I smile at her. She is so goddamn cute when she is mad.
“You are my bunny, always will be. But I want to show you something.”
I get up and leave. If she doesn’t want to follow, that’s okay too, but she is so mad she will. I sneak a look over my shoulder and, sure enough, she follows me to the library. I open the door and she stomps past me and stops.
“My babies.” She breathes and hurries to the shelves and plant stands littering the room. She gently touches their leaves, tests the soil, and smells the leaves.
“When did they arrive?” She smells a flower on a plant, and she’s smiling now. Jesus, who knew plants made her smile? I should have been sending her plants.
“Sunday, but I didn’t want to bother you. Rose has been looking after them all week. It’s too cold to move them to your house right now. I didn’t want them to freeze.”
She stands up and looks at me; her face bright and happy, and my chest hurts and I rub it.
“I will look after them. Some of them require misting every day. This one needs to move. It is too sunny here for her.”
She picks up a pot and starts to rearrange the plants, so I step up and, without thinking, she hands me a pot. All the while, she talks away, ignoring the fact that she wanted to rip my face off three minutes ago.
“My Ivy needs to go into filtered light.” She switches the pot in my hand, and I follow her. “This is a Purple Clover. It’s actually an outdoor plant and considered a weed in some countries, but I think she’s beautiful.” She holds the pot up for me to see, turning it in her hand like a prize, and I smile, and she squintsher eyes closed, scrunching up her nose in a grin. She moves another pot into my hands.
“This is a Monstera Adansonii, also called a Swiss cheese plant.” She strokes the leaves. “I love the name. That’s why I got it.” She giggles, “Swiss Cheese, don’t you think that’s funny?”
I am absolutely captivated by her. I don’t know shit about plants, but I will follow her all day with my arms full of pots as long as she keeps talking.
I clear my throat, “And what does Mr. Swiss Cheese need?”
She smiles up at me and moves another pot to the shelf beside her.
“She needs to be watered when the top inch of her soil is dry. She also loves the humidifier and indirect sunlight. It needs to be misted every day.”
She moves another plant into my arms, and I grab it quickly before she drops it. “This is Hoya Krimson Queen.” She beams at the ugly-looking thing, and I smile quickly as she looks at me.
“She needs to be watered only when she dries out.” She looks at me, her expression serious now, and says, “She can’t be over-watered, or she will get root rot and die.”
She has a pout on her lips as she looks around the room, and she looks at me with concern all over her face.
“I’m sorry Alexander, but I’m going to have to come in here every day and take care of my babies. Thank you for the shelves, but they are all wrong. Rose did a great job, but only I know what they need. I won’t bother you, I'll just pop in and water them and go home.” She bends over and whispers to her Swiss cheese plant, “Momma’s back, my babies. I’ll get you all in your right spots.”
Well holy fuck, if I knew she would be in this house everyfucken day, I’d have told her on Sunday her plants were here. I could have seen her all week, damn it. Not that I minded sending the gifts; that was what drew her in here in the first place; but to see her every day. I’ll be hanging out in the library a lot more.
She is moving pots, and I have two in my arms and one hanging off haphazardly in my hand.
“Isabella?”
“Humm?” She moves one plant down a shelf and grabs the one in my hand. I hold out the one plant and she takes it, not looking at me at all.
I don’t know why I say it or where this thought even came from but fuck it. “Do you think we should get a designer in here? Maybe make this a living library?”
She stops and looks up at me. The shock on her face freaks me out a bit, and then the fucken sun comes out, and I am blinded by her smile. The real smile, the one she gives everyone else but me.
She claps and bounces on her feet. “Oh Alexander, that’s a great idea? Oh, do you hear that, my lovelies? A living library.”
Then she stops, her body going stiff and looks up at me with that look, almost a scowl, but not quite. “Is this a trick? What’s your game?” She raises one eyebrow and hugs the pot protectively to her chest as if I’m going to grab it from her hand and throw it on the ground.
“No trick.” I hold up my one free hand. “I just thought it would be better than trying to move all this. Plus, I’ve gotten used to all the greenery in here.”
She squints her eyes tight and purses her lips to the side, studying me.
“For real?” She scowls at me.
