Red Rose Day is a time to enjoy and appreciateAmerica’s favorite flower…..the red rose. A red rose signifies love. And, they are in bloom in the gardens across America this month. In addition to being the most popular cut flower, roses are also the most popular flower in flower beds and around foundation of houses, garages and sheds.
Rain washed across the window in a warped splatter, obscuring Keith’s neighborhood to a blur of storm-blanketed color and the occasional sweep of lights from passing vehicles. Ellis had pulled a chair away from the table in the dining room, drawing it close to the parted curtains so he could glower moodily at the thunderstorm rumbling all of the fun out of his afternoon. The pungent scent of roses was thick around him, stout bushes accumulated in pots and large tupperware containers – their roots were still wrapped in thick, plastic-like fabric – until such time as he could plant them properly in the flowerbeds that sat overrun with weeds in Keith’s front yard.
“Ruinin’ mah holiday,” groused the twenty-six year old indignantly, pressing his nose flat against the glass. He sighed noisily, his exhale spreading fog around his face as he continued his comically solemn moping.
Keith, fork-deep in the pasta Ellis had prepared for dinner, glanced up, visibly torn between annoyance at his boyfriend’s devastation and affection for the very same reason. He’d protested yesterday’s purchase of roses, loathing the idea of tackling the swarm of weeds that currently occupied the beds only to painstakingly plant a bunch of small thorny bushes, and their presence in the house was wearisome. But Ellis was so clearly miserable at their missed chance of couple gardening it was difficult not to love him for his enthusiasm for all things togetherness.
He chewed, considering, before prodding Ellis’s sock-clad toes with his own. Ellis’s face squeaked against the glass as it slid lower, smearing his squashed features. “Shortcake,” he cooed, accentuating the petname with a singsong drawl to his voice, “Startin’ tuh miss mah sunshine~”
“S’gonnuh storm awl day, man,” groaned the younger mechanic.
“Ah ain’t talkin’ ‘bout th’sun, darlin’,” Keith murmured, and he could tell Ellis smiled in response by the way the survivor’s prominent ears shifted up. He drew his toes up his boyfriend’s ankle, hooking them beneath the wide bottom of his jeans to tuh the denim towards himself in a playful pull. “C’mere an’ shine awn me sum.”
It was a silly thing to say, but like magic it summoned Ellis out of his funk immediately, the brunette brightening as Keith bestowed him with a crooked grin. “Okay,” he agreed as though shining were something he did regularly, and instead of pulling his chair back to the table, he abandoned it entirely, perching himself on Keith’s lap and beaming with an afternoon’s worth of warmth-tinged radiance in the wide curve of his smile.
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