A Dozen Red Roses - Chapter 5

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As promised the next chapter, only one more after this and all is revealed! Thanks for reading so far! Enjoy!

Title: A Dozen Red Roses
Chapter(s): 5/6
Characters: Josie, Greg, Tony, Caroline
Pairing: Josie/?
Rating: PG-13 (To be safe)
Summary: Josie recieves a mysterious Valentine but who is it from?

 

Josie had made her excuses and left the studios as quickly as her legs could carry her, having declined Tony’s offer of a drink with the rest of them, despite Caroline’s complaints that she’d be the only woman there.

It was with some surprise to find herself not outside a bookshop as Caroline had led her to believe, but a diminutive dress shop she’d never even glanced at. A little apprehensively she pushed open the glass door to hear a small tinkle of a tiny metal bell. From the back room out hurried a young assistant, beaming all over her face.
"Miss Lawrence?” she questioned, tucking a stray curl of sandy hair behind her ear.

Josie nodded, walking past the racks of elegant hand-stitched dresses. 
”We’ve been waiting for you all day, the gentleman said you’d be in bang on 4:30pm, and well, here you are.” she rushed, reaching behind the counter and handing over the ruby coloured rose to Josie and a small note.

“We’ve kept it nice and safe for you, he must really love you to put this back for you.” Josie nodded again, unsure of what to say contenting herself in opening the note.

HOPE IT FITS.

“Well that makes no sense,” whispered Josie to the note. “Hope what fits?” The assistant smiled, opening the large cardboard box and revealing the dress in its entirety to Josie who wandered over to the assistant in a dazed state.

“Is t-this for me?” Josie gasped, slowly feeling the soft satin, which was a beautiful midnight blue. The short dress billowed out a little at the bottom. The fitted waist was studded with a sprinkling of hand stitched silver crystals, reminding her of the small droplets of dew on her roses. The dress itself had thin straps to keep it up.

“All paid for,” explained the assistant boxing it up once more and handing it to her in a carrier bag.
“Thank you,” whispered Josie, holding the dress in a complete state of shock. She barely noticed they were still playing awful love songs on the radio, which was currently ringing out with Lady In Red by Chris DeBurgh (a personal hate of Tony’s) from the back of the shop.

 *****

Josie barely even noticed that she was sitting next to the same old woman as she had been in the morning as they waited for their bus at the bustling station.
“Let me guess smarty pants: the next is going to be on the bus again,” Josie muttered to her nine flower bouquet; his notes had been placed carefully in the inside pocket of her coat. Josie wrinkled her nose in irritation as she realised the soft tapping that had been pressing on her arm for a good ten minutes was the old lady next to her.

“Can I help you?” moaned Josie, rolling her eyes in mild annoyance, plastering a sweet smile on her face as she really didn’t want to lose her temper with the pensioner, who was most probably just lonely and in need of someone to talk to.

“’Ere some young man gave me this earlier…” she half-wheezed, monotonously. “Said you’d be ‘ere at 5:30pm waiting for your bus as always. Funny accent, could barely understand a word the boy was on about.” She continued in her thick Cockney accent, holding up the flower Josie had been more than a bit surprised to find clutched in her hand.

“Oh… thank you… this man… what does he look like?” Asked Josie, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Can’t tell you.” reeled off the old lady, clutching her handbag tightly to her. “Promised him I wouldn’t.”   Josie sighed. 
“Two more hours and you’ll know, Jos.” she told herself, adding her new rose to the bunch, as she began pondering the list of likely accents her gift giver could possibly have.