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He peered down into the basket. “Um, I don't know much about plants. Which ones will be least likely to die in my place?” he said with a laugh.
I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Jeez, you guys! Alright, well, take the cactus, it should be pretty damn tough. And this one, it's a succulent that doesn't need much water. It'll also be able to survive the um, harsh conditions of your apartment.”
“Awesome,” he said as he took the plants out of my basket. “I'll do my best not to kill them.”
“Yeah, let me know how that goes. Well, I gotta head out now. Otherwise, I’m buying a bunch of plants for myself. Thank you for the donation!”
“No problem. Good luck getting rid of the rest of them. I hope you get some decent offers on 'em.”
“Thanks, Emerson. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon.”
He smiled, took the plants, and headed into his apartment. I watched him go with a smile on my face. There was definitely more to Emerson than met the eye, I knew that much.
***
I arrived back home around seven o'clock with one plant left—one I'd kept especially for Leslie. It hadn't taken much effort on my part to sell the plants; I'd just walked around the neighborhood and knocked on the doors of people who had a lot of flowers and plants adorning their patios or porches. Most were receptive and donated pretty generously. I raised over a hundred dollars, which wasn't bad for two hours of charity work.
I walked in and saw Leslie in the kitchen, whipping up dinner.
“Hey, girl!” she called out as I walked in.
“Hey, Les, how was your Saturday?”
“It's been good! I had rehearsals with my amateur troupe most of the day. Remember, I told you we're doing Hamlet in a couple of weeks?”
“Oh, yeah, how's that going?”
“Great! The guy who's playing Hamlet is so talented. I'm learning a lot from him. I feel like I'm gonna improve by leaps and bounds this semester. How has your day been?”
“It's been nice. I joined RAG and went to my first meeting today.”
She giggled a little. “Their name still cracks me up. I remember you wanted to join up last semester, but your schedule was too crazy. So, how was it?”
“The people there are great. They're really dedicated and they take it seriously. And, I felt like they were all genuinely compassionate people who really care about making a difference.”
“That's just the sort of people who need to be running something like that.”
“Yeah. And, they gave us our first task to complete.”
“Oh yeah, what was that?”
I held up the basket and took out the last remaining plant, holding it up with a triumphant smile for Leslie. “Ta-daa! A local garden center donated a ton of these for us to use to raise money for the Johnson Children's Home downtown. I saved this one for you.”
“Aw, it's lovely! How much?”
“However much you'd like to donate, really. No pressure, I've made over a hundred bucks already, which will make for a great donation when combined with everyone else's.”
“Cool, so how does five dollars sound for that little one?”
“Sounds good to me. Just drop it in the box and we can get it out onto the balcony.”
“Here you go,” she said as she paused with making dinner and dug in her purse for some change.
I took the money and popped it into the donation box and then took the plant out to join the others. I stayed out there for a few moments, rearranging the plants.
As I walked back inside, I saw Leslie standing in the middle of the living room, her hands on her hips, with an expression of pure fury across her face. At the same time, I heard it—the powerful thumping of bass rattling everything in our apartment.
Chris.
