英语小故事第144期：Red Flowers

“What are these flowers doing here?” Anita asked as she was about to sit in the car’s passenger seat. The towel that covered the leather seat had a couple of small red flowers sitting in a crease. The flowers appeared as she straightened out the towel before she sat down. She always straightened out the towel before sitting down, because Logan sometimes left his glasses, pen, or other items on the passenger seat. She didn’t want to break anything by sitting on it, nor did she want to injure herself by sitting on something sharp.

“What flowers?” Logan asked. “These flowers!” she said sharply, holding the two little flowers up to his nose. He said he didn’t know. He said he thought they had been there for quite a while. No, they hadn’t, she told him, as she put them into a tissue and then put the tissue in her purse. They weren’t there two days ago when she had last been in his car. Maybe they had been there, but she hadn’t seen them, he suggested. “Maybe you’re lying! Who did you buy flowers for?” she yelled at him. This was not the first time she had “caught” him cheating on her. She had never really caught him, of course, because he had never cheated on her. It was a little game she liked to play, just to remind Logan not to cheat.

“Well? Who did you buy these flowers for?” she asked again. He was trying to think. He was sure he had seen the flowers lying there for days, but he had no idea where they had come from. He told her that he had driven for a while yesterday with all the windows open, to freshen the car. “You know how windy it was yesterday. Maybe the flowers got blown into the car.”

“Ha!” she snorted. “If I ever catch you even thinking about cheating on me, we’re through! Got it?” On the one hand, Logan was too much in love with Anita to ever cheat on her. On the other, when she got bossy like this, he did think—however fleetingly—about moving on.