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November 10th. The date was a week away almost to the day, and Max was making preparations to surprise Gwen. They’d been together for just over a month, having officially started dating just after Max’s birthday in September. Even with this being the case, Gwen had remembered Max’s birthday and gotten her a tiny ‘Bourbon carrot cake’ cupcake, with a very sweet, handwritten note – and now with them dating, Max felt the pressure was on, even if it was mostly just coming from herself, to get Gwen the most thoughtful birthday gift she could.
Gwen hadn’t mentioned her birthday, nor alluded to anything she might want as a gift, which left Max mostly to her own devices. She’d written down in her journal any seed of a gift idea that came her way while spending time with Gwen, often scurrying away to jot down something her girlfriend had said in passing. This left her with a short list of ideas she felt may have been a bit lacking individually, but together might be nice. Ultimately, she narrowed this list down to two things she could afford and reasonably obtain before the date rolled around, which were a sarcastic Magic 8-ball from a local novelty shop, and a small wooden puzzle.
Cup of coffee in hand, Max studied the two items sitting on the counter at Hellerton. Looking at the two gifts isolated on the counter, Max felt as though they looked a little sparse and off-balance, even if it was just visually. She reached a hand out and tried shifting them around on the counter, tweaking the positioning here and there, but the arrangement didn’t feel balanced, and to some degree, didn’t feel like enough.
Max wrapped a hand around the mug, glancing idly at the ceiling as she contemplated what else she might want to add. She supposed 'if anything' should have worked its way into her thought process, but the barren presentation of her gifts gnawed at her.
Flowers, maybe? That seemed an obvious choice to get your significant other on their birthday, and probably something Gwen would find sweet. Max looked again at the gifts on the counter, picturing a small, sort-of-generic bouquet – a small cluster of flowers, in between the two existing gifts. It rounded out the picture just enough to make it the most appealing answer. As Max further tried to picture the bouquet, however, she found the slight hitch to be that she didn't know what kinds of flowers Gwen liked.
Max frowned. She could go with the straightforward approach of choosing flowers by meaning, but that would likely result in roses-- the only romantic flower she knew of, and one she figured Gwen, being such a passionate plant mom, would more-than-likely find trite.
Max set her cup down and stepped back from the counter, rubbing lightly at her temples. She knew she wouldn’t be able to guess -not even a shot in the dark- at what Gwen’s favorite flower was, but she didn’t want to ruin the surprise by asking her. As she was pondering this, her gaze rolled idly onto the paper tacked to the fridge, where she’d noted down Gwen’s classes and office hours.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to.
Minutes later, clouds of Max’s own breath repeatedly hit her in the face as she trudged up the hill to campus, making a determined beeline for the FAB. Gwen’s office hours went for a little longer, and her office was full of plants-- including some flowers, and some of those flowers had to be her favorites, right? Maybe Max couldn’t just come out and ask Gwen what her favorite flower was, but she could probably figure it out from context clues and by gauging Gwen’s reactions.
After stopping to hold the door open for some students who muttered a breathless ‘thank you’ as they shuffled in to escape the cold, Max tried her best to stride casually, but quickly, over to Gwen’s office. She was trying to remember where she might have seen any florist shops in Lakeport when she reached the open door.
Gwen sat hunched over at her desk, so deeply engrossed in something on her computer screen that she didn't notice Max at first. It took Max coming a few steps into the office for Gwen to spot her out of the corner of her eye. When she did, it resulted in an immediate double-take, at which point she lit up and finally turned away from her work.
“Max!” Gwen stood and immediately made her way over to envelop Max in a hug, which Max happily reciprocated. She was grappling with the idea of kissing Gwen on the cheek while in the hug, but realized she wasn't sure what level of PDA Gwen would find appropriate in the current professional setting.
“It's good to see you, babe,” Gwen murmured in her ear, causing Max to melt. She backed away, hands sliding down Max's arms, “here to visit or did you need something from me?”
“Here to visit,” said Max.
Gwen's eyes sparkled with affection, and she gave Max's hands a tight squeeze before releasing them and returning to her chair, “best surprise of the day, then. Make yourself at home.”
“Do you have anyone coming by?” Max asked. “I don’t want to take your time away from any students who might need it.”
“Not likely,” said Gwen, kicking back in her chair. “I assigned midterm papers last week, which means I won’t hear from any of my students until the last 48 hours before they’re due.” She added with more levity, “I’m sure you know how that is.”
“I definitely know,” said Max. “From both sides, now.”
“The only thing taking up my time at the moment is this Godforsaken classroom dashboard they seem Hell-bent to transition us over to next semester. Have you seen it, yet?”
“Not yet,” said Max. “I haven’t even made a login, honestly.”
