Page 21 of My Kind of Happy

‘And wine,’ Claire put in. ‘All the essentials.’

‘So our shop will be more than a florist,’ Karen continued. ‘It’ll be the hub of the community, we hope.’

‘What about you, Harriet?’ Fiona asked, as we filed outside to our cars. ‘What’s next for you?’

‘My sister is getting married here,’ she replied, getting her phone out to show us a photo of the venue. ‘So I’ve offered to do her flowers to give me some more experience. And then, I hope to do as many weddings as possible. My wedding day was the best day of my life and I want to help other brides have the day of their dreams just like I did. The cake, the dress, the flowers are the holy trinity of things people remember most about a wedding. I want to create flowers that no one will forget.’

I gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’m sure you will.’

‘That’s another good one,’ Claire nudged her sister. ‘You can put that on the business cards.’

‘Tell you what,’ said Karen, scribbling Harriet’s wise words on the back of her hand with a biro. ‘If your wedding business goes tits up, you can always go into writing motivational slogans.’

Harriet laughed. ‘I think that’s a compliment.’

‘If that’s your business ethos, Harriet, then I don’t see how you can possibly fail,’ I said, feeling proud of them all. ‘All of you have such good intentions for your floral skills. I’ve only done this course to make myself happy. I feel a bit selfish.’

‘Absolutely nothing wrong with that,’ said Fiona firmly. ‘As Oscar Wilde once said, “A flower blossoms for its own joy” and yes, Claire, you can have that one as well.’

We all hugged goodbye after that. Karen and Claire drove off first, followed by Harriet. As I started the engine in mine, Fiona knocked on the glass and gestured for me to open the window.

‘I hope you will cultivate your new skills, experiment with different containers and practise, practise, practise until you’re spiralling stems for a hand-tied bouquet in your sleep.’

I gave her a lopsided smile. ‘I will. I’ve learned so much this week, but I’ve only scratched the surface and I want to keep improving.’

‘We all carry on learning our whole lives,’ she replied. ‘But flowers have a way of making people smile, even when a project seems impossible. All you have to do is let the flowers do the talking and have a little faith.’

I drove back home feeling happier than I’d done in months. Fiona was right. Flowers had already made me smile and life seemed a lot brighter for it.