Covent Garden Flowers, Tuesday

[2_old_for_this]

Normally Peter would be in on Wednesday, but Wednesday looked to be...very Wednesday for a while. So, he was in a day earlier, looking at the notes his employees had left him, seeing what needed to be ordered, maybe laying in a few more herbs to make up for the lack of flowery things coming up.

Maybe grinning a little at the fact that apparently Kaidan thought he and Kanan were dating. Maybe he should get a silly gift for Hera? He had the feeling she'd get a kick out of it.

But meanwhile, the flower shop was open!

Comments

[white_oleander]

This whole concept of bartering seemed to have opened up a whole new world for Astrid. She now had at her fingertips a resource that she herself deemed worthless that other might find valuable - her time and energy. And now that she had her own art supplies, she thought the next step was a good sorce of constant inspiration, a hint of home,a reminder of what she lost and why. She went back to the flower shop after her classes, intent on just wandering among the blossoms and blooms for a while, but gravitating straight for the oleander again. Biting her lip, being indecisive, working herself up to asking or just slipping out her sketchbook from her backpack to see what she could get away with sketching for free.

[2_old_for_this]

Peter let the girl wander for a while, then raised his voice just enough to be heard. "Can I help you with anything?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid turned away from the flowers, her expression straight and serious. "Maybe," she said. "I think that depends on if I can help you ."

[2_old_for_this]

"Are you looking for a job?" Peter asked. "Or selling something?"

[white_oleander]

"I don't have anything to sell," Astrid said, "except my time, so I guess a job. Unless you're in the market for some sketches of Cambrian-era creatures."

But now she was just complucking it. She shook her head.

"I want a plant," she said, "for my room. But I don't have any money."

[2_old_for_this]

"Oh, okay. I can absolutely use some help with all this," Peter waved around the store, "if you want. Otherwise, I'm sure we can come up with some sort of trade. Cambrian-era creatures?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid nodded. "Cambrian," she confirmed. "Prehistoric period." She shrugged. "It's what we covered in class today."

But she fished out her sketchbook, offering it out so he could get a glimpse of a few rainbow colored trilobites, archaeocyatha, and, of course, those Anomalocaridids.

"If you're interested," she said, "I can sell you a few of them in exchange for maybe one of these small oleander plants. Or I could do some work around the shop, if you wanted, any small jobs you might have that need done. I'm a hard worker. I can do most stuff well enough."

[2_old_for_this]

Peter flipped through the pictures carefully. "These are good. Honestly, I could use the help a bit more, though. If you just want to help for the day, you can have the plant, but you can have a job and get paid, too."

He smiled and hooked a thumb behind him. "You can even put up your pictures on the wall." A couple small, halfway-decent paintings of roses were there already, courtesy of him, but he wasn't averse to looking at someone else's art, either.