“It’s a mess,” Gwen said, rolling her eyes. “I’m trying to get ahead of it by uploading my class resources myself, since as far as I know there isn’t going to be an automatic transfer.”
“Yikes,” said Max, partially recounting in her head how many links and other resources for her seminars she’d just kind of thrown haphazardly into her dashboard within their current system. “That sucks.”
Gwen shook her head, “It does, but I still refuse to let it take priority over anything else. So, if you need anything, or if a student does show up, I can drop it pretty easily.”
“Well, I’m just here to chill, if… that’s okay?”
“Of course it is.”
Max nodded and meandered away as Gwen turned back to the computer. Max paced a little bit, clutching her bag to her side as she surveyed Gwen’s office. She quickly realized that, though there were plants resting on almost every surface in the room, only a small handful had any flowers to them. Hopefully this would make it easier to narrow down which of the flowers might be Gwen’s favorite.
She set her bag down next to the large oak writing desk that faced the window, and immediately set her sights on a bright purple flower sitting atop the writing desk’s hutch. It was easily the boldest color of what flowers there were in the office, and fairly large.
“Hey Gwen?”
Gwen looked up from the paper she’d been writing on. “Yes, Max?”
“This plant in the window here…” she pointed a finger at the purple flowering plant, being careful not to actually touch it, “is this an Orchid?”
“Yes, it is,” Gwen said pleasantly, though she raised an eyebrow when adding, “Why?”
“Just curious,” said Max. She smiled and shrugged, “I wasn’t sure how good my plant-identification-skills were.”
“Well, you got it,” said Gwen with an amused shake of the head. “Anything else?”
“No, not… really,” said Max, feeling the need to keep talking when Gwen made to turn back around, “I’m honestly in awe that you grew an Orchid in Vermont.”
Gwen only shrugged, “Thanks Max, but that’s a Cattleya Orchid. They grow just fine indoors as long as you keep them by a window.”
Max registered the nonchalance in her tone and figured that meant she should rule out ‘Orchid’ as Gwen’s favorite flower.
“So, what should I be in awe of?” Max offered, taking a step towards Gwen.
Gwen had to look up from the paper pad again, “you mean that I’ve grown?”
Max nodded.
Gwen leaned back in her chair and twisted the pen in her hands as she thought. Finally, she sat up and recounted, happily, “I guess I’d say my Monstera at home. That thing was with me in grad school and it’s still going strong.”
“That’s impressive,” said Max. “What did you say it was called?”
“Monstera?”
“Yeah, that.”
“They can be temperamental if you don’t know how to handle them. I managed to get mine across the country for two separate moves. Of course, it helped that it was Summer both times. They’re one of my favorites.”
Max grinned, “Cool.”
Gwen nodded in what appeared to be agreement, and then turned back to resume her work. This gave Max a chance to move to the far end of the room and covertly search the plant up on her phone. To her dismay, the pictures that came up were all of a green, large-leafed houseplant, and none of them had flowers, though Max thought they did look nice.
Trying not to grasp at straws, Max returned to hastily scanning all of the flowering plants in Gwen’s office. On top of the hutch, not far from the Orchid, was a white flower that Max was pretty sure was a Lily, with a matching one to be found on the wall shelf above Gwen’s desk. Max wrinkled her nose in thought, pacing back to the desk where the Lily was.
“Gwen?”
“Mmm-hm?” Gwen had been scrolling through something on the Caledon main website, and only briefly cast a glance back at Max.
“This is a Lily, right? Like the one over your desk?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah.”
“Is there any significance to the Lilies? Like, that you have two of them?”
Gwen was still for a moment, fixated on the screen, then explained rather absently, “I mean, Lilies are commonly associated with rebirth, reincarnation…” She casually gestured to the one on the shelf above her. “Hence the decor.”
“Oh yeah,” Max said, squinting to get a better look at the pot that held the Lily. It had a chain of skulls around it and shrunken-head-esque zombie face sticking out above the flowers. She grinned, “I see it now.”
“As for the fact that I have two of them, that’s just because I cut them both off from a larger one that had outgrown its planter. These can actually get to be around four feet tall if you let them.”
“Wowzers…” murmured Max, eyeing the one nearest her, which was probably just over a foot tall.
“That’s an apt statement,” said Gwen.
Gwen didn’t elaborate on anything more to do with the Lily, instead leaning forward and tapping her chin as she studied something onscreen. Max mentally crossed out the Lily as Gwen’s favorite flower, reasoning that if talking about it was less interesting than the dashboard-from-hell she’d been spending the afternoon on, it probably wouldn’t much more enticing in a bouquet.
