Melissa was on lunch when the flowers arrived at the office. She'd forgotten to pack a lunch, and had walked over to the little supermarket at 8th and Main to pick up something to eat. When she entered the office, the entire administrative tetam was standing at reception waiting for her.
"So what did Scott do," Erin, the receptionist, asked.
Looking at her blankly, Melissa shrugged. As far as she knew, Scott had done nothing upsetting for quite some time. "What are you talking about?" she asked.
Erin and some of the girls giggled. "Oh you'll see," she said, hitting the bbutton that unlocked the door for employees. "You'll see."
Clutching her purse and shopping bag, Melissa headed back to her desk. It was right where she left it, but in addition to her computer, bookshelf, and stack of files there was now a massive floral arrangement. It contained her favourite yellow flowers: daisies and roses and tulips, with sprigs of baby's breath and a few other yellow flowers that Melissa didn't recognise thrown in as filler. It was massively out of proportion to anything she'd seen outside of a funeral parlour, but it was well planned and definitely impressive.
Melissa searched the greenery for a card, but found nothing. there was nothing to indicate where it had come from, not even the florist's name. She set her food down, and reached for the phone.
"Hello?"
Melissa smiled at the sound of Scott's house. "Hi! It's me! I wanted ot let you know how much I love them!"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Loved what?"
Laughing, Melissa shook her head even though she knew Scott coudn't see her. "The flowers, silly! They're on my desk right now. They're gorgeous! I didn't realise you'd paid that much attention to what flowers I liked. Thank you!"
"What flowers?" Scott sounded seriously confused. "I wish I could take credit, but I never sent you flowers."
Melissa stopped laughing, and stared at the flowers, searching again with one hand for a card or something in its depths. "I got a hufe bouquet of flowers at hte office. There's no card, I assumed it was from you." There was still no card that she could find in the pot. "Who else would be sending me flowers?" she said, almost as an afterthought.
"Maybe it was a mix up," Scott said. "You say there's no card, maybe they just walked into a building, found an office with a Melissa and left it for you."
That had to be it. "You're probably right," Melissa said. "I'll get the florist's name from reception and try to get this fixed. Sorry to have bothered you."
Scott chuckled. "I'm flattered you thought it was from me before anyone else. Youahevn't called anyone else, right?"
Melissa teased him for being a jealous husband with no reason, and hung up the phone. Then she headed back to reception.
The only person there was Erin, who was still grinning like there ewas a huge secret being sprung.
"Erin, was there anything wrapping the flowers when it came in? Any address information, anything like that?"
The petitie receptionist shook her head vigourously. "Nope. A young man brought it in, said it was for you. Then he left."
Melissa had never heard of a delivery technique like that. "Did you sign it in? He must have given some information to have signed it in."
Erin tilted her head to one side, the way she did when she was thinking really hard about something. "No, you know what, he just dropped it on the counter, said it was for you and by the time I'd gotten the book out he was gone. I never even had the chance to ask him."
"So how did you know it was from Scott?"
"I just assumed. I mean, who else would send you flowers other than Scott?"
"No one that I'ma ware of," Melissa said. She shared Scott's theory of the misplaced delivery. "I guess if he didn't leave information, then I'm stuck with the flowers. Unless you want them up here?"
Erin shook her head vigourously. "No, we're not allowed ot have flowers up here except for deliveries. Allergies, you know. We lost a client once because the flowers in here set off their allergies so bad they had to leave." Erin made a disgusted face. "Spaeking of, you should probably take those home tonight."
Melissa nodded, and walked back to her desk to eat lunch.
For the rest of the afternoon, Melissa was distracted by the flowers. They were beautiful, if unorthodox. No one could have created a better bouquet for her if they'd asked her detailed questions about what she liked. This may have been a coincidence, bu tit was a pleasant one. She hoped the florist didn't come back for them, it would have been sad now that she'd gotten used to them.
She took them home with her after work. Scott took one look at them on the entranceway table, and frowned.
Nothing else was said about it that evening. They spent the evening in, watching TV in the basement. Melissa couldn't help but notice that Scott was a little extra attentive, offering to cook dinner and make drinks afterwards. It was the most unusual evening melissa could remember them having for a long time.
Back at work the next morning, Melissa endured more ribbing from her co-workers. She tried to find out if anyone else had ever gotten flowers in such a fashion before, but no one had heard of such a thing. It was, in all seriousness, a bit of a mystery to everyone. But by coffee break it had been set out of everyone's minds as they focussed on their work and deadlines.
