Petals on the Ground

He went for a brisk jog in the morning. When he arrived home, his legs burned with oxygen rich blood. The perspiration of his body saturated his jogging attire. It had been awhile since he had jogged three miles, but he wanted to have a lot of energy for that night. He jumped in the shower and with a smile on his face thought about his date later that evening.

“What to do for lunch?” he asked himself. It didn’t take him long to realize that a fresh salad was the logical choice. What, after all, would be the point of an invigorating jog if he were to slow himself down with something heavy? He enjoyed the drive to the farmer’s market just a few miles from his house. It was going to be a good day, he repeated to himself constantly thinking of the beautiful woman he was going to see later that evening.

The April sun high in the sky showered down in warm streams through the sun roof of his car as the breeze cut sharply and quickly through his thick brown hair. The air was crisp, fresh, and clean as it was drawn into his nostrils and filled his lungs, expanding his chest with the positive outlook that he had started the day with. The smell of warm leather tickled his olfactory senses and danced with the scent of wild flowers from the outside making its way through the windows, which he rolled down to invite the day inside his car.

He stepped out of the car with a spring in his step, confident in everything but especially the fact that not a single thing could deter him from the perfect date that he was to have in a few hours. The vendors smiled at him as he picked the vegetables, nestled in their wooden crates. Dollars rustled between his fingertips as he made his transaction and was well on his way back home until a fragrance beckoned back to a lonely stand in the corner.

There was a small girl whose big brown eyes and sun tanned face stood still; thick, dark hair ending in two pigtails on either side of her small head almost as if she were waiting for him. The stand was small and simple and wasn’t overflowing with its wares. It was nothing special, but it caught his eye nonetheless. The warm spring sun baked the fragrances and magnified the smell of freshly cut flowers from the little stand. He walked over and asked the little girl how much. She told him and he took a bouquet of daisies. “Now!” he said, “Now, the date will be perfect!”

It had taken him longer than usual to muster up enough courage to ask her out. He wasn’t sure why it was but it was fun trying to figure it out. Was it her beauty? The sparkle in her green eyes that seemed to gleam, seemingly, just for him? The hair that waved like a tiny auburn ocean sitting perfectly on her head? The way her rose colored lips would curl at the corners and reveal a smile that seemed to shine for his eyes only? Or was it her voice that swam in the air into his auditory canal as smoothly as silky milk pours into a tall glass? But it was done, and his worry dissolved into relief and quickly grew into confidence as he walked back to his car, vegetables in a bag, and flowers wrapped delicately with paper.

When he arrived home, he fixed his salad and ate it with great gusto. He placed the flowers in an old vase he filled with water and kept it in a cool area of his apartment to keep the flowers from wilting. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. He read a book, cleaned up the clutter in the apartment, and even sorted out the mail, something which had not been done in quite some time. But then it was time to get ready.

His suit was pressed and wrapped over his shoulders and around his chest like the paper around the daises he had purchased. He took his favorite tie and tucked it underneath and tied, for the first time in his life, a perfect Windsor. The comb slid effortlessly through his thick hair and he put on his navy blue dinner jacket. He took the flowers in his arm and smiled at his image in the mirror hoping that she would enjoy his presence as much he knew he would enjoy hers.

When arrived to the restaurant he had to take a deep breath. The cool night air was drawn into his chest through his nose in along breath. He could smell the cool moisture rising up from the grass before it became dew. Somehow, he was more nervous now than when he asked her out. He told himself that everything would be all right, that the date would go just as planned. As he got out of the car, he could feel the beads of perspiration growing on his brow, the beating of his heart causing his temples to pulse rhythmically. He could hear the blood rush through his arteries until he closed his eyes and breathed deeply just one more time.

He opened his eyes to see her at the bar, beautiful and perfect from that distance. She was smiling and talking to someone else that he couldn’t see. She got up from the bar stool and kissed the mysterious stranger on the lips and wrapped her arms the tall man. As for our hero, his date never even noticed that he arrived let alone abruptly left. Nobody noticed. There was no evidence of his presence at the vicinity at all except for the bouquet on the bouquet of daisies scattered helplessly on the sidewalk, petals on the ground.