17

He eyes me for a few seconds, trying to come up with an excuse, ultimately giving up and deciding to just flee to the kitchen instead.

"Oy, don't run away," I groan, following him into the kitchen. "Straight up disrespectful."

"I don't know what you're talking about, she must have mistaken me for someone else," he says, hiding behind the fridge door.

"Ah yes, because there are so many men wearing kippot at your workplace."

"Actually, there are a couple of Jews there too," he shrugs.

I squint my eyes at him, obviously not buying any of it. "Fine," I say simply, leaving him there. I can hear him protest but he doesn't follow me, so he really isn't going to tell me — that's fine.

Operation: Who's the bitch, starts today.

I put both Daniella and Soph on a group-call the moment I make it into my room. Daniella is the first to pick up but Soph doesn't take much longer.

"Took you long enough, thought you didn't have the balls to ask him for a moment here," Soph says.

"Uh, he only came home like 10 minutes ago."

"What did he say?" Daniella asks with a sleepy voice, telling me she was probably sleeping when I called.

"Some BS about how Mrs. Smith must have mistaken him," I groan. "So, asking didn't work—"

"Let's get to the investigation!" Soph says getting excited all over again.

"Right, but we can meet tomorrow after work to decide on what to do exactly."

"I agree," Daniella murmurs. "It's too late for this."

"That's no fun, but fine. I say we camp tomorrow in front of his workplace, before the ending of his shift of course, and follow him—"

"Can I just ask how do you two think this is normal behavior as if you've done this a couple million times?" Daniella interrupts.

"Oh yeah, we've done this a couple of times."

"Anna, tell me you've never followed me home, please," Daniella groans.

"... I've never followed you home," I say, trying to seem convincing, even though I'm not lying, I've indeed never followed her home.

"Right, I think I'd notice a dying boat following me."

"Hey, don't speak of Erika like that, she's not a boat — she is dying though."

"Whatever, I want to go back to sleep."

"Ok, so tomorrow right after work it is."

⁂

I decided to walk to work this time around, not because Dani couldn't pick me up but because I need some fresh air and the morning temperature is so refreshing during Summer. Also because I've been looking for a car, and sometimes people will leave papers taped to the windows if they're trying to sell their used car, it's a lot easier to spot them when walking.

I saved a few phone numbers along the way but there's this one I liked specifically. It's an Opel Karl that is for sale near the shop, the paint is in good condition and the price isn't bad but I'm hoping I can negotiate it given there's a dent on the rear bumper.

It's nothing fancy but it's actually pretty nice for a first car, plus it's black in color which is somehow hard to find in used cars.

"What do you think?" I ask, showing Soph the pictures I took of it.

"Looks good to me, and it has AC, Erika is lacking on that," she says, putting some flowers away.

"I'm pretty sure every car that isn't a thousand years old has AC, I really didn't know what I was missing."

"Does your dad's car not have it?"

"His stingy ass would rather drive inside the car in complete darkness at night rather than turn the little roof light on, do you really think he'd ever turn the AC on?"

"Wait, doesn't the car produce its own battery? He wouldn't be wasting anything."

"It actually wastes a bit of gas to power it, like the tiniest bit of gas."

"Watch me drive at night with my headlights off now," she looks at me with a sly smirk.

"You can't be serious," I laugh, looking back at her, her expression unchanged. "Right?"

The day was busy, but it usually always is. I'd have never thought florist shops would get this many customers on a daily basis — I unironically thought people would only get flowers on Valentine's day but turns out there are many other occasions where one would seek a florist, such as funerals, birthdays, and men trying to surprise or apologize to their wives, the latter being the most common.

"This guy is in some deep shit if he wants a bouquet this big," Soph says as she gathers all the red and white roses we have at the back. "We'll have to use all our stock."

"I already sent a message to the grower but he'll only be able to deliver a new batch on Monday."

"That's fine, I think we can survive a day without white and red roses, just tell customers that Peonies and Dahlias are the new it, plus we'll be making some good coin out of this."

He called early in the morning to have it ready by the evening. The bouquet isn't only huge but he requested a really fancy arrangement along with a very sappy "Forgive me" note, so basically, we had to work the morning around this big order. I'd receive the everyday customers and prepare their order while they waited a bit while Soph worked on the bouquet in the back. About halfway through it, we switched, I'd work on the big order while Soph would do the smaller ones.

We had so many orders today that we had to start turning clients down shortly after lunch, we were completely out of flowers by then. Now we only have to wait for the guy to show up and take his big-ass bouquet. And I sincerely hope his wife doesn't take him back, she's worth a lot more than a $900 flower arrangement that'll only last for a couple of days.

After cleaning up and placing a new order to the grower about what flowers we would need for Monday, I took the opportunity to call the number that was tapped to the car I saw this morning and arranged a meeting for the weekend — I still can't believe I'll finally have my own car.