At noon, Melissa received a call from reception. Another delivery had arrived, in the same fashion, at the front desk. Erin had tried to stop the young man to ask him more questions, but he had turned so suddenly after dropping the flowers on the desk she didn't even have a chance to see his face.
By the time Melissa got to the front desk, Barry the office manager was walking in from outside as well. He looked at the flowers, and at Melissa and Erin, and shook his head.
"Erin told me about yesterday, and she phoned me as soon as this guy showed up again today. I tried to catch him, but no dice. He moved pretty quick for a delivery guy."
Melissa checked the bouquet with Barry and Erin watching. Erin was saying how she hadn't touched them, this was exactly how they showed up and no one else had been in here. Again, no card.
Barry checked as well for good measure. "You're absolutely sure Scott isn't doing this on the QT for any reason," he asked.
Shaking her head, Melissa ran through the events of last night in her mind. "No. Scott was acting more jealous than anythign last night. I can't see him having sent these and then acting like that. It makes no sense."
Tapping fingers on the desk, Barry stood in thought a moment. "OK, so something is going on that neither of you is finding particularly pleasant, is that correct."
It was Erin's turn to nod. " I feel like I'm not even doing my job properly here, I can't get a signature from this guy. Plus, who wants creepy deliveries in the office. People are going to talk."
Melissa felt the blood drain from her face. "Oh no, people aren't talking about this, are they? I mean, beyond just teasing me about Scott?"
"Oh no," said Erin. "But we wouldn't want to give anyone reason to start."
"Let's assume there's a chance this will happen tomorrow. We're going to hope it's the end of it," Barry added quickly, obviously seeing Melissa's discomfort at the idea. "But let's plan ahead. Tomorrow I'll take reception starting at about eleven. Erin, do you mind taking your lunch early tomorrow, and maybe making it a leisurely one?"
That made Melissa and Erin both laugh. It wasn't really a difficult request to be made.
"Would you mind taking it at the coffee shop across the hall?" Barry continued. "The company will pay for it, as an expense to try and keep morale up. I think they'll beleive that at HQ," he finished with a wink.
Erin nodded. "And you want me to watch the hall when he shows up?"
"Exactly. I'll watch the desk so you don't have to confront him. Melissa, can you work in the boardroom here? You can keep an eye when he comes in and come out if you need to try and talk to him."
With a plan in place, the three stared at the bouquet. "We can't keep that here," Barry said. "Melissa, would you mind if I take it downstairs to the garbage compactor?"
"God no," Melissa said. "If it's not from Scott, and he swears it isn't, I don't want it. Please take it away."
Barry nodded, picking up the massive bouquet. "You two get back to work, and let me know if anything unusual happens this afternoon."
It was another afternoon that was difficult to concentrate on her cases. Melissa found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, trying to listen in on other people's conversations, and jumping when the phone rang. She felt horribly jittery, and was sure that it showed. Barry stoped over a couple of times with tea and offering to let her talk if she needed it, reminding her that a therapist was available through the company policy if she needed it, and finally recommending she take off a little early to calm down before going home.
Melissa drove around town a little while before heading back to the house, She wanted to clear her head, and think about what was going on. Weird deliveries weren't dangerous in themselves, but it seemed to be that someone wanted her attention. She decided to not say anythign to Scott, just to see if he gave anything away that would indicate he'd expected a reaction this evening. She didn't really feel like cooking tonight, so she stopped at a grocery store for some hot food from the deli. Scott wouldn't complain as he loved this stuff, but she felt a little guilty for not keeping to her normal routine. It felt like these flowers were affecting her life just be being there.
Getting home and opening the front door, Melissa had to work around the table filled with the yellow bouquet form yesterday. She tried to not look at them, and then finally, exasperated, she dropped her bags in the hall, grabbed the bouquet, and took them out to the garbage bin in the driveway. She crammed them in, set the lid on them solidly, and marched back into the house, determined.
Scott didn't say anything when he came in a short while later, but Melissa could see he was curious about som ething. She served out the food, with a side salad she pulled together from what was already in the fridge, and they ate in silence. Afterwards, they went downstairs and watched another movie. Melissa started to talk about a problem she was having on one case, and Scott offered his thoughts. As the night went on the conversation became more relaxed, and Melissa started to think that she'd been overreacting to the flowers.
