Sabrina Part 2
Below is part 2 of my story Sabrina. For part 1 please visit http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/31/sabrina-part-1/
Tony buried his nose in the bowl of fragrant purple hyacinths. Their exquisite scent filled his nostrils. He could almost imagine himself in a beautiful garden on a summer’s day with the birds singing and bees buzzing lazily as they flitted from flower to flower.
“Hyacinths are my favourite flowers. Roses are lovely but I’ve always had a thing about hyacinths ever since I was a little girl”
Tony turned to see Sabrina half concealed by lush foliage as she watered the plants which occupied a small section of the large supermarket. Her green eyes peered out from behind the throngs of a large potted fern. God she looked so beautiful, just like a woodland nymph Tony thought.
“I’d buy that one Sabrina said” pointing to a bowl who’s flowers had not yet opened. The hyacinths lay concealed within their green cases which would, in a day or so break open to reveal beautiful purple blooms.
“But these are already open. They will look and smell wonderful on the window sill in my kitchen” Tony said pointing to the hyacinths which he had now transferred into his shopping trolley.
Sabrina walked across to where Tony stood.
“Excuse me” Sabrina said leaning down to retrieve the plants from Tony’s trolley. As she bent down her foot slipped in a puddle of water which had dripped onto the floor from one of the hanging baskets. Sabrina would have fallen had it not been for Tony’s instinctive reaction in holding out his arms to catch her as she fell forward. Sabrina’s body was warm and soft against his chest, her scent composed from myriad wild flowers mingled with that of the hyacinths making him feel giddy with desire. Tony wanted to say so much, to pour out his feelings but instead he released Sabrina and said
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah, thanks to you I’m fine” Sabrina replied shakerly.
“You need to sit down” Tony said looking with concern at Sabrina’s pale face.
“No, honestly, I’m OK, just a bit shaken” Sabrina said smiling up into Tony’s eyes. She leant forward once more taking care not to step in the puddle which had nearly seen her fall unceremoniously flat on her face a few moments past. Sabrina retrieved the hyacinths from Tony’s trolley
“Look here” she said pointing to the purple flowers, “They are already turning brown at the edges. In a few days time you will have nothing except dead flowers and green leaves. If you buy the flowers which haven’t opened yet you will enjoy them for far longer”.
“Yeah you are right!” Tony replied taking the bowl from Sabrina’s hands, replacing it on the shelf and putting a pot of hyacinths which had not yet bloomed into his trolley.
“Thanks for the advice. You seem to know a lot about flowers” Tony said.
“No, very little. its just common sense really, if you buy flowers which haven’t opened then they will last longer than those which are already in full bloom” Sabrina said.
“Well you know more about plants than I do” Tony said laughing. “I was surprised to see you in the plant section, I thought that you always worked on the tills?”
“Usually I work on the checkout but today one of the girls who the supervisor had listed as being off came in to work which meant they had more checkout girls than they knew what to do with so I ended up in the gardening section. It makes a nice change from the checkouts. Don’t get me wrong I have a laugh and a chat with the other girls but it can get really boring just checking bar codes all day” Sabrina replied.
“Are you part time? I don’t see you here that often”.
“Yeah, I’m at uni studying sociology” Sabrina said.
“Really! I’m a social worker, what a coincidence!” Tony said.
“I’m considering going into social work” Sabrina said.
“Don’t, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you take a child away from it’s parents because of concerns that he is being abused and it is shown later that no abuse was taking place, the media will crucify you. But, if you don’t take a kid into care and the parents go on to harm them then you will be crucified! Whatever you do you will never be right” Tony said.
“But someone has to do it” Sabrina replied.
“Yes of course they do. I’ve had a horrible day in work so don’t take anything I say to literally. Anyway its nice to talk to you properly, I’ve been wanting to chat for ages but you can’t do that here because you are always on the checkouts” Tony said.
“I’m employed to work here not to chat to the customers” Sabrina said grinning mischievously. “I suppose that I had better get on with my work otherwise I will have the supervisor on my back”.
Tony hesitated. If he didn’t ask Sabrina out for a date now he might never get another opportunity to do so. Blushing like a school boy he said
“Sabrina I have two tickets to go and see Hamlet. It is only an amateur production but would you, err would you come with me?” Tony could feel his face burning like a furnace. He wished that the ground would open and swallow him up.
“When is it?” Sabrina asked.
“On Friday evening at 7 pm in Saint Hilda’s church hall. It is only a 20 minute drive from here. I could pick you up” Tony suggested tentatively.
Sabrina hesitated. This guy seemed nice but one never knew.
“I’d love to come but I’ll drive their. I don’t want to put you to any trouble. It starts at 7 so shall we meet at the church for 6.45? I finish here at 6 so I can easily be with you by then. Have you got the address?” Sabrina asked.
Tony scribbled the address on the back of an old receipt and handed it to Sabrina.
“I’ll look forward to seeing you on Friday then. I know that you have to get on now. See you later” Tony said as he headed for the checkouts.
“Thanks” Sabrina called after him.
With a start Sabrina realised that she didn’t even know the name of her date. She kicked herself. She couldn’t very well go rushing after the guy to ask his name. She glanced at the piece of paper in her hand. Underneath the address of Saint Hilda’s was written, Tony followed by a mobile number. Thank heavens the guy haden’t been as dippy as her Sabrina thought as she returned to her watering.
