The Master Plan

-Nikkita-

Today is going to be a good day. I grinned to myself. I have plans this weekend. Our anniversary is coming up. We’re going to have a great weekend. I couldn’t stop grinning to myself the whole morning. Mai gave me a strange look at the table.

“What?” she asked. I didn’t answer. She kept her eyes down in her coffee as she wrinkled her nose.

“You’re creeping me out,” Mai said to herself. I pretended not to hear her.

“So, any plans today?” I asked. My wife didn’t answer. I could’ve sworn that I saw her smirking over her tea. I snickered to myself. This would be interesting. I took a sip of my coffee. What made it better was that it was Friday. We didn’t have to go to work today.

I stood up from the table. Mai looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Where are you going?” she asked. I couldn’t hold back my smile.

“Oh… I’m just…” I began. I rubbed the back of my head. “I have plans today.” Mai cut a glare at me.

“What kind of plans?” she asked. I tapped the side of my nose.

“Sorry, baby,” I said. “I can’t tell you that.” I turned and walked out of the kitchen before she could ask any more questions. I tuned her out as I kept walking.

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My plans needed some work to be done. There was one more thing that I needed to grab really quick. The nearest flower shop was about two blocks down the road. Mai didn’t like roses. I had to use something special for this occasion. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. Hm… I think I will give her about… I counted up in my head for a moment. Two hours would be too generous, wouldn’t it? Maybe an hour and thirty minutes? I couldn’t stay away too long. I just wanted her to stew long enough. An hour and thirty minutes should be fine. Yeah, that sounded about right.

I smiled to myself and kept walking. This was going to make for an interesting weekend.

I took care to plan out everything. I took time off for the weekend with my wife. As soon as I get back home, both of our phones will be turned off. Neither one of us will be leaving that apartment. It’s just her and me celebrating our one year of marriage. And I had just the thing!

I pushed off the door to the flower shop. Good, I got here early. There weren’t many people around. I could take my sweet time before going down to the grocery store to get some wine. I walked in and took a look around. What kind of flowers should I get her? Violets? Tulips? Ooo, maybe some daisies.

“Excuse me, sir?” someone asked. I looked up to see a… woman? Man? Girl? Boy? The haircut and vest made it hard for me to tell. I shook myself out of my daze.

“Um… I’m looking for some flowers for my wife on our anniversary,” I said. The person behind the counter perked up as soon as I said that.

“Ooo! Did you have anything in particular in mind?” they asked.

“Um… I don’t know, to be honest,” I said. “Do you have anything other than roses?” That person broke into a wide grin. For a second, I thought that their head would come off.

“We sure do! We got a fresh shipment today! Right this way,” they said. They walked out from the counter and headed to the back. Right off the bat, I felt like something was off about this guy. He seemed a little bit too happy. I looked around the shop and frowned. It didn’t look like there were any hidden cameras in this shop. I glanced behind me at the door for a second. How fast could I get out of here?

“Are you coming?” this clerk asked. I put up my hands and walked toward the back. Too late to turn back now. I had my hand on my phone in case this person tried something funny. Moments later, I walked out with a fresh bouquet of flowers in my hand. I ended up picking out dark purple orchids. Yes, she was going to love these. Nothing happened as the clerk rang up my flowers.

“Have a good day!” they called as I walked out the door. I waved them off as my feet touched the street. I paused and took a moment to look at my phone. Seriously? That only took about ten minutes? Hm… What else could I do to kill time? I ran over the list of things that had been piling up in my head over the past week. Most of them I didn’t want to do. They weren’t really urgent. I could do them whenever but I didn’t want to. Okay, so a couple of them were kind of important. I could get those done in a few hours.

I put up my hands in a shrug. I might as well get them over with. I’ve got plenty of time to kill. They shouldn’t take too long. I shoved my phone into my pocket and walked down to the bank.

The wine could wait.