her skin tone seemed did something to him and Kai knelt down, putting himself eyelevel with the woman as she approached the window ledge. “Whatcha got there?” He pointed at the flowers, seeing that some of them had begun to wilt in the hot August temperatures despite the small circular tubes of water attached at the bottom to the stems.
The woman smiled, her yellow teeth peeking behind her chapped lips as she glanced between Kai and Gia. “They’re two for ten or five for fifteen.”
“And how many do you have left?”
“Um…” She glanced down at the bundles in her arms, those dull eyes moving as she seemed to calculate the numbers. “Um…looks like maybe five dozen.”
“Good. I’ll take them all. Will three hundred be enough?”
“Will it be enough?” They woman opened her mouth, but no sound came out for several seconds. Not until Kai took out his wallet and slipped out three large bills. At first, she only stared at the money, eyes wide and gleaming, but then Kai waved the money toward her and it seemed to wake her up. She glanced at him, sniffling. “Are you serious?”
“Of course I am,” he told her, hopping down to take the flowers from her arms. They were heavier than he expected and when she exhaled, freed from the weight, Kai wished he had more cash on him. He’d bet she could use it.
She stuffed the money into her bra, wiping her nose with a black bandana she pulled from the front pocket of her jeans and then reached up to kiss Kai on the cheek. “Thank you, Mr. Pukui. You got no idea…my kids…I can buy groceries.” She glanced at Gia, her smile transforming her face, making her seem younger. “You’re a lucky lady. Enjoy the flowers.”
And then, she was gone, turning only once to wave at Kai before she weaved through the crowd.
“That was very sweet,” Gia told him, her feet dangling over the window ledge as Kai leaned against it.
“It’s nothing.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m going to accept sixty roses. I can’t even begin to image where I’d put sixty damn roses.”
He turned, smirking at her, then quickly pushing a mock offended frown over his mouth. “And who said I bought these for you, Miss Jilani?”
“Oh, we’re back to surnames.” She nodded, jumping from the ledge when the last of the school kid swarm cleared the sidewalk. “Cool.”
Kai followed behind her, not rushing, but keeping close enough to her that she could hear him as he stopped one person after another as they moved closer to their building.
“You have a great day, miss,” he said to the homeless woman, pushing a rusted shopping cart filled with empty soda cans. She offered Kai a nearly toothless grin in exchange for the four roses he handed her.
Gia turned, stopping to watching him as he continued down the street, only bothering with a few glances in her direction between his random acts of flora giving—two pink roses to the clerk from the Gucci store screaming into her cell at a bill collector, one white rose stuffed into the rim of a traffic cop’s hat as he directed cars around an old Chevy with a flat and nearly two dozen to the woman sitting on a bench with tears all over her face, telling the woman she leaned against that her test had been negative.
By the time they reached their building, Kai’s hand was nearly empty except for the four white roses he gripped between his fingers. Gia shook her head, laughing at him when he held onto them, not bothering to offer them to her or explain himself and the spontaneous altruistic acts of his.
The building was frigid coming in from the ridiculous August heat and Gia curled her arms, tightening them around her middle as Kai waved her inside, nodding to the security guard.
“Nice day,” he said, pushing the button to call the elevator as he leaned a shoulder against the wall. She nodded and slipped a glance to his face, a twitching smile working over her mouth. “You want to say something?” he asked when she looked down at his flowers.
“Not a thing.”
Still calm. Still controlled, Gia Jilani wasn’t a woman that would give a single inch and Kai loved that about her. They rode the elevator up in silence, Kai humming something low and out of tune, Gia, brushing back the curling wisps of hair from her face before the doors opened and she left the car first.