Festival in Victoria, ’ he added.
‘Wow. What about Prawns? ’ she asked.
‘Aha, confused again? ’ he said amused. ‘Remember our talk last evening about Klinger? Do you have time to look up the PRAWNS mnemonic today? I would like to take you to a game tonight’, he added.
‘I thought that you said there was not going to be one tonight, ’ she recalled.
‘Change of plans, ’ he replied and said good bye.
Fate, Rose said to herself. Leave it to fate. And she decided to go ahead and finish her task of placing the flowers in a vase and think later how to proceed with the plans for the day. Was going to be another busy one that was for sure!
Rose cleaned the old vase found in the cupboard and removed the contents of it on the kitchen bench when something shiny caught her attention. It was an old copper coin that looked like it used to be part of a necklace. Rose was still fond of these pieces that bewitched her in childhood.
As Rose grew older she forgot about them but she still had the photograph with the silver coin choker that she received from her grandma at the age of 18. From grandma’s point of view at that age Rose was ready to start her own family and get married. Fortunately her attempt of lunching Rose into the married life failed and Rose was allowed time ‘to recover’, time that she used as she felt appropriately and managed to finish getting a degree.
But to get back to the coin in Rose’s hand. It was definitely a gypsy-like coin but was somewhat lighter and seemed adapted to wearing as a brooch so Rose decided to wear it tonight.
She cleaned the vase thoroughly with warm water and detergent and then added tepid water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice as she recalled her grandma doing to prevent the multiplication of germs in the water and to feed the flowers. Rose added also a bit of vodka to reduce wilting and then placed the flowers in the vase. They looked a bit chic she thought and a French song fleetingly passed her mind. It was a sad one: ‘Paroles, paroles…’ and Rose shuddered. It was not that she expected anything from this James so why was she worried? Nonsense, she told herself and decided to go for a walk to reshuffle her thoughts.
She wanted to stop at Stefano’s Café but recalled that she just had a coffee so she passed by and just took in the view of the street. It was a busy day for many people. The sky rocker buildings in their street were predominantly residential with an occasional office in the mixture. It was a moderately expensive part of the town and the population was multicultural but predominantly young. The University was close by.
The combination of glass and steel was fascinating and breathtaking but Rose was missing the vegetation. Rose was used to growing up on a wild mountain that offered unlimited access to the blue sky views, various grasses and plants and beautiful trees. Here you could rarely see a tree or a flower in the street and she thought that was a pity. She knew that each building had flowers and trees inside the main lobby and a small garden on the roof but to her that was just not enough. If she decided to stay around longer she will have to lobby for some changes, she thought.
Rose returned home refreshed and optimistic about the future and she went to surf the internet and read bridge strategies. After an hour of reading and with fresh ideas in mind she decided to look into the appropriate attire to wear for this afternoon. After a lot of consideration she settled for a combination that she felt would be highly appropriate but also stylish and endearing. To match her new found coin brooch she was planning to wear her old coin choker that she last worn at her engagement party about 7 years ago. She was a bit concerned about stirring up memories.
As she was feeling hungry by now and she was also craving human company she decided to grab some food at Stefano’s café. He was not there when Rose arrived. She decided to eat something light and she asked for barramundi on grill served with a mixed salad of fruits and veggies. At the end she had a crème brulee while listening to the songs of Edith Piaf.