Erin had booked the boardroom the next morning for Melissa, for the whole morning. Barry had set up a computer before Melissa even got in, and she was feeling pleased to work with people who would try to make what should have been such a minor incident feel more comfortable for her. She set to work, and found that in the quiet room she was catching up on the backlog that had been developing over the last couple of days.
A knock on the door interupted her. Erin stuck her head in. "I'm heading across the hall," she said. "Barry is watcing for our guy, and if either of us see anything we'll let you know. You might want to keep an eye on the doors from here on if you can."
"Sounds good. Can you leave the door open when you go?"
Erin nodded as she wedged the door back. "Good luck to all of us. Let's get this dealt with and back to normal, eh?"
Melissa grinned, more confident looking than she felt, and gave the thumbs up. "Of course!"
Once Erin left, Melissa's productivity disappeared. She had one eye on the monitor, but one on the reception area. The nerves from last night were back, and she had butterflies in her stomach.
At a few minutes before noon, the door to reception opened. Melissa stood quietly, and moved over ot the door so she could get a good view of the desk. It was the UPS delivery man, with a few envelopes for the office. He and Barry had a small chat as Barry logged in the deliveries, and then the office was silent again.
Melissa felt silly, jumping up at every sound, but before she could turn back to her work, the door opened again. A large bouquet of flowers, held by someone completely hidden by their massive scale, walked in. "Delivery for Melissa," said the youngish voice on the other side.
Barry stood up, grabbed the bouquet, and pulled them away, faster than the delivery guy could react. It was a very young man, in his early twenties, blinking at htem under a red baseball cap and looking very confused. Melissa ran out to see him.
"Who sent the flowers," Barry was already asking. "What company do you work for?"
The young man was still looking shocked, his mouth opening and closing silently for a few minutes as he tried to work out what he should do. He turned ot leave, but Erin had slipped in and was already locking the door.
"I don't know who sent them," the young man stammered. "Some guy gave me twenty bucks to bring these up leave them here and get out fast. Said he weas doing it as a joke for his girlfriend."
Melissa felt stunned. "What did this guy look like?"
The kid shrugged. "No idea. He said to pick the flowers up from the florist down the street. Therew as an envelope with the twenty in it with the flowers."
Even though he was usually mild mannered and quiet, Barry could be imposing when he wanted to be. Apparently now was one of those times. "How did he tell you this?"
"Ad on Craigslist. Look, I just wanted to make some easy money," the guy looked utterly terrified now. "I didn't sign up to get grilled by you."
Erin snorted from where she stood by the doors. "Maybe you should think of that before you take these jobs," she said. "Give us one reason to not call the police right now."
Melissa's eyebrows shot up, and Barry looked a bit incredulous as well. It seemed over the top, but Erin could do that very well when she wanted to.
The kid started to look really scared now. "Look, I can show you the ad on Craigslist if you want. And I'll never take a job like this again. Just let me get out of here. My parents' will freak if they have to bail me out again!"
Melissa walked around to the computer and opened up Craigslist. "What am I looking for," she said.
The ad itself was pretty vague. It had a Hotmail address as a contact, and offered twenty dollars for a delivery to this guy's girlfriend. That was it. After getting the delivery oys information from his driver's license, they let him go.
"I'm not sure how we can find the person who posted this," Barry said. "I'll email Craigslist and tell them that the result of this ad has been harassment. Hopefully that will stop this from happening again. In the meantime, Erin, do you want to dispose of this," he waved a hand to the flowers. "If it happens again, I say we call the police, because then it will be a little more than a prank."
It didn't happen again. Days went by, then weeks, with no more flower deliveries. Melissa started to relax, although she still occasionally felt nervous when something unexpected happened around her. Mostly she chalked it up to an error in identity, and moved forward.
Eventually she told Scott what had happened. He didn't look happy about it, but he also wanted her to knw that he hadn't been behind it. "That would be a bit cruel, wouldn't it?" he asked, quite seriously. "If I send you flowers, it will be with a card. Promise."
"I think," she said, a bit nervous of the thought of flowers at the office again, "I think I'd prefer to be taken out for dinner." They laughed at that, and Scott grabbed her coat, immediately taking her out for a nice evening on the town.
In another office, on the other side of town, a young man walked into an office with a huge bouquet of flowers.
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