"You're here to pick up the jasmines you requested for over the phone?"
"Yes please."
"Alright then, I'd just get them ready, you could sit over there while I bring them." The lady in a white apron pointed at the small table in front of the huge glass in the flower shop.
Paris managed to smile a little bit, returning the florist's really bright smile. It was tradition, flower shopping for the queen whenever her family was to visit the palace. She knew how much the queen adored flowers and it happened that jasmines were her favorites.
Paris was well aware of her family's dinner with the royal family later that evening and so she was getting a lot of things ready for it and thanks to her thoughtfulness, she had managed to win the queen's heart without so much work.
Paris and Vanessa were pretty close, she always stopped by the palace to keep her company every now and then but she couldn't say the same for the prince. Her relationship with the prince was...complicated.
Even though her family and the royal family had been affiliated for ages, and she and the prince basically grew up knowing each other, she couldn't really say so much about their relationship. Aiden never really liked to be around her. He never said it but he showed it. He never showed up for any of their dates in the palace and he never showed her any interest at all. He pretended to either be asleep or busy whenever she stopped by so this dinner meant a lot to her and more so, her engagement in three days, everything had to be perfect.
"Thank you."
She took off her glasses and made herself comfortable in the chair across the huge glass. You could see everything outside from the glass and everyone outside could see everything inside too, just as she liked it.
Attention.
Her eyes scanned the table until it settled on an edition of the royal magazine. A warm smile fixed itself on her face as she slowly reached for it. It made her really excited to know that in the next edition, her face was going to be in it, for the first time, the entire world was going to know, was going to see her as the queen to be. She flipped a page over.
"Here's your payment for this week."
Those had to be Anne-Marie's favorite words and they were starting to sound even better lately. It felt so good whenever pay day drew closer. At this rate, Abel would continue his chemo with no stress at all, just a little bit more and he could get his treatment. She could start living again and maybe take Abel's advice and go back to school.
She missed being in school, she missed being in the four walls of a classroom and learning like other kids. Even though she knew she was going to be held two classes back, she wanted to give it a shot, just like Abel wanted her to.
Anne-Marie couldn't hide her excitement as she took the envelope from the chubby lady in front of her. Running pizza deliveries didn't look so bad after all. She opened it like she always did to count how much was in it. She couldn't afford to be a cent lesser than her agreed wage.
Perfect,
It was complete,
"Thank you so much Mrs Shay." She raised her head to the woman who returned her smile warmly. "Thank you so so much."
"Thank you for being so relentless with your work." The woman told her. "Keep it up and you'd be making more than that working for our pizza shop."
She liked the sound of that. She liked the sound of more money. You could see it in the way she nodded her head as she slowly reached for her other envelope from her pocket. The one with all the cash from her previous jobs. She had to keep them all in one place. She took out the money from the other envelope and placed them gently in the first one.
"You shouldn't be walking around with all that money." The lady told her. "You should keep them in a bank."
"I know Mrs Shay, and I will." She answered. "I've never really had any reason to own a bank account since all I earn goes to the hospital and I've barely had the time. I'm happy because I've made a lot this time, at this rate, even after I pay for my brother's treatment, I could still have a little more for school. I have to open an account now. I will after I'm done at the library. I've got to run some more deliveries at my other work right now."
"You're going there to read again?"
Anne-Marie pursed her lip, hesitating for a second and then nodding.
"Abel thinks I should go to school again so I've got to read even harder than I used to. I'd go to the bank afterwards."
"Oh, that's amazing." The old lady seemed genuinely happy for her. "It's good that you'd be thinking more about yourself from now on. Oh, and that reminds me, I have something for your little brother, hold on."
"Okay Mrs Shay."
Anne-Marie watched the lady turn around and head into the shop. She couldn't wipe off the excitement on her face. It felt so good knowing people cared about her and her brother, it felt so good knowing she was so close now to achieving all she had ever wanted. She turned to around and took a deep breath when her eyes settled on the flowers that adorned the entrance of the flower shop. They were so beautiful.
Anne-Marie had almost forgotten how much she loved flowers, just looking at them made her heart melt.
The flowers from the flower shop made the air even better.
Ring!
Anne-Marie reached for her phone as she scanned her eyes through the flowers. She didn't need to look at the caller to guess who it was. It had to be from her other job since she was about ten minutes late.
