Rapt in Flowers

Posted on Sat 28th Jul, 2018 @ 5:23pm by Eddie Hunt
Edited on on Sat 28th Jul, 2018 @ 5:56pm

1,409 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Oblivion
Location: Deck 635, Scent of Love/Deck 1553, Casino
Timeline: MD 8 1600 Hours

Mrs. Smith,

Hi, my name is Eddie Hunt, new owner of the casino located on Deck 1553. I was going to come and bother you about some floral arrangements and perhaps some inside decor after researching about your shop. Especially with the grand opening looming soon. However, I decided to message instead to see if you would like to come and see the casino for yourself. It might help you more if you can see the scale of the place.

Just a suggestion. Look forward to your reply.

Kind Regards

Eddie


The computer display of the message was interesting, Flavia thought. Here was a man who might prefer old-fashioned things, like personal contact. She walked into the back where her husband was organizing the calendar for the coming week.

"Marcus, how's business?" she asked.

He looked up. "Love of my life, since when do you ask this question?"

Flavia laughed. "You have a point, but an interesting ... proposal, I guess, has just come across my screen, and I don't know if we have the time or the resources."

"Oh, in that case, business is terrible and we could use more," her husband answered.

"Ah, we're doing really well. Someone has bought the bankrupt casino down in Tivoli Gardens. He wants to meet me there to talk about floral arrangements and maybe more. What do you think?"

If a human could be said to fluff his feathers, that's what Marcus did. "How old is this guy? Do you know anything about him? You're not meeting some stranger in a broken down casino and hotel, Mrs. Smith!"

Flavia thought he was so adorable. "That's a very good point, my love. Why don't you come with me and be my Sir Gatria?"

"Too much, eh?" Marcus smiled. "I'll work on it some more. By all means, go meet this man, after I investigate him. What's his name?"

---

Flavia took the tram from Deck 635 to Deck 1540 and then the turbo lift to Deck 1553. Following the directions from Mr. Hunt, she made her way to the casino. It wasn't as sad-looking as the last time she'd been here.

Eddie was standing outside the nearly renovated casino. The fencing around the place had come down, revealing the new exterior. It was pretty similar to how it had been before, but more luxurious looking. The mirrored glass had been scrapped for a normal wall. He planned to get a mural painted there, but had yet to arrange for a painter.

At the front, the previous big red letters which remained had been taken down and replaced by a more modern-looking sign with the casino's new name on it, *INSERT NAME HERE*. He had decided to keep the ace of spades and ace of hearts next to it. He was happy with the new design of it. Although he hadn't changed the inside too much, work was currently being undertaken by Tieran to add some fresher tech that they had discussed.

For now, he spied Flavia Smith walking toward him, ready for their meeting, "Ahhh Mrs Smith. It's nice to finally put a face to a name! How are you? I would ask if you found it alright, but here you are."

"Here I am," she smiled at him. "Let me first say that I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. Commander Hunt was quite a favorite among the civilians, as well as Starfleet. He will be missed. Now, tell me what you are imagining for the casino."

Eddie let out a small smile, "Thank you, Mrs. Smith. It seems a lot of people knew my brother, which does bring a smile to my face to see all the people he's been involved with. Anyway, let's get down to business.

"The grand opening is set for a week's time, give or take. Outside, I want to hold an event, haven't decided what yet, but plenty of time to arrange that. I would like some kind of floral arrangement out here. Maybe even a flower arch," he spoke, brainstorming as he did so.

"If we go inside, you can get an idea of the general layout of the casino, as well." He walked to the door and held it open for the woman. "Also, if you did floral decorations for the inside of the casino, would it be beneficial to you for a monthly income for someone to maintain the flowers and replace them when needed? Or if you don't have the resource for that, I can source that somewhere else."

Flavia immediately said, "We have more resources than anyone on the base, actually. That's something I'll talk over with my husband, and we'll let you know with the general proposal of cost, floral types, and sizes and kinds of arrangements.

"I will say that if you want a floral arch for the grand opening, envisioning people walking under it to reach your business, you are going to restrict traffic into your building, unless it's an extremely large arch. On the other hand, if you want an arch against the walls and over the door, while still large, it will cost less, being more or less 2-dimensional, and be smaller." Mentally, she was going over who she could hire to help for the ten days. Thank goodness they'd invested in the cryo-cooler!

"Brilliant, I'm happy with any of the costs involved. In your professional opinion, and personal, which one do you think would work better?" He asked as they walked in. The insides had the nice smell of fresh furniture around the place, as if everything in it was brand new. It wasn't all new, but Eddie had everything cleaned to the highest standards. He was going for the highest standards for everything.

"If this were my place, I'd put it over the doors, against the walls. People will still be walking under it, and I can bring it out a bit for the illusion of an arbor, but no one is going to trip over it, or another guest."

She looked around the entrance and gravitated toward the left and the long check in counter, which had the appearance of a light wood, perhaps oak. "Now this is lovely," she told him. "We can put flowers at each end, out of the way, and green plants on the small tables you've put next to seating areas. Again, nothing to trip over or knock off, because of placement."

As she made notes, Flavia's mind was racing. "Would you prefer solid greens, or perhaps green leaves with white or pink edgings? There's also an old desert plant which doesn't take much care. It has long slender stalks which are lined from side to side with darker green stripes. Quite attractive, they can grow to a couple of feet tall, but they don't send out runners or branches to take up space. Everything grows in an up movement," her hands demonstrated what she meant.

"Green leaves with white edgings would be best I think. I will go with everything you just suggested, though we still have much more of the casino to see as well," he said, ushering Flavia deeper into the building. He noticed her looking around the place, most probably eyeing where they could put flowers.

"You have an air-freshening system installed?" Flavia asked. "If this place gets crowded, you're going to need it. Some species are very sensitive to odors ... and some species are ... uh ... there's no other way to say it. Some species stink to us, as we do to others. I can put in flowers to absorb some of that or to cover it, but it's best if you have a freshening system in your air-handling ducts."

"I do actually have a system installed from the previous owner and it's all working."

Flavia nodded, "Good. Now why don't I wander around and see what's what here. You have someone on the hotel side who can let me into a room so I can evaluate those? Are they all basically the same?"

"Yeah, although not officially opened, the reception has been manned for a few days now for prior bookings. Just explain who you are and they'll let you in. And yeah all the rooms are doubles and pretty much the same," Eddie replied.

Flavia held out her hand to shake and said, "Then I'll send you a proposal an estimate in a couple of days. Thank you for choosing Scent of Love."

 

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