Suzy and the Plant Shoppe

"Suzy, I hope you're up! The shop needs to be ready before the investors arrive tomorrow morning!"

Charlie's voice called from inside the store. I sat up quickly in bed, glancing at the clock on the side table. The digits were stuck at 12:00. Damn. I forgot to buy new batteries last night, but I was so tired after visiting other towns and entering stores to gather more seeds.

With a quick yawn, I put on my glasses, and entered the bathroom. My curly hair was tangled in a knotted mess and the dark shadows beneath my eyes made me look like a human zombie. I brushed my teeth, washed my face with a cloth, and then brushed my hair into a messy ponytail.

Charlie was bent over eyeing a plant in front of the display window. I moved near her and found myself also intrigued by the unusual plant. It was in a thick round pot and had a tall green stem with four branches of blue leaves hanging from it. At least the ones that weren't black and shriveled. I had never seen anything like it before.

Where did it come from?

"Oh, Suzy." She pointed to the plant. "Did you find this during your journey yesterday? Because if so, I like it."

As much as I wanted to lie and tell her I did find this plant, because it would have made things better for me since I found absolutely nothing of value, I told the truth. "No. I never saw this before.”

"You really don't know?" She paused, frowning a bit as she touched the blue leaves of the plant. "When I came in this morning, I saw it right here. I thought perhaps you've finally become useful for once."

My lips thinned. I wish I had found more than just three generic plant seeds. Maybe then I would have been more helpful to the store.

"Well-" Charlie stood and grabbed the pot, handing it over. "You need to get this plant back to health. It's the only cool item to show tomorrow."

I nodded, struggling to hold the heavy pot. "Sure thing." I carried it all the way to my office in the small room on one side of the shop where I did all of the handling of plants that came to the shop. On the counter receiving light therapy was a blue rose that I had grown myself. I placed the new plant beside the rose underneath the purple grow light.

"Okay. What are we working with?" I pushed the stool close to the counter before sitting on it. The pot was definitely not one we kept in stock. The leaves itself was not something I had ever seen before and because of that, I was unable to tell the type of greenery. Plus it did not have any identification tags on the stem or pot.

I pulled my scissors from my pocket and cut the decay above the healthy nodes. "Alright, my friend. Soon you shall be healthy and beautiful again." After carefully pruning and cutting, I stood up, and with the broom swept all of the crunchy leaves on the floor.

Over the years, I've managed to save many plants and I think that is why Charlie leaves the job to me even when she threatens to replace me at times. I've been living in the basement of the shop since I was eight years old. Charlie had been so kind in adopting me at the local orphanage after seeing me peeking into her shop on the daily. I always believed I had a deep connection with nature.

The remainder of the day was used restocking the shelves and counting inventory. Charlie and I went to the local hotdog stand and grabbed some food, then I retired to my bedroom and read a book. I fell asleep sometime in and when I woke up, the room was dark. Normally the light outside would shine inside providing me with enough light to see. Unfortunately, my standing lamp had broken and we had been unable to buy new light bulbs.

I entered the kitchenette area which was in the hall between the main shop and my office and I grabbed a glass, filling it up with water. I moaned as the soothing liquid traveled down my throat. Then I heard the weirdest thing.

A low squeaking sound coming from inside the office. Curiously, I traveled in the room, my eyes glided around the surroundings until they landed on the new plant.

My eyebrows rose as I saw the green tendrils stretched out from the pot and moving in the air. “Now that's interesting.” I tried touching one and it wrapped itself softly around my right wrist. Another rubbed itself against the side of my left cheek. The sensation was gentle and kind. I wasn't sure how to feel at that moment. No greenery had ever touched me like this.

“You must be a climbing plant,” I whispered. That was the only logical explanation for these springy tendrils. I found myself leaning forward to enjoy their precious touch when suddenly, they let me go, and one of them, straighter than the others, shot out at my chest. It lingered there, swiping against my skin when it then moved down to the top of my breasts.

Oh.

All of my fantasies came to me and I couldn't help but think of those cold, rough organs running down other parts of my body. I moaned again.

I bit my bottom lip. The feeling of their tendrils touching me made my heart race. Was it possible to be turned on by such an interesting plant?

Then I felt something traveling up my dress. But the sound of footsteps brought me back to reality. I pushed my dress down and moved away from the plant as soon as Charlie entered the room.

“What are you doing?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Um, I was checking on the plant.” I replied, quickly. “Making sure it's not growing any weeds.”

She looked at me with squinted eyes. “At this hour? You’re so weird.”

She moved from the threshold of the door and wandered to a box of fake flowers and picked them up. “The last one turns off the lights,” she said, before walking out of the room.

What lights? The only light that was on was the growing one.

My eyes glided back to the plant that now looked very ordinary. I touched its stem and petals. There were no signs of tendrils.

Did I really imagine I was being touched by a plant?

“Maybe I am a weirdo,” I commented, rubbing my eyes and leaving the room  for bed.