He really wasn't sure when it began. His fascination with growing things. He always had some sort of plants growing up, ivy, petunias, a bonsai tree even at one point. It was his connection to nature in a world so distant from what it should be. A world alien to him. He longed for the open woods. To live in nature as it was intended.
He first saw her at the nursery. He had gone in to get some roses. He had grown so many different type of flowers that he wanted to plant a rose garden. She caught his eye as she bent down to smell a delicate pink rose. His heart was won in that instant, for him it was love at first sight. He could think of nothing else. She stood up straight and looked right at him. He had never felt so exposed before. It was as if she could see into his soul.
After looking at him for a full minute, staring him straight in the eyes, she smiled. His world exploded with that smile. She was an angel. Her dark hair framed a face that delicate but lively, full of life. Her eyes glowed in the dimmed light of the greenhouse, they seemed golden. They entranced him. Breaking away, she turned lithely and pranced away. He watched go, speechless, frozen like a deer in headlights. He had never had an encounter with a female like this before. He knew them from school, but he had kept to himself. He didn't have friends. The plants were his friends. They never complained and they always responded to loving care.
Coming back to himself, he watched her walk into the back, it seemed she worked there. He knew that he would be back every chance he could get. He bought the roses he had come for and went home, planting them for her. He had made sure to buy the very ones she had been smelling. He started his garden for her.
It went on like this for weeks, turning into months. He never could bring himself to ask for her, but every week he came into the store, buying whichever flower she was nearest or in those rare instances when she helped him, he bought whatever she suggested. He could never speak to her though, he was so shy. He simply nodded. Occasionally, he could force out a few words about what he needed. But it was so hard, and there was absolutely no way he could ever manage to work up the nerve to ask her out.
After about a year of this, he made his normal purchase, more roses this time - delicate white ones, he needed them to fill out his garden, he accidentally left his wallet at the store. It just so happened that she found it. She had always thought he was a strange but attractive man. He seemed so shy and innocent, and she could tell that he clearly was infatuated with her. She liked him enough that all he needed to do was ask her out, and she would go. But he never did.
"This is my chance," she thought. "I can go see his home and see where he is putting all those flowers. I can go see what's going on. Then I will know how to approach him." So, after work, she gathered her things and headed out. It was a drizzly day, but that never stopped her before. She tucked his wallet into her jacket pocket and put on her helmet. She loved driving her scooter, it was so economical, and she loved the feel of the wind on her face.
She was moving along at a good pace when the truck came out of nowhere. She never saw it coming. Her last thoughts were that she would never see this beautiful garden he had been creating. She really wanted to see that.
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