Unfortunately, when the time came for the guy to pick up his flowers, what I'm guessing is a chauffeur came instead — which is unfortunate, Soph and I were betting on how he looked. Soph bet he'd be an attractive rich guy in a suit and I bet he'd be your everyday Joe being unreasonable with his money, either way, we agreed that he's in some deep shit. But seeing a chauffeur picked it up, Soph might be in the win here — unless he's the chauffeur.

"I won again," Soph says victoriously, throwing her cards on the table.

"Because you keep changing the rules," I groan, picking them all up, looking for the box to store them in. "Next time we play a game that I know too."

"You only know how to play Go Fish."

"So we play Go Fish," I say, making her groan. We decided to play cards as we waited for Daniella to be done with work since there was nothing else we had to do in the store. We could technically leave but it's better to have the store open so we can maybe convince customers to come Monday instead, and to not give the idea that we always close this early.

It was around 5 PM when the door to the store opened making the little bell ring as Daniella came in. "Not very busy, I see," she says with a hint of humor, seeing me storing the playing cards away.

"We ran out of flowers half through the day," Soph answers proudly. "This store hasn't seen better days since Anna and I took control of the business, we're smashing the competition."

"We're the only young florists in town, every other store around has old people running it and they have terrible taste. No wonder customers come to us instead," I chime in, high-fiving Soph.

Daniella simply looks at us with an amused expression, coming closer to the counter to give me a quick kiss on the lips. "Shouldn't we be going? Or have you forgotten about your little mission?"

"We have time, he only leaves at about 6 PM," I say, taking my apron off. "Look at you excited about it."

"I just want to get it over with," she groans, but I know she has gotten a bit curious about the whole thing.

We arrived at my dad's workplace with about half an hour to spare. Daniella parked her car a few blocks away on the other side of the road where he wouldn't immediately recognize us from inside it and close enough that we could see his car leaving the underground parking garage.

"Now we wait," Soph says, clasping her hands together.

"Now I really hope he's off doing something because I definitely don't want to be here waiting all evening if he happens to be just working until late," Daniella says, eyes on the garage opening.

"Don't say that," I groan.

"I'm sorry Anna, but I'm with Daniella here — except that I'm in for the drama," Soph butts in.

"I can't believe you two," I sigh, my hopes shattering when I see my dad's car pulling out of the garage. "Shit! Dani, there he is, let's go! Follow him!"

"Calm down," Daniella laughs, starting the car.

"Wait up, don't just straight up follow behind his tail, let a few cars in between so as to not make it obvious," Soph says, sitting up straight.

"My dad doesn't care and doesn't know enough about cars to tell this one is Daniella's."

"I'll have to agree on that one," Daniella says, letting two cars pass in front of her before pulling out of her parking spot. "How many times has your dad gotten surprised that I was at your house even though my car was literally parked in front of it?"

"Every single time."

Daniella slowly follows him as he makes his way through the city, always keeping a few cars in between, going as far as stopping a few times to let a few more cars pass through.

"Wait, it looks like he's going home?" I murmur, seeing him pulling into the street that leads up to our house.

"He's onto us," Soph says as Daniella parks the car at the end of the street where we could see if he would stop home or drive straight down the street, but to our surprise, he did stop home.

"It might be because of our conversation yesterday," I groan.

"So what now?" Daniella asks with a sigh. "New plan?"

"I'll call him to tell him I'll sleep at yours, he'll think it's safe to leave."

"But we'll be here waiting for his ass," Soph chimes in.

Daniella lets out a loud groan, letting her head fall into the steering wheel, luckily it didn't trigger the horn. "Ok, but can we get something to eat before we do that?"

After we were stocked in all kinds of fast food, we set camp at the same corner Daniella stopped before, where I proceeded to call my dad, his car was still in the driveway and I could see a light in the living room. It took about an hour for that light to turn off and his car's headlights to turn on. We again let him go first for a while before following him back where there were more cars we could use to hide behind.

We followed him for a good while until he stopped at what looked like a pub, but it isn't just any pub, this pub looks like the kind of place church people would come after... well, church.

"Where's his kippah?" Soph gasps as he leaves the car, his head bare as he enters the place. "Anna, your dad is converting to Christianity?"

"No way," I squint my eyes, trying to see what was going on inside.

"We need to go nearer if you want to see anything substantial, preferably on foot," Daniella says, a glint of excitement in her eyes. "Damn, I really thought he was seeing prosti—"

"Let's go," I say, opening the door and stepping onto the sidewalk. Dani and Soph were quick to step to my side. "Wait, isn't it better if only one of us goes?"

"Uh, I want to see it though," Soph says.

"You forced me into this, now I want to see it first hand too."

"Ugh fine," I groan, walking to the entrance of the pub but stopping beside the showcase window where I peered into, followed by both Soph and Dani. I quickly spot him near the counter, with a woman? I only have time to see her face for half a second as Daniella lets out a gasp. "What's wrong?" I ask, pulling away from the window.

"That woman, I've seen her before," she says, looking back at me. "I'm pretty sure she's a teacher at the school I'm teaching at."

We all gasp at that at the same time, even Daniella gasps at her own words. "No way."