The First Prince Meets The Witch

The next morning Dahlia resumed work along with Julia, and neither of them mentioned the strange incident that had happened the other day.

If not for the bruise on Julia's arm, one would have thought the incident never happened.

"Good morning, everyone," Dahlia announced cheerfully to her employees as she stepped into Floral Fantasy.

She has six employees in total. Julia, along with Marco, works outside in the garden where the flowers are planted and nurtured. Kayla is a florist, an expert in flower arrangements and window dressing.

Then there is the finance manager, Leila, and her two delivery men who handle delivery: one is a driver, the other goes along to do the delivery, and then there's Fred, her part-timer who helps out around the shop.

For Dahlia, she had no fixed job; she does everything and anything. You could see her in the garden one moment, then the next she would be inside the shop doing window dressing or even following the delivery truck, which is why she is so popular among her workers.

"Good morning, Dahlia, our fairy godmother," they all replied in a chorus as Dahlia passed out the crisply baked cookies she had brought for them.

"Julia, you don't want some cookies?"Dahlia asked her friend, who stood back watching while she appeared to be lost.

"No... no, I am good." Julia declined the cookies and went to change into her work clothes while Dahlia stared after her worriedly.

"Okay guys, let's get back to work and make today count," Dahlia yelled at the top of her lungs, and her staff responded in kind before she headed back into her office in the back room.

Thoughts of her best friend's behavior plague her as she also changed into work clothes; she needed something to distract her mind from all the strangeness that surrounded her, so she will work in the garden.

When Dahlia reached the garden, Julia was already there, she was dealing with the weed that was disturbing the flower beds, and with the gloomy expression on her face right now, Dahlia knew talking to her is definitely not a good idea.

So she decided to till the ground and prepare the flower beds for the next set of flowers that she was planning to plant.

Getting her hand in the soil always feel different, and she knows that because she is the one that tilled the ground for those flowers, they will bloom faster and grow taller than others; that's how it's always been.

In no time, the soil was already prepared, but it is not yet time to plant the flowers, so Dahlia decided to water the growing plant while watching her best friend with a side eye.

Then Dahlia smiled mischievously as a thought occurred to her: "Time to tease the moody idiot," she thought to herself, and with that she directed the spray on Julia and showered her with water before she quickly directed it back to the flowers like she had done that unintentionally.

"You just sprayed water on me. Am I one of your plants?" Julia complained, rising from the flower beds she was weeding.

"Oh, I am so sorry, I had no idea you were there, since you didn't make a sound, I thought you were one of the flowers," Dahlia replied with a straight face while Julia only looked at her for a second before she headed for the second spray used for watering the flowers.

Soon enough, they were both drenched with water while the other employee watched from inside the flower shop.

"They are at it again," Kayla murmured to the others and everybody rushed to the windows to watch the scene between their employer and her best friend.

"Wait, who is that, he just got down from that BMW and he is approaching them with his perfectly tailored suit, he looks familiar?" Leila said as they watched the scene unfolding in the garden

"Wait…that is Damien Valendy, the DV, Good God what is he doing here?" Leila exclaimed and they all watched in horror as he got drenched with water and they watched as their employer and her best friend froze with terror when they noticed him, and they dropped their water hose to stare at him.

"Good grief!" They all yelled in unison.

~~~~

"I am so sorry, Mister, do accept the apology for my indiscretion," Dahlia apologized feeling too embarrassed to appear professional.

"Accept our apologies," Julia put in as Damien dried himself with a towel, a gentle smile on his face all the while fuming inside; he is not a big fan of getting wet because of his nature.

If he is to get wet, he would rather he do it in a place where he can dry off quickly, but now he has no choice, but the good thing is that the incident had given him an advantage.

"It's alright, Dahlia, don't get antsy about it," Damien replied with a smile, and Dahlia's expression turned suspicious as she stepped back from him.

"How did you know my name?" Dahlia asked. "You don't know that your flower shop is a big name, Dahlia; anybody could know your name, but that's beside the point. I know a lot more about you than you know about yourself," Damien replied; his expression had turned serious.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" Dahlia asked, her blue eyes turning a shade deeper as she became anxious.

"I'd rather discuss that while we are alone. Why don't we go somewhere more private?" Damien demanded, as they had been chatting in the staff's changing room where anyone could barge in.

Dahlia stared at him defiantly for a while, but he remained unmoving. "Fine, my office," Dahlia finally gave in and led the way to her office.

They were almost there when Damien turned to Julia. "We need to be alone," he said in a voice that demanded to be obeyed, but Julia was having none of it.

"Not on your life," Julia replied before Dahlia could say anything, pushing Damien out of the way and entering the office ahead of them. Dahlia followed suit.

Damien let out a blistering curse before he entered the office after the two ladies, turning the lock with finality.

~~~~~

30 minutes later.

"So what you are trying to say is that Dahlia here is a witch. Not surprising, I'll tell you; she's been acting very weird lately," Julia put in after Damien was done with his story.

Damien turned to glare at her, his face telling her to shut up, but Julia just glared back. "What did you call my name again?" Dahlia asked, a dumbfounded expression on her face.

"Olywn Fairey,"

"And if I am all these, how do you fit in, and why are you here?" Dahlia asked, not able to process anything as she felt like her brain cell was dead.

"I am a prince, the prince of Ezra, and to help that same kingdom that you came from, we need your help," Damien replied with urgency, his blue eyes staring into Dahlia's own, and the moment seems fraught with tension.

But Julia let out a laugh, breaking the tension. "Is this one of your screenplays, Mr. Valendy? We will be sure to check it out on Netflix, of course."

When Julia said this, Damien's eyes turned red in anger as he turned on Julia, and Julia moved two steps away from him.