5/24/10

Down in the Dirt
By Vela Damon


"Listen, we’re either in this together, or we’re not. I can’t hold them off anymore, Benni. I need an answer."

"Dave, I’m a little busy right now. Can we talk about this later?"

"Now or never, Benben. What’s it gonna be?"

Benni sighed, picked up her shears, fantasized of stabbing Dave just to shut him up once and for all. But she wasn’t homicidal; just tired of the same old conversation. So she slashed out her frustration on a sheet of cellophane wrapping for her next order: a dozen purple roses with six white calla lilies.

Dave never brought her flowers. “Well, you’re around them all day. That’d be like you giving me a radiator,” he’d said, like it made perfect sense, even though nobody ever gives anybody a radiator. Just an excuse for being a cheapo. He’d say the same thing about buying jewelry if Benni worked at a jewelry store, or thumb tacks if she worked at Staples.

Benni met Dave while she was going through what she liked to call “a rough patch”. Really it was a straight-up, Sahara-worthy drought. Otherwise Dave would’ve been out on his ass months ago.

Okay, weeks ago.

Okay, let’s just say he’d be out. Probably.

No guy would ever measure up to Steve anyway, so what difference did it make?

Steve...just mention his name and suddenly Benni’s back in high school, wearing his letter jacket and making out in the backseat of his IROC. Not at the same time. Usually. But there was the one time when the heater went out and....

See? Benni’s whole life was a game of Six Degrees of Separation from Steve. And now Dave wanted her to stop playing on her home turf.

“Come on, Benni. You know what an opportunity this is for me. For us. The money’s huge. You won’t have to work some crappy job you hate. You can just go to school full time.”

Benni stopped making needless adjustments to the bouquet, boxed it and put it in the walk-in cooler with the day’s other orders. Dave followed her inside, snuck his arm around her waist, pulled her close. “Hmmm...why don’t you put out the ‘back in an hour’ sign? We could....”

“A whole hour, huh? You’re proud of yourself.”

“I earned it. Quantity and quality, baby.”

Good lord, what a cheeseball. But he wasn’t stingy in the bedroom; Benni had to give him that.

She pulled away. “I can’t. Gladys might come back.”

Dave held on. “So? Then you can tell her you quit because you’re moving with me.”

Benni pushed out of his embrace, turned to face him. “Would you stop pestering me about it already? Jesus! Do I have to spell it out? I don’t want to go, okay? I don’t want to go WITH YOU. There! Do you get it now?”

Dave rubbed a hand over his face, let out a long breath, turned toward the door. “Yeah. I get it.”

The door whooshed shut after him. Benni wanted to run out and apologize. She hadn’t meant to be so harsh, but he’d just kept on and on and on about it, for weeks now. He’d call her later, anyway, start bugging her again like he always did after a fight. She could say she was sorry then, explain her reasons for not wanting to go.

He deserved that, at least. It wasn’t like he was a total jerk or anything. Just not The One, aka Steve.

She peeked out to make sure he’d gone, spotted a mess on the floor. Great. Hopefully it was just one arrangement and not a whole shelf. Legal or not, Gladys would take Dave’s blowup out of Benni’s pay.

She grabbed a broom and dustpan from the back room, held her breath as she approached the mess.

Just one, thank goodness. Ceramic pot—not a glass vase—so fewer shards. Live plant—dirt instead of water—so easier to clean. And maybe she could even save the plant.

Gladys would never have to know about the vase, or the tiny cards and envelopes knocked from their display, ruined now by all the dirt. Benni gathered them and only noticed the one with writing on it after she’d thrown it in the trash.

You’ve taken ROOT in my heart. Dave.

Her Dave?

No, just a coincidence. Somebody decided the cheesy sentiment sucked and didn’t use it; people left the cards lying around all the time. Once she’d seen a guy go through 14 of them before getting it right.

Benni gathered the shards. The pot had been pretty: deep blue with a silver sun, moon and stars motif, the same theme as her bedroom. The plant was one of her favorites, too: night-blooming jasmine, already starting to bloom even though it was still daylight.

She picked up the plant and let out a little shriek.

The diamond lying in the dirt was huge, three carats at least. Dave couldn’t afford something like that. Could he? Would he? For her?

She scooped up the ring, dusted it off, slipped it on her finger. Perfect fit.

In the storeroom, she found the plant a nice, neutral-toned home.

She stepped over the rest of the mess on the floor, switched the Open sign to Closed, and set out to find Dave.


- - -
Vela has been writing ever since she could form sentences. Whether or not she ever learned to form them correctly is yet to be determined.