Got ‘em!

So I got my flowers.  And yes, ladies, I’m about to gloat and even gush a bit.  So stop reading now if you’re going to get catty!

Not only did I get flowers like I’d wanted, but I got them the best way imaginable.  Iowa had been gone for three weeks, and was returning the next day.  I was freaking out.  My high-maintenance client had sent 17 emails in two hours, all of them bitching about items that were, quite frankly, not my concern.  I was trying desperately to get ahead, so I could take the next afternoon off and pick Iowa up from the airport.

Meanwhile I wanted everything to be perfect for his arrival.  I’d cleaned the house and picked up stuff for a fancy meal: chicken cordon bleu, rosemary potatoes, something green (broccoli?), and homemade cherry pie.  Between the work madness and the self-inflicted perfection freak-out, it was a wicked Monday.  The kind of Monday that smacks you across the face and says, “Sucks to be you, bitch!” Then slaps you again for shits and giggles.

Around 1:00, I needed a breather, and I needed someone to calm me down.  You must know that I never freak out. I mean never.  So this was truly nuclear.  I went out to my car and called Iowa.  He was golfing.  Surprise.  But he answered on the second ring.  Thank goodness for cell phones.  At any rate, his refrain was, “the day can’t get any worse, and you only have a few hours left.  Then you can go home and relax.”

Feeling slightly better, I schlepped back into the office and chugged my third Coke of the day.  It needed a long pour of Jack Daniels.  Alas, no such luck.  I went for the iPod and threw on some “Garden State.” (“You would do somersaults in sand for me”)

I did not hear the door slam, but I did hear a stranger call out over the cubicle maze.  ”Krista?”

“Eh, close enough.  What can I do for you?” I half-stood so he could see my head over the cubicle, then plopped back down and ripped my earbuds out.  My long, dreary exhale was not lost on the intruder.  He looked even more harried than I probably did (and I hadn’t even really brushed my hair that morning–surprise, surprise!).  But he was holding a beautiful arrangement of a half-dozen red roses.

And (OH SNAP!) they were for me! Now, on Friday my co-worker had gotten sunflowers from her married dude.  I’d been shamefully jealous.  So now I had my own.  And Iowa actually dropped the L-Bomb in the card, after using three exclamation points for “see you soon.” Iowa eschews all effusion and public display, including gratuitous punctuation.  So this was quite a message: three exclamations points and the L-Bomb!

I had to call him again.  That was why he’d answered the phone so quickly earlier–and why he’d assured me so confidently that the afternoon could only get better.  Perhaps the best was that he’d ordered them a full two weeks beforehand.  I knew, because about a week into his trip, he told me he’d gotten me something.  He wanted to know now if he got double points for sending them on a bad day.  Uh, yes.