"So your mother's been stalking you and you're afraid she'll come to the greenhouse and harass other staff?" Cherry didn't even look up from the seedlings she was transplanting.
"Yeah…" I braced myself for the worst. She had every right to fire me. Who'd want an employee with baggage like that? "If you need to let me go I-"
"Hun!" Her shoulders slumped and her face pinched in concern. She grabbed me by the shoulders, smearing nutrient rich dirt across my cardigan, "You shoulda told me before, we never woulda put you on the website if I knew!"
"You're not…mad?" My voice was high pitched and whiny, I could feel tears welling up.
The swirling, nauseating, bitter-sweet feeling growing within me reminded me of the day I broke a vase at Xavier's parents house.
We were both still high schoolers at the time. Young enough for grace but old enough to be held responsible for our mistakes. Xavier's mother asked me to clean the dying flowers out of a vase.
