Page 51 of My Kind of Happy

‘When you put it like that,’ he said with a grin, ‘it’s a bargain.’

I told him to take his jacket off and roll his sleeves up while I made room on the counter, selected plenty of flowers and foliage and put them in a bucket of water.

‘We’ll both do a hand-tied gift bouquet, you can copy mine and give it to Pandora and mine can be for the next suitable phone order.’

‘Deal.’ He looked at the bucket of flowers I’d selected and exhaled. ‘So where do we start?’

I gathered together three stems: a bushy piece of ruskus, some white spray roses and a huge peach peony, and showed him how to grasp them in his left hand, keeping his thumb free. It took a few goes for him to get the grip right but once he did, he was quite pleased with himself.

‘Look at that! I think I’m a natural,’ he said in surprise, inspecting the flowers from all angles.

‘And modest with it,’ I teased, enjoying his success as much as he did.

I lined up the next few stems for him.

‘Open up the thumb, place your new stem between your thumb and first finger and slide it behind the others, keeping it at an angle.’ I demonstrated with a sprig of gypsophila. ‘Next some foliage.’

He nodded, dragging his eyes from his hand for a split second to see what I’d chosen and then picked the same. We repeated it twice more before I showed him how to give the bunch a quarter turn.

‘Now we add more. Can you see that the stems below your hand are forming a nice spiral?’

He looked at his and then mine and frowned. ‘Why does yours look better than mine?’

I laughed. ‘Because you’re uptight. Relax, drop your shoulders and loosen your grip on your precious flowers or they’ll end up bruised.’

‘I am tense, you’re right.’ Sam blew out a sharp breath and circled his shoulders. ‘You sound like our cricket coach.’

A sportsman; that explained the broad shoulders and toned arms. Something Ethel once said came back to me from nowhere: if you find a young man who plays sport, hang on to him. Not enough youngsters do anything these days, they’re all armchair experts. I smiled at the memory until I remembered that Sam wasn’t mine to hang on to; he was Pandora’s. Or trying to be. The woman must be barmy.

‘You said earlier that you ended up homeless and almost lost your job?’ I put my flowers down for a second and adjusted the two delphiniums which Sam had added into his bouquet and which now protruded like horns. ‘Seems an extreme punishment for giving your wife substandard flowers?’

‘My marriage and my job come as a package. Pandora’s dad is Duncan Hogg who owns the company. He and my mother-in-law Sybil moved to the Canaries a few years ago, but he still calls the shots. The vague plan was that I’d eventually take over the business, but I can’t see him ever giving up his position of power. Not sure I want the company, to be honest. Anyway, Pandora phoned her parents in floods of tears to tell them I’d left her and they both jumped on a plane and flew home. Sybil moved into our house for a week to look after the children while Pandora refused to get out of bed and Duncan hauled me over the coals under the illusion that if she’d thrown me out, I must have been unfaithful to his daughter.’

‘They sound very … involved,’ I said tactfully.

‘They’re very protective of their only child, but after I’d given my side of the story, Duncan apologised for jumping to conclusions. All the same, I’ve been “strongly advised” to make a go of my marriage if I know what’s good for me.’

I wondered if Pandora had been given the same advice. I wasn’t naïve; there were two sides to every story, but it takes two to tango.

‘If I were you I’d—’ I stopped in my tracks and snapped my mouth shut.

‘You’d …?’ He looked at me, deep blue eyes focusing on mine. ‘Go on?’

Look for another job.

I swallowed my words. We’d only met twice; it wasn’t for me to make that sort of comment. We had only met twice and yet I felt a real connection between us. I wondered if he felt the same. I gave myself a shake.

‘I’d extend my arm,’ I said plucking something from the air. ‘So you can see the flowers from a distance, spot any gaps or over-crowding.’

‘Oh, right.’ His gaze lingered for a second and then he did as I suggested. ‘Like this?’

‘Perfect. What do your friends and family say about your situation?’ I stopped myself with a gasp. ‘Oops, ignore me, it’s completely none of my business.’

Sam chuckled. ‘I don’t mind. The majority verdict is that I’m crazy.’

But it was all right for them, he pointed out, the younger ones had none of his responsibilities and the older ones were happy to dole out advice that they wouldn’t have dreamed of taking themselves. And then there was his job. It wasn’t perfect, but he liked not being tied to an office, and there were benefits to having a boss who was out of sight for ninety per cent of the year.

It was quite soporific listening to Sam’s deep gentle voice while my hands were busy, creating and tweaking, weaving flowers into a perfect combination. I noticed that his grip had softened, his posture was less rigid and he was inserting each flower into his bouquet with care.