I glanced down at the woman’s tag, and her name was Lavender.
“Is this your shop?” London asked.
Lavender smiled as her face lit up. “Yes.”
London looked around the shop, then back at Lavender. “What would you recommend?”
I rested my hand on the small of London’s back. My other hand held the basket of flowers I’d picked. When we were done, we would go back up front to the clubhouse, or whatever they called it, to put the flowers together and present them to each other.
“The lavender blueberry iced tea. We have cookies to go with it as well.”
I glanced up at the menu and noticed most of the flavors were some form of lavender and something else. They sold the tea iced or hot.
“That sounds good. I’ll try that and the cookies,” London said.
“I’ll have the same.”
“Great. If you guys want to have a seat, I’ll bring it over to you.”
I led London over to one of the empty tables and pulled the chair out for her.
“This is really cute,” London said as she looked around.
“It is. When is your birthday?” I asked.
“April seventeenth. Yours?”
“September twenty-eighth.”
She placed her finger on her chin and looked up at the ceiling like she was trying to figure out something. I didn’t know what, so I just waited to see what she was going to say. I watched her for a minute. I knew she was pretty the night we met, but looking at her in better lighting and with sober eyes, she was fucking gorgeous.
“A libra, huh? I think they say our signs are opposite, but I don’t necessarily follow those things. I go off connections and vibes.”
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table. Every time I gazed into London’s chestnut brown eyes, I couldn’t help but get lost in them. They had to be my favorite thing about her. They always looked so bright and full of life, and I couldn’t help but get sucked into them.
“And what does our connection tell you?”
“That besides us sharing a kid, we have a good connection, and I’m feeling the vibe.”
“I feel the same shit.”
Lavender came over with our tea and cookies and told us to let her know if we needed anything else.
“Mm. This is good,” London said after she took a sip of the tea.
The cookies looked and smelled good, so I tried them first. Both tasted good, and I knew I would have to take some home before we left.
London and I sat in the tea shop for a while, eating our cookies and drinking our tea. We even stayed a little longer after we finished. Before we left, I bought both of us a box of cookies and some lavender tea bags. Lavender informed us of a pop-up shop she was doing the next weekend, and we told her we would pull up on her to get more. I wanted a gallon of tea but didn’t feel like carrying it at the moment.
“Are you ready to head out?” I asked London after I threw our trash away, even though Lavender told us to leave it there. I didn’t feel right leaving it there for some reason. It wasn’t like I emptied my own trash at a restaurant, but the garbage can was literally a few steps away, so there was no reason why I couldn’t get rid of the trash.
“Yes. I want to put my bouquet together for you.” Her smile felt genuine as she looked up at me.
I extended my hand and helped her up. With her heels on, she was only a couple of inches shorter than me. Even without the heels, she wasn’t that much shorter than me. I had a feeling Paris would be tall as well. I’d have to get baby girl into basketball when she was old enough.
“I only live in a one-bedroom apartment, but I want to get some stuff at my place for Paris. At some point, I’ll have to move because I would want her to have her space,” I told London was we walked.
We took a different path from the one we took when we got here.
