Louis couldn't help but feel disappointed that this curly haired guy hadn't come again to request a bouquet again. The last days had been so incredibly boring. Old ladies coming in, stressed businessmen sending their affairs flowers, women and men looking for a last minute gift for their mums... The list went on like that.

The day had been unusually busy and Louis was exhausted. His boss finally took pity on him and let him go for a smoke break. He leaned against the cool brick wall, lit his cigarette and took a drag. Relaxing a bit he leaned his head back to enjoy the little piece of sunshine that reached the back entrance.

Lost in his thoughts, he stared up at the sky, where clouds tried to catch each other and the condensation trails of the airplanes overlapped each other, creating their own path system in the sky along with the smoke plumes coming from him.

"Hi, flowerboy."

Louis jumped at the unfamiliar voice and hit his head at the wall behind him in the process.

"Fuck", he cursed rubbing the back of his head. "What the fuck man, are you stupid? Why would you-" He stopped once he saw who was standing there. Again clad in black, again with the boots, again with the tattoos that littered his arms on display. Was that boy never cold? Spring was starting to spread out its wings and it was getting warmer but in the shadows without the sun shining it was still icy. And since Louis was pretty much always cold, he would run around in sweaters until June. Which Zayn always mocked him for but Louis would rather be mocked than be cold.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't", Louis said, slumping back against the wall. The back of his head still hurt a bit but he ignored it, taking a drag of his cigarette again. Behind this self created wall of smoke he felt more secure. It shielded him from having to look at this guy who was staring at him now directly. It was something like he was staring straight into his soul and that was something that made Louis more than uncomfortable.

"Sorry anyways."

Louis just nodded, staring at him as the other guys eyes went down to the glimmering stub between his fingers. He rolled his eyes. So he was one of those people. Great, amazing.

"Yeah I know. It's gonna kill me, make me old and wrinkly and disgusting and all of that even faster than normal. Don't bother to point it out because I've heard it all a million times before and I obviously don't care. It's one way to get the job done I guess. Spoiler but we all die in the end. Some earlier than others."

The other boy chuckled and shook his head. "Wow no need to get defensive like that. It's not what I wanted to say."

"Sure you didn't", Louis mumbled, leant his head back and blew the smoke in the air, watching it swirl above him and fade into air. A strange person that guy was, that's for sure.

The curly guy just smirked and pointed behind him, where the door was. "Your collegue told me you where outside."

"And?" Louis was getting irritated. He hadn't had a break in forever and now this guy was here, standing in this pretty run-down backyard watching Louis smoking. He wanted the guy to leave. Did he not have other stuff to do than watching Louis smoking his well deserved cigarette?

"I just wanted to thank you again for the bouquet you made the other day." Louis chuckled, threw down the cigarette butt and stepped on it to put it out.

"Quite late for that, aren't you? It's been over a week."

"You counted the days? Now that's cute." Louis nearly broke his neck when he turned to watch him. Cute? Was this guy mocking him?Some boys at school had called him cute back then, mocking him for his pretty face and curvy body. And he's had enough of this for sure. He wasn't that person anymore.

"What do you want?", he asked, getting impatient now. Who did this guy think he was, turning up like that, mocking him and ruining his break? The guy seemed to have noticed that the atmosphere between them had shifted and turned serious.

"I came here to apologize since the way I acted towards you when I was here wasn't exactly gentlemenslike. I've already been here on Wednesday as well but the lady working here told me, you weren't working on Wednesdays but that you would be here today."

"Oh", was the only thing, Louis said because clearly, that was not what he had suspected. "Apology accepted, I guess." What else was he supposed to say. This whole conversation was strange.

"And also because I would like to ask you for another advise like that."

"Why didn't you just ask Andrea? She would have made you one as well." The boy chuckled and ran his long fingers through his brown curls. When he caught Louis staring, he grinned with his dimples on display and Louis just wanted to slap himself for giving this person a reason to mock him even more. So, Louis lifted his chin and gave him a challenging stare.

"But I wanted you to do this. Because you already know what I want." Louis could barely contain the need to roll his eyes. So now that guy was back at ridiculing him.

"So you decided to interrupt my break?" Louis said a bit grumpily. The boy grinned apologetically with his dimples showing and shoved his hands into the pockets of his skinny jeans. It was surprising that his hands even fit in there given how painted on the jeans looked. Louis mentally slapped himself again because that thought was just stupid.

"Yeah, sorry but I didn't exactly know that your break was right the moment I walked in here. But I mean I can ask your colleague as well. I didn't mean to be a bother but you were the best at putting together what I wanted. All the others couldn't live up to what I was looking for."

Louis shook his head. Somehow he felt like he was missing an essential point in this conversation. This guy in front of him was confusing as fuck.

"Why, thanks. How many other flower shops did you try?"

"None", the guy said and had the audacity to grin. Louis threw him a confused look. This guy was one of the strangest persons he had ever met but he pushed himself off the wall.

"Then why did you come back here?"

"I liked the company." Louis huffed and walked inside the shop, immediately feeling a bit more calm with the scent of flowers and greens lingering all over the small shop.

"Sure. Now", he pointed around the flowers. "What should it be this time?" His boss was looking at him because Louis never came back earlier than requested from his break. He ignored her.

"I don't need a bouquet this time but something you can plant outside." Louis nodded, deep in thoughts. He walked around the plants and pointed some of them out. "This is basil. In the Ancient Greek times it stood for hatred. Yellow carnations mean rejection and disdain while over here we have some lovely petrol station flowers that convey the message "I couldn't be bothered". I'm sure there's more but those are the ones I remember." It was best to keep to himself  that he had studied the book of the meaning of flowers in the less busy days because he had liked the challenge in the task this boy had given him and wanted to be better prepared for next time.

The guy grinned again and pointed at the petrol station flowers. "I'll take these. They're indeed lovely. And the message is even lovelier."

Louis gave him a small smile and picked up the flowers. "Should I wrap the pot?"

There was a nod. "Please", he added and then followed Louis as he walked to the cash desk. He leaned against the wood desk while he watched the smaller boy wrapping the flowers in the gift wrapping paper they had for occasions like that making Louis nervous. His boss watched them from afar with a strange look. Louis felt uncomfortable because he didn't like to be in the middle of all attention like this.

After that he named the price and the guy handed it over the counter. Their hands touched slightly and Louis flinched involuntarily. Somehow he hadn't expected to touch his warm, slightly rough hands. The guy looked at him with with a strange look on his face and Louis smiled nervously before he busied himself with putting away the money and picking up the change, taking longer than necessary.

"Thank you, Louis." He said with a wink, took the change and before Louis could even think of asking how he could possibly know his name, he was gone. His boss walked up next to him and grinned, staring at the door where the curly haired guy had just disappeared.

"Now what did I just see?"

Louis stared at her in confusion and she smirked, vaguely pointing her head towards the place, the guy had been standing, wiggling her eyebrows.

"An annoying customer, that's what you saw." And with that, he walked put on the ugly green apron that was his work uniform.

"That's the second time he was here."

"I know, he told me as much."

"And he stared at you like you're the queen." Louis looked at Andrea like she was going crazy and shook his head. Whatever that was, this guy had certainly not stared at him like he was a queen. All he had been doing was mocking him.

"He did not. How did he even know my name?"

"Well he asked for you and I mentioned you name since I thought he already knew it. Who is he?"

"I have no idea. If you may excuse me now, I have work to do." With that he pushed past his way too nosy boss and busied himself with taking care of the plants. It was then that he realised that this guy maybe knew Louis' name but he didn't know his name.