I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy rifled through the seed packets until she found the right ones and pointed them out. She noticed that Leo ignored the multicolored packet and went straight for the ones that were all red like his hair. 

Was red his favorite color? That would certainly be a lucky coincidence for him. She couldn't imagine her favorite color ever being dirty blonde. It was so boring!

"Thank you," he told her again. 

"No problem! Do you have the other stuff you'll need? A pot? Soil? A watering can?" she asked. 

"…no. Like I said, I haven't done indoor gardening before." 

"Don't worry about it! I'll help you find what you need." She patiently walked around the nursery with him telling him all about the differences between growing things indoors and outdoors as he hung onto her every word. 

Daisy wasn't sure she had ever had any man listen so intently to what she had to say. Let alone about flowers. This whole experience had been bizarre but not in a bad way aside from her earlier embarrassment about calling his hair pretty. She had no idea where that came from. 

She normally didn't talk to people unless they talked to her first. That usually only happened at work if her coworkers were feeling chatty. 

It must be because she recognized a kindred spirit when it came to plants. He did say he had experience planting fruits and vegetables. He must have used to live somewhere with a yard and now he was stuck in the big city unable to do that anymore. That sort of transition would be hard to get used to. She felt a bit sorry for him. 

Leo took his pot, bag of soil, and seed packet toward the front and set them down at the back of the conveyor belt before looking at her gratefully. "I never would have been able to figure this out without you. Is there anything I can help you with in exchange?"

Daisy hated admitting she needed help but somehow it wasn't as bad when it was an exchange. That made things fair. She wasn't depending on anyone that way. 

"Actually, there's this tree I wanted to get today but I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get it into my car. I could use some help maneuvering it in. I can get it out on my own later. But if that's too much to ask you totally don't have to feel obligated."

He shook his head. "I'd be happy to help you. I'll pay for this then you can get what you need and we can walk out to the parking lot together."

She could do that. She gave him a nod before going back for the small money tree she had passed earlier. Carrying it and the African violets at the same time was a bit challenging and she really shouldn't be doing this considering her somewhat recently broken shoulder. It didn't hurt yet but it probably would later. 

Leo seemed to realize her plight and came over to whisk the tree away without a single word. The gesture was so sudden and so unexpected that she had absolutely no idea what to say. She couldn't even manage to get a "thank you" out.

He managed to get the tree into her car without needing her assistance in the slightest and stood back with a slightly proud air about him. "There. That should do it. Are you sure you don't need anything else?"

"I'm fine! Thank you," Daisy said lamely, feeling that it had been said too late. 

"Anytime! And thank you again."

Leo took his things and began walking out of the parking lot. It seemed that he didn't have a car of his own. Part of her wondered if she should call out to him and offer a ride while another part of her said that was asking to be murdered. Every woman who lived alone knew not to let strange men corner them. 

He seemed really nice but that didn't necessarily mean anything. The world was full of creeps. Goodness knows she knew that better than most. 

Daisy headed back to her apartment complex and brought her bounty upstairs before realizing she had stupidly forgot the soil. Had she really been that distracted by a guy?! When was the last time that happened?

With a sigh, she headed back down to her car and got what she needed before going and transplanting her new friends. She listened to her favorite playlist as she worked and sang along to every word. 

Even though she had been forced to turn around and go back to the store she was in a better mood than she had been in all week. She wasn't sure exactly why that was but she wasn't complaining. She had wanted a pick-me-up today and that was what she got. 

Once her new babies were safely in their pots Daisy idly got onto Facebook and decided to look up Leo Blaze on a whim. She didn't find them there and was oddly disappointed. 

She had been vaguely curious what sort of person he was. Social media painted a very narrow picture of people but it was better than nothing. Hers consisted primarily of pictures of her plants, memes she found funny, and baking projects she attempted. Her life was pretty boring and it wasn't like she had any other people to post pictures of. 

Selfies weren't really her thing either. She didn't think she was very photogenic. Once in a blue moon she would take a good picture of herself and it would become her profile picture for everything until she found another one she liked a few years later. 

Daisy wasn't friends with anyone she actually cared about on Facebook. She only had an account because everyone else she knew did and it would have been weird if she didn't. She would add anyone she had met at least once so she didn't have a pitifully small friends list but it wasn't all that large either. 

Mostly she went on there to follow various pages and watch videos. Though it was helpful to check out potential dates before she went out with them on the rare occasions someone was interested in her or vice versa.

That was why it was a bit disappointing that she couldn't find the guy she met in the nursery. She had hoped to figure him out but there wasn't any real reason to do so.

Whatever. Leo might have been interesting but he didn't matter. No one did. 

Daisy was never going to see him again so there was no reason for her to be interested. Even if she was, he would let her down the way everyone else had. Of that she was certain. She was never going to trust anyone again after what went down with her last boyfriend. 

She didn't need other people anyway. If she could survive recovering from being hit by a semitruck on her own, she could survive anything. Other people were nothing but a painful distraction. 

He was quickly forgotten until she happened to run into him again in the grocery store a few days later. She ducked behind an aisle so he wouldn't see her. Why was she hiding? She didn't have anything to be ashamed of shopping in her own neighborhood!

Leo was squinting at something in the freezer section and a moment later Daisy saw him open the freezer door and pull out her favorite brand of take and bake cinnamon rolls. He added it to his rather small basket of groceries. The only other things in there were bread, tomatoes, a wheel of soft cheese, and a jam jar. 

He headed straight for the self-checkout area after that. He probably wasn't buying much because he didn't have a car and didn't want to have to carry it all home. 

Did he live nearby? She wondered if he lived in her complex but if he did then why would he have a suitcase like he was visiting someone? It didn't make sense but it was none of her business so she shouldn't dwell on it. 

Daisy ended up getting some more of those cinnamon rolls for herself. She was running low and they were her comfort food so that wasn't something she ever wanted to run out of. She grabbed a few other things from the freezer section before pushing her rather full cart to a checkout lane. 

She did two big shopping trips a month and only went to the store if she ran out of something important in between. Living alone, she really didn't go through that much food on her own unless she went on a baking binge. 

The last time she had done that was around Christmas. There were so many recipes to try but she had to cut them all in half and even then still ended up bringing most of it to the office to share with her coworkers so she didn't eat all of that junk herself. Being a baker that lived alone was dangerous. 

In college she had been able to give food away to her roommates but once she got her own place she couldn't do that anymore so she started sharing food with her desk mate and anyone else who was interested. 

The only reason anyone at work knew who she was happened to be because of how often she brought in baked goods and left them as a free-for-all in the breakroom.. People would occasionally stop to exchange small talk with her as a result but that was the extent of it.