I run a flower shop that I've sustained for over 10 years now, I enjoy my job as I know a myriad amount of flower definitions and meanings from my youth making me knowledgeable in this field of work. Due to my age catching up, I am currently training a new worker who's not as knowledgeable with flowers as I, but understands enough meanings to work here and is good at understanding what people want despite being quite a naivete and a bit of a pushover always giving the clients what they want. They’re full of ideas and always pioneering new methods and ways to sell the flowers to our customers, yet they're modest about their creative skills.

Today a young man came in to request an assortment of bouquets for a funeral. As I unloaded the new batch of Queen Anne's flowers, I overheard the trainee asking "What type of flowers would you like to be in the bouquet sir" the customer responded with "What flowers would be good for a funeral" unsurprisingly the worker responded knowingly with "Well white papaver is lovely due to their meaning of remembrance and we just received a fresh batch of red spider lilies which express final goodbyes if you'd like those."

The man solemnly asked for a batch showing their stark and bare emotions towards the grim situation showing, after paying the price and departing the employee got straight to work. However, after examining the first bouquet they undid it and completely changed the structure of the look along with adding an extra flower to the blend. It was basically hypocrisy to the original design, and though I grew curious, this was not the first time this had happened within the short amount of time I had worked with them. I knew to let them do as they pleased with the art they created at this point.

The next morning when the same customer came in to pick up the flowers they were shocked to see how they came out compared to what they requested. The employee had made hooped bouquets with the flowers they asked for along with adding a third one. "I hope this will do fine, I just thought this design suited it better" the customer didn't seem displeased which I took as a win, considering the audacity it took to pull a bold scheme for such an important event. "Are those baby's breath flowers," he asked "No" was the response "While having a similar appearance baby's breath, these are Queen Anne's lace expressing healing and I thought they helped to embodied the look I was going for to make them as nice as possible for the mournful occasion, after all, funerals are more for the living and the dead“.

With a heartfelt and mournful stare, he thanked the employee and reached for his wallet to pay for the extra flowers, the worker fused about it being on the house and then proceeded to help carry the hoop bouquets to the customer's car before we both waved goodbye. As we walked back I casually stated "I hope you know you’re paying for those flowers you gave for free" this not being the first time the naive employee had done this, they gave a rushed nod before hurting back to work.

(Hope this is fine, I tried to meet all the marks but you should checked just in case)

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3 years ago