Whenever Todd comes home from work and sees flowers he says something to the effect, "Are those from your secret lover?" Which is funny, because I'm terrible at keeping secrets. Anyway, he and I agreed years ago that if I wanted flowers I should by them for myself and not wait around for him to think of it. It's not that he's never done it, but the event is so rare that after 15 years of marriage I can still count the number with one hand.
But with this bouquet I suddenly remembered a bouquet that was delivered to me on the first birthday I had right after our wedding all those years ago. My birthday was 3 months after our wedding, so we were still in full on newlywed mode. When I arrived home from work the afternoon of my birthday to find a bouquet of flowers on the doorstep, I immediately was sure my sweet husband had sent them. Until he said, "Who are those from?"
And then I read the card. Only to discover they were from one of my old flames. Barely even flames. We had been friends all through our college years even though we attended different colleges in different states, but on Spring Break my senior year I went to his college to spend a couple of days and he decided we should try more than friends. I didn't have a good reason to not, but we sort of continued in an awkward more than friends, but not really and only when we happened to be in the same place at the same time pattern for a few months. And all while I was dating other people until finally the week before I convinced Todd to fall in love with me, I said terrible things to this slightly more than friend and we parted badly. We definitely needed to part, but I didn't need to be quite so harsh.
I hadn't contacted him after that. Even to let him know I was getting married. So these flowers were his way of 6 months later, reaching back out. Todd snickered and told me I should probably go call the poor guy.
So, I went into the computer desk where the phone was and placed a very awkward call. "Hey, thanks for the flowers, they're lovely, btw I'm married now!"
Happily, the birthday bouquet of 2014 wasn't nearly as complicated as the bouquet of 1999.
