Yours, Until Needed
Chapter 116: New Store

Chapter 116: New Store

That night ended with me giving Lucian another hug for being a good boy and working through his emotions.

Let’s ignore the fact that he looked a bit crazy by the end of it. But he still went for the hug, so maybe it’s fine.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

It was supposed to be a regular day at work, and I got to our new office right on time. We’ve been working on hiring the staff as well as supervising the construction site at Loretta. Rina’s the one assigned to the construction supervision, as Idris preferred keeping her hostage in that role. So, I’m the one mostly utilizing the office with Mitchel and the new hires.

Having an office felt like having an identity. Because we used to hide all our business dealings, afraid that they’d be sabotaged again. There are surely more problems now that we’re out in the open, but I’ve been too tired of hiding for so long. That’s why I love our little office.

I walked toward the automatic doors, ID scanners, and, ideally, my office on the next floor. But I had to stop because our office looked a bit different.

Since when did we become a flower shop?

The number of fresh flowers at the office could rival that of a flower shop. And nowhere have I seen an expense that had fresh flowers. Sure, we’ll have them for the actual boutique hotel, but we don’t really need them now.

So, who went nuts with all these flowers?

I found Mitchel by his station outside of my office and couldn’t help but ask before going in.

"Mitchel, what happened to our office? Why do we look like a flower shop?"

"Boss, about that, you may want to go into your office first."

Huh?

With furrowed brows, I decided to follow his advice, only to be graced by a room filled with flowers. Thankfully, they weren’t all too different and didn’t assault me with confusing scents.

"They look nice and all, but that’s beside the point. Where the hell did all these come from?"

"They’re all from your husband, boss?" Mitchel said as he shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

I had to whip my head back at him because I wasn’t sure I heard him right.

"I’m sorry, what? From my husband? As in Lucian Sinclair?"

"Yes, boss. The only Lucian Sinclair. They arrived this morning, just a few moments before you got here. They came with staff to haul all of this in, so all I had to do was to receive them."

I took a few photos to send to Lucian because I was planning on asking what he was thinking of sending these many flowers to the office.

"Hello, are you free to talk right now?" I asked when Lucian picked up the call.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I’d like to know what you were thinking about delivering so many flowers to my office. Did I miss a special occasion, or did you fuck up so badly that you needed to apologize like this?"

"I bought a flower shop. So you could always get fresh flowers from me." Lucian said like it was a matter of fact, but I couldn’t even begin to process what was wrong in his statement.

"You just randomly bought a flower shop? Did anyone lure you into buying something you don’t need?"

It was unlikely, but only a scam could explain Lucian’s sudden behavior. Maybe he was still muddled like the past week and got bamboozled into buying something like a flower shop.

"Honey, is Oliver around you? Can you pass him the phone?"

"Mn."

"Good morning, Ma’am. You wanted to speak to me about something?"

"Yeah, about that, Oliver. Did my husband get roped into some scam? Why would he buy a flower shop when he doesn’t even like flowers?" My voice rose a bit as I was worried about Lucian’s well-being.

"It wasn’t a scam, Ma’am. My boss wanted to make sure you always have flowers from him. So someone would be sending flowers daily."

"What? Why would I need this many flowers, Oliver?!"

"Ehem. Ma’am... It’s so that you don’t ever have to accept flowers from anybody else." Oliver had to cough that out, and I could see why.

"You’re kidding, right?"

"No, Ma’am, I’m absolutely positive."

"Uh, thanks. Can you please pass the phone on to Lucian? But before that, can you change the delivery schedule to weekly? Our office won’t survive the flower attack if this is done daily."

"I will try to reduce it, Ma’am, but can you please tell my boss about it? He might not agree."

"Okay, I’ll tell him." Oliver sounded afraid for his life, and I couldn’t blame him.

"Anything else?" Asked Lucian who apparently had the phone back.

I stared at the different arrangements of Lilies in my office before answering Lucian.

"Thank you for the flowers. They’re pretty. But can you tell them to lessen the delivery from daily to at least weekly? The flowers should be good for that long, and our office is too small to accommodate all of it."

"Do you need a bigger office?" Lucian asked, completely skipping my point!

"No! And you don’t just use selective hearing. Please have them deliver it weekly. I would pity the flowers if they were just overcrowded here instead of being appreciated properly."

"Fine." He sounded annoyed, but at least I got his word about it.

"Now, care to explain why you bought an entire flower shop instead of just buying flowers every now and then. Why would you want such a business?"

"So that you can stop accepting flowers from random people save for your parents. Now, you won’t need other flowers."

I did not expect the flowers to bother him this much—so much that he ended up with a flower shop that’s probably not going to earn much money with the number of flowers he’s planning on sending me.

"You realize you’ll lose money by sending so many flowers. How do you expect that store to have a positive bottom line? Don’t take it out on the employees, okay?"

It was not their fault that my husband was crazy enough to buy a perfectly good store. So, they shouldn’t be blamed for not performing according to Lucian’s standards.

"I don’t expect them to make a profit. I bought it knowing that. All it has to do is to serve its purpose."

"Lucian! I think we really need to call the doctor over!" Yeah. No profit? Expected loss? My husband’s sick, alright.

"I’m fine. Not sick. Just continue with your work and stop overthinking about the flower shop. The employees should be more than happy doing their only assigned tasks."

"But-"

"No more buts. You just go about your day. I’ll see you later." Lucian said before saying his goodbyes.

I was just dumbfounded by the time I let go of the phone.

"Have you confirmed with Mr. Sinclair, boss?" Asked Mitchel, who was observing my expression.

"Yeah. And I think something’s wrong with my husband. He’s acting really weird."

But hey, weird or not, it seems like Lucian’s instincts would always be top-notch. Who would’ve thought his flower shop purchase would be just right on time?