fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers; Tuesday [01/14].

So Astrid was back at her old job at the flower shop, which had gone through some renovations and some new ownership, so she was mostly spending her time getting reaquainted with the place and the flowers and taking her time in getting to the orders. There weren't many, after all, and they were flowers, what would be the urgency, anyway?

But she'd made tea, as Seivarden had suggested, and she'd be ready to serve it to any customers who came in, because that was apparently a thing, and she wasn't sure if they could have some, too, but she was definitely sipping at a cup as she went about her business, both trying to think of what Ingrid would think of the tea thing and trying not to care what Ingrid would think about the whole tea thing.

She was also wearing gloves, as part of the other suggestion made by her new boss, and she'd even embroidered some flowers on them. It wasn't her best work, she wasn't as good at embroidery as she was drawing or painting, but they looked decent enough, and the gloves she still had left to work on would be better. And while she thought this newfound sense of propriety in the flower shop was a little ridiculous, she had to admit she found a weird sort of comfort in clear guidelines and expectations. She never did very well with freedom, and they were little things that helped give her a sense of direction.

At first, she was a little disappointed that the flowers didn't seem to be singing today, but they actually were, it was just so quiet you didn't notice it unless you were quiet, too. Which, of course, Astrid was.

Yeah, this was going to be good. She liked this, this was comforting and familiar, even with the changes. And as long as she stayed away from the oleanders.

Covent Garden is open!

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The new employee had seemed nice, if a little shy and nervous, and Seivarden felt it was best to make sure she knew what she was doing, even if she had said she had worked there before. So around lunchtime she entered the store.

"Astrid," she said with a smile. "How are you doing?"

At that moment, looking up from the order she was actually working on, trying to get the arrangement just right and fighting the urge to make some changes because, really, what they ordered didn't look that great and a few additions here and there would improve it significantly, Astrid was mostly just feeling relieved that she'd just freshed the tea, because it was so quiet that it kept just getting cold and she would remake it because she didn't think Seivarden would really approve of her employees letting the tea go cold.

Pure conjecture, of course, but it was borne out of an entire life of trying to guess what was expected of them without having to be told what was expected of them. Because, if you got it wrong, then you wound up losing it.

"Okay," she answered, looking up from the work, giving Seivarden a small smile. "Pretty quiet today, but it usually was, on Tuesday. Before..."

And then she looked toward the tea set wondering if she should offer her some, because, techincally, she wasn't a customer, but this definitely had the feel of 'checking up on the new girl' to it, so she wasn't sure, but wanted to get it right.

And settled for "I made some tea." Not a direct offer, but at the very least an acknowledgement that she'd done it, even if there was a small part of her...an Ingrid part...that was defiantly disgusted with the fact that she had.

"Oh, perfect," Seivarden said, smiling. So the new employee had managed that. She just hoped the tea was good.

Oh, and: "Those gloves are really nice. Where did you find them?"

Astrid took a moment to stop what she was working on, holding out her hands in front of her as if to confirm that, yes, those were the gloves she was speaking of, then she dropped her hands, a little self-conscious now, but mostly to avoid the temptation of pulling at a thread she'd noticed coming loose from the unpracticed work. It had been a while, after all, since she had to mend her own clothes. Claire wouldn't stand for it.

"Just at the clothing shop," she shrugged a shoulder mildly. "I had to search a little bit to find something that wasn't winterwear, but I bought a few pairs. I did the embroidery myself, though."

She'd done roses on this pair. Big, fat red ones, the kind you were surprised could even keep themselves upright, they were so heavy and lush. With lots of thorns underneath, too, of course.

"You do embroidery?" Seivarden said as she poured herself some tea.

Astrid gave another light shrug, her attention shifting mildly back over to the arrangement she was working on, though in a mild way. "Not really," she admitted, "but I...dabble. I know how, but it's not something I do often."

It was, like so many of her other forays into various media, something picked up out of that never satiated hunger to just create, to take something and make something else out of it, consuming anything in her way in those long stretches of time where she had little to do but entertain herself and distract herself from the fear of Ingrid never coming back.

"You're good though," Seivarden said.

Maybe not as good as the Radchaai glove makers she had used to buy her gloves from, but this was Earth.

"And very suitable for the shop."

Astrid nodded a little. "I thought so, too," she said, though that was mostly because Seivarden had told her that was what she'd find suitable on Saturday.

She was starting to feel terribly self-consious about them, though, especially as she worked, noticing more of the imperfections and how she hoped the next ones she did were better.

"I'm kind of an artist."

Kind of. Astrid.

But, of course, Seivarden would likely discover more of that when Astrid had one of her inevitable 'smash all the pots and glue them back together in interesting ways' days.

"So I enjoyed making them."

"Then feel free to experiment with flower arrangements," Seivarden said. "A personal style is always an advantage."

She would be stupid not to make sure her employees used their talents.

Also, the tea was good.

Covent Garden Flowers; Tuesday [01/14].

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