Trouble In Bloom by Heather Webber Page A

part-time."
    I was weak, and this self-discovery stuff was hard.
    Damn hard.
    "Part-time is okay. I just went back to school anyway."
    "School's good. What year?"
    "Junior."
    "That makes you, what? Twenty?"
    "Almost twenty-one. December birthday."
    I nodded, easily seeing him with Deanna. "See Mrs. Krauss on your way out to get some paperwork. You'll be working under Kit. You'll get your orders from him, you'll do everything he tells you. Got it?"
    He nodded.
    "Except for anything to do with his dog! Just say no to that."
    "Okay."
    "Come in tomorrow to meet everyone, and you'll start Wednesday. Be here at six-thirty."
    "Okay." His leg bounced.
    "You can go now."
    He jumped up, held out his hand. "Thanks."
    "You're welcome."
    Ana owed me big-time.

Six

    An hour later Deanna couldn't stop staring at me. "You look so . . . pretty."
    I didn't want to think about how she thought I'd looked before.
    "Thank you," I said again. It was the fourth time she'd told me. I doodled a cupcake next to the cake on my blotter.
    Nels and Roxie sat in the corner. Nels had his head tipped back and was napping (I think it had been the doughnuts that perked him up that morning). Roxie was engrossed in a Sudoko puzzle book.
    Deanna fidgeted.
    I dropped my pencil into the cup. "Do you know how I've been making changes around here lately? Cutting back the schedule?"
    "Yes?" She clasped her hands together, one thumb making nervous sweeps over the other.
    "I've been thinking that there's really not a need for two designers to work on the surprise makeovers full-time."
    Her eyes widened. "You're firing me?"
    "What?"
    "I knew it! I just knew it." She jumped up, tugged on her pencil skirt.
    I leaned forward. "Deanna, wait. You don't understand."
    "I had a feeling this was coming. That's fine. Really, it's fine. I mean, I'd been thinking about moving on anyway."
    "Deanna—wait. Moving on?"
    "To another company. For more experience, you know."
    "No." My jaw set. "I didn't know."
    "This is probably for the best. Really."
    I slumped back in my chair. This hadn't been what I intended at all. I'd been about to promote her, give her more design freedom, and now she was quitting? Or was I firing her?
    "Deanna, I don't want you to leave," I said.
    "Well, I can't stay knowing that you don't want me."
    "I never said that."
    "It was implied."
    "No it wasn't."
    She looked at Roxie. "Wasn't it implied?"
    Roxie peered over the rim of her glasses. "Kind of."
    I gave her the Ceceri Evil Eye. She shrank back and cov ered her face with her puzzle book. "It wasn't," I said to Deanna.
    "I have an interview at The Grass Is Always Greener on Friday. I'll be okay."
    Hurt flooded me. "You have an interview scheduled?"
    "I had a feeling this was coming."
    "Nothing was coming!"
    "I'll get my things and go."
    The phone rang. I heard Brickhouse pick it up.
    I would have argued but I was too upset. An interview. With The Grass Is Always Greener, one of the top landscaping design firms in the area. That was just downright traitorous. And besides, asking her to hear me out was something the old me would do.
    "Fine. If that's what you feel you have to do."
    "It is."
    I let her go.
    The intercom on my desk buzzed. "What?"
    "Temper, temper, Nina Ceceri."
    I rubbed my suddenly aching temples.
    "Riley's on line one."
    "Thank you." I picked up the phone. The cord stretched as I walked around my desk, and I kicked the door closed with my foot. Nels snorted awake.
    The crackled noise from a TV set came through the line as I said, "Riley?"
    "Hey."
    "What's wrong?" I dropped into my chair, swiveled to look out the window. The garden showplace in the back looked beautiful. Abundant fall fl owers glowed.
    He must have muted the TV because I didn't hear it anymore. "Why's something have to be wrong?"
    "You never call."
    "Oh. Right. Well, I was just on my way to Mrs. Greeble's to do some yard work—"
    "Don't charge her too much, you know she's on a pension," I reminded him.
    "I know," he said. "I