Chapter 1
The Things We WaterChapter 1
Before the Bloom
Keisha’s life looked full from the outside.
Three kids.
A steady corporate job.
A calendar packed so tightly she scheduled reminders to drink water.
Most days started before sunrise and ended with her falling asleep to a half-finished Netflix episode she couldn’t remember starting.
She spent her mornings answering work messages while packing lunches. Her afternoons solving everyone else’s problems. Her evenings breaking up sibling arguments, checking homework, and wondering if she remembered to thaw something for dinner.
People told her all the time how strong she was.
She hated that word.
Strong usually meant tired.
Strong meant carrying things alone.
Strong meant nobody noticed when you were drowning because you looked too capable to need saving.
The funny thing was, flowers had always understood her better than people did.
As a little girl, she picked wildflowers from empty lots and brought them home to her mother.
When life got hard, she bought herself bouquets.
When life got harder, she learned how to make them.
Eventually she became the person creating beauty for everyone else.
Which was probably why it felt ironic that her own life felt stuck in survival mode.
At thirty-seven, Keisha wasn’t looking for love.
She was looking for five uninterrupted minutes.
Maybe a hot coffee.
Maybe a nap.
Definitely a nap.
Love felt like something that belonged to an earlier version of herself.
A version that believed forever was a promise instead of a possibility.
Then Victoria walked into her life.
And for the first time in a very long time, something inside her looked up.
