Page 26 of Cherished By the BRATVA Grump

The woman who runs it is elderly, her fingers twisted with arthritis, but somehow, she still manages to make lovely bouquets if the ones on the shelves are anything to go by.

“Hello,” she says, looking at me over the top of her glasses. “How can I help you today.”

“I’m looking for two bouquets,” I say. “One needs to say ‘thank you’ and the other needs to say ‘I want forever with you,’ but not in a cliched way…” I trail off, hearing myself and thinking I sound insane.

“Okay,” the woman says with a knowing smile.

Within fifteen minutes she has created exactly what I need. I pay her and make my way to Patricia’s house.

Patricia answers my knock, and I hand her the first bouquet. It’s creams and yellows with green sprigs of something with a round leaf running up its stem.

“Well, Demyan, what a wonderful surprise.” Patricia takes the flowers and beckons me in. “Tamsin,” she calls. “We have a guest.” She turns back to me. “I’ll pop these in some water and put the coffee on.”

Tamsin appears at the top of the stairs, and then seems to float down them. That overwhelming sense of calm washes over me and I hand her the second bunch of flowers.

“I’m trying to woo you but I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

She laughs, lifting a hand to my face. She stretches onto her tip-toes and drops a kiss on my lips.

“Well,” she says. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s working.”

I follow her through to the kitchen where Patricia is pouring three mugs of coffee and plating a wedge of cake.

Tamsin opens the cupboard beneath the sink and pulls out a vase, filling it with water before putting her flowers in. Patricia sits and the table and signals for me to sit down.

“I know what a Federov looks like when he has something to say.” She slides the cake over to me.

“You got me,” I say, tucking into the cake while I wait for Tamsin to sit with us.

“Should I be worried?” she asks as she sits beside her mom.

I shake my head and swallow the cake down with a mouthful of coffee.

“I was talking to my cousins earlier, and Jasper wanted to know if you’d be interested in teaching a dance class to the kids at the school his sister teaches at?”

“God, how big is your family?” Tamsin asks.

I consider giving her a run down of all my family members, but then decide against it and settle on just saying, “Big.”

Patricia smiles and turns to her daughter. “Tamsin, have you ever thought about teaching classes before?”

Tamsin leans back in the chair slightly looking up to the ceiling as she thinks, pouting her lips. “Actually, yeah. It feels like it could be the right next step.”

I pluck a card out of my pocket and hand it to her.

“That’s Yulia’s information. I’m sure she would love to talk about any ideas or suggestions you have.”

Tamsin takes the card and nods.

“Was there anything else, Demyan?” Patricia asks. I narrow my eyes, wondering what she is looking for specifically.

“Not right now, but thank you for the cake.”

Tamsin

I walk Demyan to the door and thank him again for the flowers.

“You know,” he says as I pull it open, “there’s a space above the gym that could be made into a dance studio, if you want?”