to meet you. Jan mentioned she had a daughter who worked here." The resemblance was remarkable. She looked like a younger version of Jan.
Lily laughed and looked around the back of the shop. "You're keeping things clean and orderly and I can't tell you how important that is to us."
"Oh, well, I like being able to find things. I'm glad it works for both of us."
"Excuse me?"
She turned to see another customer at the counter and looked back at Lily, "Excuse me, I need to take care of our customer."
Lily nodded her head and turned to leave.
Turning to the new customer, LuAnn greeted her, "Hi, how can I help you?"
"I'm looking for something unusual for my dinner party next week." She put dinner party in air quotes.
Laughing LuAnn looked this woman in the eye. "Tell me how unusual and what this party is for, then we'll come up with something spectacular together."
The woman looked around the shop at various displays and containers before responding.
"I play Bridge and I'm hostessing our annual dinner party this year next Saturday. These women are dear friends but, dare I say, we've gotten into a bit of "table wars" over the years, each one trying to out-do the last. I want something to place in the middle of the gift table that no one else can get, so rare and unusual and I'll add, money isn't an object. I'd sell a lung to see these bitches' jaws drop. Friendly speaking that is."
She laughed but the glint in her eyes said it all. Turning to the back counter, LuAnn pulled the catalogue of flowers from the shelf, lay it open on the counter between the customer and herself and opened it up to some of the unusual flowers she'd been reading up on lately. Finding just what she wanted, she turned the catalogue so her customer could see it, pointed to the Fritillia and Lysichiton and their bold green, orange and yellow colors and the woman gasped.
"That's perfect." She leaned down closer to the catalogue and stared at the flowers together. "What type of container would you put these in?"
"Tell me, you said dinner party, is that formal, whimsical, or rustic?"
LuAnn watched the slow smile crawl across the woman's attractive face. Her green eyes glinted as if there were an actual light coming from them. "Rustic all the way. I've told everyone to wear outdoor clothing as in garden party or bar-b-que. Everyone else has done stuffy formal gatherings. I'm doing a guess your plate event."
Laughing at this woman's excitement, she asked, "Oh my, what is a guess your plate event?"
"I'm making up words for all the things that might be included in a meal. There will be a menu, and we're doing roast pig, as in an actual pig roast, baked beans, coleslaw, biscuits, potatoes, green beans, etc. There will be made up words for each item including utensils, cups and napkins. Everything will be served in courses. So, attendees will see a menu, then will be given a list of the made-up names/words and they'll pick three items per course. They won't know what those items are until they're served. So, you might order green beans, a knife and a biscuit. Next course will be the same. It's so fun watching people try to guess what each thing is after the first course is served. Guests begin to share what they ordered and then look at each other's plates. Someone might get all food and no utensils. It's all a gamble. But it sure gets people laughing and having fun."
Now LuAnn was laughing just thinking of the fun, and maybe chaos that might ensue if someone didn't have a sense of humor about it all.
"Okay, so we can either use a hollowed-out log as a container, or if you want something that looks more bar-b-que-esque, we could use an old, speckled coffee pot or an old pot. It'll all depend on what I can find."
"Yes. Yes. Yes. That sounds perfect. Make it large, I'll put it on the side table along with little gifts I'm giving to each guest. It'll certainly make a statement. Then, what do I have to pay you to not use these same flowers again for a year."
Laughing she shrugged. "I can't guarantee that no one else will use them, so I hate to take your money on that. But, I can tell you, I'm likely the only one here that enjoys studying unusual and rare flowers, so there's that.