Covent Garden Flowers, Thursday

[okteiviakom]

For some curious reason, the Covent Garden phone didn't work today!

... It was Octavia. Octavia was the curious reason the phone didn't work today, and she was not sorry. She'd been getting a lot more used to the deeper voice speaking her thoughts and it didn't make her want to immediately stop talking anymore, but she was still Octavia, and even her baseline for socializing wasn't all that great.

So all of today's orders were best off coming in either by email or by an actual visit to the shop. Everyone not prepared to do either of those things would just have to wait. And in the meantime, Octavia would be at the counter, working on something that the customer had referred to as a 'pre-Halloween Halloween arrangement'.

There were a lot of tiny decorative pumpkins involved.

[ooc: Open!]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Octavia had checked in on Liam earlier in the week, so here he was, returning the favor. And... bringing along a plate of pumpkin spice cookies.

"Hey," he greeted, looking around, because he'd never actually been in the shop before. "Looks like fall threw up in here."

He didn't recognize the face at the counter, but he had no reason to assume it wasn't Octavia.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was taller and a little wider, and dressed in her brother's clothes. But she also had the remnants of glittery nail polish on her hands, so there was that.

Not to mention the perma-dry expression on her face.

"It's October," she said. "Kind of expected." In a shop that made a spectacle of every last damned holiday, especially.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, the expression was familiar even if the face wearing it wasn't. "I suppose," he allowed. And then he was sliding that plate of cookies over the counter to her. "And speaking of fall-themed..."

[okteiviakom]

Food was an easy way to get Octavia's attention. "What are they?"

Cookies, yes, but what kind? Of course she was already reaching for one, so maybe she wouldn't need an answer soon.

[firstofitskind]

"Pumpkin spice," Liam admitted, tucking a loose strand of hair behind one ear. "First time making 'em, so- be gentle with me if they suck?"

He'd tried one or two before bringing them over to make sure they did not, in fact, suck. Though there were definitely a few that were maybe just a little overdone. Because the oven in the apartment was a fickle piece of electronics.

[okteiviakom]

Even after two years, Octavia still remembered rations up on the Ark as well as what they'd eaten down on the ground, so she was probably more accepting than some, anyway.

But the first bite immediately told her that wasn't experience she would have to lean on, here. You could sort of tell by how she quieted down to enjoy the entire cookie.

[firstofitskind]

And watching that reaction, Liam felt a whole new appreciation for baking in general. He'd found the process kind of tedious, honestly, and the prep time that the recipe had stated was a bald-faced lie- it had taken at least twice as long-, but Octavia's enjoyment (in her own understated way) made it definitely worth it.

"So, uh. It's okay?" Sure, the question was technically about the cookie. But he was also here to see how she was doing.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was going to answer the one he was technically asking.

"It tastes like pumpkin pie." ... Okay, so that wasn't technically answering. But, there was the barest hint of a smile, so that may have been a clue. "I like them."

There it was.

[firstofitskind]

"Good," Liam said, visibly relaxing. "I'm glad." A beat, and then: "So, island got you, too. Doing okay?"

[okteiviakom]

"I'm fine." Standard stock answer didn't mean it wasn't true. Or at least mostly true. "I shut the phone off in here, but other than that, it's a normal day. Except I'm taller."

And flatter, in a lot of places.

[firstofitskind]

"Why shut off the phone?" Liam was curious.

[okteiviakom]

"Last week, it was ringing constantly," Octavia replied, dryly.

Not that that was the reason.

[firstofitskind]

Liam's bullshit detector was pretty decent, so he was reasonably sure that, while true, that was not wholly the reason for it being off today.

"Well, sure," he said. "People gotta have their flowers, Octavia."

[okteiviakom]

"They can get them by coming in."

It was that simple.

And she was going to have another cookie, now.

[firstofitskind]

"Suppose they can," Liam conceded. Yeah, that reaction to the cookies was definitely satisfying. He wasn't about to run out and get himself a job at JGoB or anything, but... tedious or not, it'd be worth doing again. "Maybe I should get Verity some," he mused. Flowers weren't something he'd really considered outside of Valentine's Day, but maybe it'd be nice?

[okteiviakom]

"If you want," Octavia replied, shrugging her broader shoulders.

She was not the greatest sales person at the best of time. Even less so when she still occasionally felt like using as few words as possible.

[firstofitskind]

“I do want,” Liam decided. “She wasn’t best pleased when she woke up yesterday morning.”

[okteiviakom]

"Not taking it as well as she did Monday?"

Octavia did not sound like she was surprised. It was pretty obvious that this was a lot easier to deal with when it wasn't you it was happening to, regardless of how close you were with someone affected.

[firstofitskind]

“Threw her off-balance a little,” Liam admitted. “In the literal sense, too, not just metaphorical.” That Liam seemed to not be having that issue had kind of rubbed salt in that wound, just a little.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia glanced down at herself. It was a longer way to look down, right now.

"I get that," she said. "All my proportions are off."

[firstofitskind]

“I keep forgetting how short I am like this,” Liam sighed, as if 5’10” was actually short.

[okteiviakom]

Yeah. Octavia was giving him kind of an unimpressed look for that one. "You think this is short?" she drawled. Because, right now they were about the same height.

Usually she was somewhere around 5'4".

[firstofitskind]

“It’s shorter,” Liam said defensively, because it was a good four to five inches than what he was normally.

Also, it should be noted, still taller than Verity currently was, a fact that had gone over real well.

[okteiviakom]

"No excuse," Octavia decided.

She may have just been screwing with him, there, though. But it was hard to tell.