Troy was smirking as she walked out of the back room to where he stood behind the counter. He put an arm around her waist and whispered in her ear. “That’s not going to work,” he said.

“You’d be surprised,” she said. “I think I can handle things if you want to leave.”

“Nah, I’m not leaving you with this. I think I’ll go get my backpack and start on those papers I have to look through. Then tonight I don’t have to spend all my time on homework.”

“Let me wipe down the worktable for you.”

For about twenty minutes the only sound in the shop was the soft murmuring of the bridal couple as they went through the albums. The loud and snappish remarks had stopped but when Troy glanced into the office, they really didn’t appear happy. In a very short time they thought they had selected a few pictures and Grace sat at her desk once more.

“Very good choices,” she said.

“I’m sure they’re out of the question,” Janet said. “They’re just too beautiful to be affordable.”

“Well, let’s see,” Grace said. She sat at her computer and, after looking at one of the selected photos, she went to work. She began to type in numbers. “And how many parents and attendants?”

“Four parents, six grandparents, two ushers and four bridesmaids and groomsmen. This has been so stressful,” Janet said. “We can’t afford a lot. The reception will kill us if we can’t figure out a way to get our mothers to stop adding people to the guest list!”

“Happens at absolutely every wedding,” Grace said. Then she turned the screen toward the couple. “Here’s the package you like the best—it includes everything from bridal bouquets to altar arrangements to centerpieces for a reception that seats one hundred and forty. Even flowers for the mothers and boutonnieres for the men are included. The cost is steep—twenty-four hundred fifty dollars.”

“Jesus,” Jake said, running a hand over his head.

“Now, let’s take a closer look. Tell me your favorite things about these flowers?”

Janet pointed to the screen. “I love this lavender color, this fullness is so beautiful, the lavender roses, oh, my! And this kind of faint green with the white. This altar arrangement is so rich looking and huge...”

“Watch this,” Grace said.

Troy was too curious just sitting there. He wanted to see what she was doing and her back was to him. She was literally pulling flowers from the bottom of her computer screen and positioning them together. “For the altar arrangements, a different flower, same color, the hydrangea for color, take out the expensive orchids, three or four lilies with two to five blooms per stalk, baby’s breath rather than fern and pale green dusty miller, some carnations for fullness and maybe accented with this white stephanotis. I can use a disposable paper pot that won’t be visible under the draping flora instead of the square glass vase, or I can rent you the vases and you can return them reducing the cost. Voilà! The cost is cut in half. Now, look at the bridal bouquet—once again, take out the big orchids but look what I can do with cymbidium orchids, a few lavender roses and daisies. Less expensive flowers, but still very beautiful, very appropriate in a summer wedding. If you don’t love the daisies, I can use carnations or even white tea roses. And the bouquet is a bit smaller. The one you liked was three hundred. This would be one hundred. I can add roses pretty inexpensively if you want it bigger.”

Troy was astonished. Whatever program she was using—amazing. He had no idea this business could be so complicated or high-tech.

“Let me show you something I’ve used very successfully for table centerpieces.” She clicked on a picture. “A clear glass cylinder vase, flowers, white rocks, greenery at the base—I can do this for forty dollars per table. Or, I can tell you where to buy these glass vases and rocks very inexpensively and you can put the girlfriends to work and make it happen for less than twenty per table.”

“They’re beautiful,” Janet said.

“How’d you do that?” Jake asked.

“I buy in bulk, June prices should be good, I thinned the flowers and I know what everyone else charges. You can’t do better and I’ll make that a guarantee. I’m going to suggest you get your bridesmaids or mothers or both together to fashion big white or lavender tulle bows for the pews. Skip the flowers, though they are so pretty. You can buy the tulle at a fabric shop like Jo-Ann’s and save at least a couple hundred dollars and still have the decor of a fashionable and classy wedding. If they don’t show you how to make the tulle bows, I’ll be happy to. Now, those pew stands with candles are pricey—they have to be rented and you can probably live without them if you’re cutting costs. The things that really show in a wedding are the altar flowers, bouquets and table arrangements. I can work up an estimate for this package and email it to you if you like, but I’m guessing this selection will be in the neighborhood of six to eight hundred. Plus delivery, which I do myself. I want my flowers presented perfectly. And, of course, I guarantee everything.”

“Can we look at the next one?” Janet asked, opening the album to another page.

Troy smiled to himself and moved away. An hour later the couple was leaving with a contract in their hands and an official estimate on the way via email. And they were kissing.

Grace turned the sign on the front door and locked it. She was closed. Her meeting with the bridal couple had lasted almost two hours.

“I don’t know how you did that,” Troy said, stacking up his papers.

“I was taught,” she said. “The couple I worked for—they were so perfect at pleasing people.”

“When I first met Jake and Janet I thought they were headed for divorce. When they left, I thought everything would be fine.”

“This is so typical. They think they have a budget, but what they really have done is run out of money after the dress and reception and pictures, but they still want flowers.”

“For fifty bucks,” Troy said with a laugh.

“You have exceptional hearing.”

“Yeah, it’s a teacher thing.”

“They’ll probably argue about the expenses several times between now and the wedding and they’ll spend more than they plan to because it’s always more. But I use all the flowers I order so the bouquets and arrangements will be stunning, and that’s a fact. I’m very good at this.”

“Where’d you get the program that pulls the flowers together?”

“Mamie and Ross, the couple I worked for, daydreamed about something like that. We could make up sample arrangements and bouquets, photograph them and load them on the computer, but this is state-of-the-art. I worked on it with a nerdy girl I met in Portland. I admit she did most of the program work, but I designed the site and loaded the flowers and arrangements. Isn’t it great? It’s like creating an online greeting card. Mamie and Ross sold it to a couple of noncompeting florists. I think they got a good price.”

“Did you get a good price?” he asked.

“More than that, I got my future.”

Seven

For Ray Anne Dysart, life was more productive and satisfying than ever before, at least as far as she could remember. She had her real estate business, mostly property management, small but respectable. She owned her own home, something she had worked hard to make happen as a hedge against retirement, even though she had no intention of retiring until she had no other option. She had her best friends, Lou McCain Metcalf and Carrie James. And she had Al.