An Unexpected Floral Delivery

Cassidy stared at the man standing in front of him with a cold, indifferent stare as he cleaned one of his shot glasses with a rag. The man standing before Cassidy was dressed in a pink and white colored uniform, short shorts hugged and showed off the worker’s shapely legs as they held out a large, and expensive looking, bouquet of flowers.

“Delivery for Cassidy?” The delivery guy swallowed his nerves as the older looking man raised a bushy brow in confusion. “Um, there is a Cassidy here right?” Anxiety formed in the young man’s stomach. He hoped that he hadn’t just stumbled into the wrong address. However, the feeling slowly died as the bartender slowly nodded and moved to take the flowers out of the worker’s arms.

“Yeah, that’s me.” A plume of thick black smoke hit the delivery boy’s face as Cassidy leaned in. A fat cigar hung out from between the man’s slightly chapped lips as the worker held back from coughing in Cassidy’s face. Teary eyes watched as a few ashes fell from the cigar and onto the delicate petals. Dark eyes stared down at the mainly orange and yellow arrangement for a moment as he took in a deep breath before blowing out another ring of filthy smoke. This time he was courteous enough to at least blow it away from the worker’s face. “Who’s it from?”

The delivery boy tugged at his skimpy shirt’s collar at Cassidy’s question. “I don’t know. T-The company promises that all flower deliveries are secret unless the sender wants to reveal who they are.” Cassidy’s hard stare had the man in a cold sweat as he started to slowly and gingerly back away from the larger and more intimidating bun. “There’s a special note with the flowers' meanings and that might hint at your admirer.” The man choked up and started to cough as Cassidy blew a ring of smoke right into his face. The taste of cheap tobacco, tar, and burning whiskey collided in the back of the poor man’s throat to the point he had tears streaming down his face.

Cassidy watched in silent satisfaction as the man ran out of his bar. A silent chuckle caused his large belly to jiggle slightly as he looked back at the floral arrangement handed to him. “Least I didn’t have to tip the damn fool.” The bark owner’s voice was gruff as he slowly dug out the small note buried in the center of the flowers. A vibrant, warm assortment of petals gently drifted down and onto the dirty dive bar floor as thick fingers pulled out the delicate pastel pink card. Cassidy sat the flowers off onto their side on the wiped down bar counter as he propped himself up in a barstool typically reserved for patrons. 

“We hope you enjoy your secret admirer’s flowers! Grown locally with only the finest available seeds and soil by the best gardeners in all of Burrowgatory!” Cassidy rolled his eyes at the statement as he quickly jumped down to just what exactly was in this bouquet. “Your admirer has amazing taste! Your arrangement is composed of; Marigolds: Symbolizing mourning, the fragility of life, and death.” Cassidy blinked as he reread just what the card said. His lips were tight as he stared at the gold and orange flowers for a moment. With just the first flower, Cassidy already had a strong idea of just who his ‘admirer’ was as he turned back to keep reading what else his bouquet was full of.

“Yellow Chrysanthemums: Symbolizing sorrow and neglected love. White Chrysanthemums: Symbolizing devotion, loyalty, and mourning.” Cassidy was sensing a theme with these flowers as he took a hit off his cigar. A thick black cloud hung above the older man’s head, his horns seemingly catching the gloomy smoke and keeping it near the bar owner. “Yellow Acacia: Symbolizing secret/forbidden love and longing.” A loud snort left Cassidy as he stared at the card. A disgusted snarl twisted at his lips as he blew out a thicker, darker cloud of smoke from the corner of his mouth.

“Fuck you. I’m done with your bullshit.” Cassidy’s voice was a low growl as he spoke to himself. The large man was tempted to just toss the flowers into the garbage where they belonged but, some part of him made him finish reading the damn card.

“The final flower of your impressive bouquet; Pink Camellias: Symbolizing longing, faithfulness, and gentle love. Your admirer picked out amazing flowers symbolizing a devoted undying love to you! You must truly be a special bun to deserve such an amazing-” Cassidy didn’t bother reading the rest of the card as he brought his cigar to the fancy card stock. Dark eyes watched as the card burned and charred under the lit head with apathy. When the card was completely illegible, Cassidy pulled his cigar away and took a final drag off it before snubbing it out in his dirty ashtray.

It was clear to the bar owner that the company didn’t know that the man who sent these flowers was someone who wasn’t supposed to have any sort of contact with Cassidy. Hell, the unwelcomed stalker might have even bought the floral company just to send these to the large man. Cassidy drummed his fingers against the bartop as he looked over at the flowers Mammon had bought him. He could always throw them away, burn them, do something to get rid of them. The corporate rat had plenty of buns keeping tabs on Cassidy, word would get back to him one way or another on just what the man did with his extravagant gift. 

There was no right answer on how to get rid of the flowers. No matter what Cassidy did, Mammon would keep sending him flowers every year during Matentines. Ever since the pair separated, he would send him nearly the exact same selection of flowers if not these then he would send nearly truck loads of roses and fine chocolate hoping to bribe Cassidy into going back to him.

Cassidy’s eyes slowly lit up as an idea came to him. A smirk rested on the frugal man’s lips as he pulled the flowers towards him. Usually, Cassidy would buy Tei flowers for the season. But, this year almost every place Cassidy went they were completely sold out of any and all flowers. Not a single place had even so much as common daffodils. Cassidy was almost afraid that he would have to simply forgo getting Tei any flowers this year and settle on getting the bun double the rich chocolate goodies they enjoyed. But, now, it seemed like Cassidy had just the arrangement for his partner. He just needed to rearrange the bouquet.

Sitting on their shared bedside table, Cassidy smiled at the warm arrangement he had gifted Tei. Taking out the marigolds and yellow chrysanthemums had made the bouquet smaller, but it made it sincere in what every flower meant. Tei certainly seemed to love it at least and Cassidy couldn’t find any reason not to love it too.