"Hello," she said placing it firmly on her right ear. "I'm so sorry Mr Bright, I know I'm running late but I'd be there soon-"
She pushed the phone away from her ears immediately the man at the other end started to yell at the top of his voice. He had to be really upset, he was always upset so it was no news. Anne-Marie knew better than to interrupt him. All she had to do was pretend she was listening until he was done yelling. She swallowed hard and pushed her gaze to the huge glass of the flower shop on reflex and then froze the moment she watched the florist walk up to Paris with a bouquet of flowers in her hands. She could see how the smile on Paris' face brightened.
What was this?
What on earth was she looking at? She lowered her phone from her face as she felt her body go numb at that instant, and then everything else went static.
"Here are your flowers."
Paris got up from her seat the moment she heard those words from the florist. Finally. She let the smile on her face widen when she saw the flowers. They looked so beautiful, so organized. The queen was going to love it.
She slowly took it from the lady and took a deep breath when she smelt it. They smelt pretty good too. It was exactly what she wanted. She raised her head to the lady.
"They are lovely, thank you."
"There's no need to thank me, I'm forever at the service of your family." She told her. "I hope the queen likes them."
"She definitely would." Paris searched her pockets quickly for her phone. She got it out immediately and placed it on her face so it could recognize her ID. She stretched it to the woman.
"I should take a picture shouldn't I?"
The lady's smile brightened. She knew exactly what Paris wanted. She took the phone from her and then took a few steps back, raising the phone to get the perfect angle of Paris. Paris stroke a pose and lifted the bouquet of flowers below her face, holding on to it firmly.
"Make sure you get every angle. Make me pretty."
That was a picture for the gram. Paris could already think of the perfect caption for it.
"Flowers for the queen, my soon to be mother-in-law."
She had to take advantage of every shot she got to put herself out there.
"Done." The lady announced after taking about three shots. She slouched her shoulders and walked up to Paris to return her phone.
"Great." Paris took it from her. This was the moment she had to go through them to choose the perfect one.The lady watched her in anxiety, hoping she had got the right pictures she wanted. She let her take her time, she was well aware of the kind of temper Paris had when she was disturbed.
She took a deep breath and turned to the glass, that was when her eyes met Anne-Marie.
The lady froze.
"Huh?" She whispered, finding it hard to believe her eyes. What was that? Was that some kind of a joke? A dream? She quickly turned back to Paris, hoping and praying that she hadn't started to see things. Paris was still standing right there, she staggered.
How was it possible? How was she right there and out there? How on earth were they two of them? What on earth was this? What was going on? She placed her trembling hands over her mouth and turned back to the glass. Anne-Marie was having a hard time believing what she saw as well.
"Y-you-" the lady pointed at her.
Paris could sense how her voice was trembling. Why was the florist acting incredibly weird? It was unlike her. She raised her head from her phone so she could look at the lady who seemed like she had just seen a ghost. She kept staring and pointing outside. Why?
Paris traced her finger to the glass and then outside it. She could see the girl standing right there, pretty with her black hair packed up in a pony tail, she had pretty dark eyes with tiny freckles underneath them just like her. She looked just like her.
"What in the name of King Albert-" the lady said as Paris unconsciously let go of her phone.
What was this?
How did a girl in cheap clothes, standing right outside, right in front of her look exactly like her? How was the color of her hair and eyes the only different thing about he both of them? How did they have the same height? How did they look exactly the same?
Anne-Marie felt her legs weaken.
"Impossible." She whispered. It was really hard to believe.
"Anne-Marie!" The loud yell from her phone snapped her back to consciousness. What on earth was she doing? Had she been ignoring her boss all that time? At that point, Anne-Marie knew she could lose her job in a moment if she didn't take that call seriously.
Paris narrowed her gaze as she watched Anne-Marie turn away slightly to talk into her phone.
"I never knew you had a twin." The lady beside her said. "I've heard stories of people looking alike but not like this, not identically like this. I've never seen this in my entire life." Paris was barely listening to anything the florist was saying. She had all her focus on Anne-Marie.
"It feels like a dream, it's so amazing to see something like this-"
Paris dropped the flower on the table immediately. She needed answers, she needed to know what was going on, she needed to know who that girl was and why she looked exactly like her. Paris made for the exit door immediately while Anne-Marie turned as fast as she could.
Her boss had just given her five minutes to get to the store and if she was a second late, she was going to lose her job. She couldn't afford to lose that job, it paid her better than the others. At that point, nothing else mattered but meeting up with the deadline. She couldn't bother about any of the things she just saw. She couldn't afford to.
She started to race down the street as fast as she could before Paris even got out of the shop.
Paris froze, staring at the direction of where Anne-Marie was just standing.
Where was she? Where did she go?
She scanned her eyes through the busy street hoping she could find her but she didn't. Anne-Marie was long gone.
What did she just see? What in the lord's name just happened?