Max winced as she scanned the office again. She was running out of flowers. The only one left was a pink cluster of flowers growing out of a pot on the desk to Gwen’s right.
“What’s the pink plant next to you?”
Gwen sighed, “You mean the Hydrangea?”
“Hydrangea, huh?”
Gwen didn’t respond, at least not verbally. She set her pen down on the desk in front of her, then turned around in her chair so that she was facing Max. Max winced internally at the look of stark disapproval on her face.
“Max, you know I don’t like this…”
“What?”
“This thing you do where you go fishing for information indirectly, as if it isn’t obvious.” A gravely tone of annoyance permeated her words. “I don’t have the patience for this today. Can you please just ask me whatever it is you need to know?”
Max gave a saddened half-smile, “I was trying to find out what your favorite type of plant, well, flower… was.”
Gwen leaned further forward, resting her elbows on her knees, eyebrows arced in a dubious expression. “Are you sure that’s it? Because that’s a question you definitely didn’t need to be dodgy about.”
“Well, it’s just… your birthday is next week, and…”
Before she could finish, Gwen’s eyes widened abruptly. She curled in on herself, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger. “Oh my God…” she uttered in a low, frustrated groan.
Max shifted on her feet, continuing with, “I wanted to see if I could get you some flowers and then I realized I didn’t know which ones you like.”
“Oh my God,” Gwen repeated, shaking her head, still in the same curled-in posture as before. She sat back up only to slump backwards, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m so sorry, Max.”
“For what?”
“When you started asking me all these questions, I knew you were trying to get at something. I thought you were back on some secretive investigatory bullshit and were trying to keep it from me.” The prior annoyance faded from her face, to be replaced by a look of pure adoration, which she fixed on Max, “Turns out your motivations were much more benign... and sweet.”
Max opted to try and make light of things, “Don’t tell me you forgot your own birthday?”
Gwen shrugged and sighed, “I think it was more like I blocked it out.”
“What? Why?”
“Mmm…” Gwen hesitated, “maybe because when the divorce happened I guess I assumed I’d be celebrating alone?” She rubbed the back of her neck, “Don’t know why I didn’t revise that assumption when we got together.”
“You’ve had a lot to adjust to in a short amount of time,” Max offered.
Gwen looked tired as she nodded, staring off into the distance.
“Including getting your job back.”
That pulled Gwen back into the room. “Oh Jesus,” she said, wide-eyed and lightly chuckling, “tell me about it. Wish I’d had time to revise my syllabus before the damn semester started...”
Max could only stand there and grin.
Gwen’s hand fell from her neck and there was almost a shyness and maybe a blush in her expression as she smiled up at Max. “So you were going to get me flowers for my birthday, then?”
“Among other things.”
“Max…”
“I already have the other things,” Max cut in, cutting Gwen off before she could tell her not to spend the money.
Gently swiveling back and forth in her chair, Gwen watched Max with her head propped up on her fist. Her eyes glimmered with fondness, “You really are sweet.” She looked for a brief second like she might have been about to cry, but blinked it away, “I mean, Christ, Max… we haven’t been dating that long…”
“We’ve known each-other longer than that.”
“So, you’re telling me you would have gone to all this effort if we were still just friends?”
“Probably... minus the flowers, I guess.” Max screwed up her face a bit, “that would be weird if we weren’t dating, right?”
Gwen shrugged, “It depends.” She cleared her throat, “You… really are different from most people, you know that?”
Max nodded, “I have time travel powers.”
A silent laugh rolled up from Gwen’s chest, and she shook her head.
“I promise I’ll just ask you next time I need to know something.”
Gwen took a moment to stand up and stretch, idly commenting, “Yeah, well, maybe we should just exchange all of our favorites right now, get it out of the way…” Her tone that suggested she was only half-joking, “avoid another situation like this.”
Max smiled, “So what is your favorite flower, then?”
“It’s a tie between Gardenia and the flower of the Zebra plant, but you’re not likely to find those in any florist’s shop around here.”
“Damn…” Max said in mock-pout.
Gwen stepped forward, closing the distance between them. She wrapped her arms around Max, pulling her into a warm, intimate embrace, and whispered in her ear, “I’m sure whatever you already got me is wonderful. No need to do anything more.”
“What if I want to?” Max purred back.
Gwen released her grip and stepped back, “then… maybe we go out for the evening and you can buy me a drink or something. How’s that?”
“The same thing you tell everyone else?” Max chided.
“Hey!” Gwen laughed, “what can I say? I like my booze almost as much as I like plants.” Her eyes sparkled, “and I like spending time with you, more than anything.”
Max blushed and initiated the hug this time, pressing her cheek into Gwen’s shoulder.
“I can’t wait.”