The next morning, Kim awoke with her head pounding. She heard rattling coming from her kitchen. She reached for the clock on her nightstand and groaned - 8:30AM. "Go away!" She muttered.

"Morning Sunshine!" Mel smiled when she saw Kim trott down the stairs in a robe. "Oh," Mel cooed. "Late night?"

"I need my key back. No one is allowed in here until past ten o'clock." Kim made herself a mug of coffee and took a seat at the table with Mel.

"Where'd you go last night?"

Kim immediately felt a lie form in . "Nowhere."

"Oh, 'cause I called you and no one picked up. I called the shop and blank. I even called Monica and she said something about a party." Mel raised her eyebrows in suspicion.

"Yeah. There was a lame party. Remember Lizzy and Kevin, they invited. Well, Mark invited me, but it didn't work out. My plan of relaxing didn't work out." She hid her face as she took a long gulp of hot coffee.

"Is Mark the hot computer nerd who helped you a month ago?" Mel asked handing over a box of pastires she picked up on the way.

Kim shook her head, "That's Sean. Mark is the one I told you about who is THIS close to stalking me."

Mel nodded. "Isn't Gerald their contractor? I think it was Matt and 'Chong who introduced them."

Kim barely choked on the liquid coffee. "Gerald? Why would you even mention his name?"

Laugh espaced Mel's lips. "Why are you defensive? I was just asking if he was there."

"Yeah," she squeaked. "I think I saw him somewhere in the crowd." Lying was not one of her strong suits. "His car in the driveway." Which wasn't a complete lie, she did see his car. "Look, I hate to be see 'em and leave 'em type of girl; it being my own house and all, but I need to get to work. I have so much things to do and two and a half days to do it."

Kim heard her front door close when she reentered her bedroom, and the first thing that caught her eye was his jacket. She slowly walked over to it and lifted it from its resting spot. She held it up against her nose and smelt him. "What am I doing?" She murmured, putting it back on the chair and heading towards her shower.

"Mon, where are my statice and hypericums?!" She called out from the backroom.

"Was that even english?"

She needed to bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Kim adjusted some the stems and took her heavy duty clippers to trim some of them.

"I need my jacket."

"Right. Sorry, I forgot to give it to you last night. It's in the closet to your right."

He followed her pointed finger and drew it over his arm. "It's alright. I have a consult just across the street so decided to drop by." He glanced around the room and dropped his jacket on her chair. "Is that garlic bread I see? I skipped out on breakfast, and look at the time" he flashed his watch towards her. "About my lunch break."

She chuckled. "Help yourself. As much as I hated Mel raiding my house 8 o'clock in the morning, she did leave some goodies from that Italian place we love. There's also pasta in the container in the refrigerator, and a microwave behind you." Kim pushed the unfinished arrangement to the side before leaving the room to yell at Monica who hadn't answered her.

When she came back, he was sitting down on her computer chair, his feet up on the desk and eating directly from her container. "Don't worry, Ge. Make yourself at home while I slave around doing my job."

Her hands were full of purple and white flowers. That's what they were to him, flowers. Things that bloomed in the spring and peaked in the summer, dying in fall and completely buried in winter.

"Sorry," his mouth was full. "What are you going to eat? This is amazing by the way."

"How do you think I keep this killer bod?" She her hand on her sticking out hip.

It sure was a killer bod, he thought. Wait, stop thinking about her body, he flinched. "So what are you working on now?" He asked getting up and going to stand by her.

"It's the centrepiece for a wedding. They want an abundant of colours so that's what I'm giving them. So far the bride is one of my favourites. She's also a florist, but doesn't want the pressure on her wedding day, so she is very detailed in the skectches. And the groom is extremely simple. White rose with baby breaths and some accents of red and green."

He put a forkful of pasta in front of Kim's face and she took it in. "Okay, I got to go. I have ten minutes to digest and drive to a fifteen minute consultation with a rather fussy client who has no idea what she wants." He closed the contained and place back in the fridge. "Oh, I meant to ask you about the car."

"Shai gave me a number for a mechanic and it was brought in this morning. I have released the prisoner," she joked, placing the final stems into the arrangement.

"Good. Thanks for the food," his hand rested on the middle of her back and he leaned in for a quick peck. "I'll see you Satuday."

"Bye." She wave goodbye.

As he walked back to his car, he could picture her getting back to the flowers, drowning in their intoxicating scent. He could see her cleaning the stems and clearing out the thorns from them, strategically placing them in radiant bundles.

As he thought about her, he thought - briefly, but actively - about leaning down the last two inches and taking that mouth with his. Kim was a fun person, he could've played it off as a joke and shared a laugh with her. She'd probably get a kick out of it.

He shut his door and rubbed his face with his hands. "Stop it," he mused. "This is Kim you're talking about. You're supposed to think of her as your sister, not a girl you want to kiss."

Gerald laughed at his reflection in the mirror. "Look at you, you're talking to yourself in the mirror. Stop!" He pointed.

He put his car into drive and drove that fifteen minutes to his consultation when he realized..."Damn it! ! !"

This was now ridiculous. He was like one of those idiots who deliberately left something at a woman's place so he had an excuse to go back and try to score. And duh, that wasn't it.

Was it?

, maybe it was.