How do you make up with your best friend, when they won't speak to you?
Taking an unnecessary peek at what was between the papers, Teri sighed. As if she could have expected anything different.
Moving into her dining room-turned-greenhouse, Terra managed to unearth yet another vase for her latest acquirement.
She shoved the latest wrapping papers into the trash then turned to look at her garden. Some garden, she mused. All the same: yellow roses.
She had yet to decipher the meaning behind the flowers. But she had no chance- each time she tried, the doorbell would ring and she would be faced with yet another handful of the flowers.
Teri began to anticipate the arrival of her presents. After the seventh bouquet, she waited by the door, ready to peer into the peephole and sigh. But the appointed time passed, and no deliveryman approached her door. Convinced the tirade was over, Teri started to relax once again. But was interrupted, this time not by the ringing of the doorbell, but by the shrilling of the telephone.
“Hello?” Silence greeted her, filling the empty airwaves.
“Hello?” Still no answer.
“Look, I’m going to hang up…”
“Hello.” At last- a voice.
“May I ask who’s speaking please?” Teri asked pleasantly.
“I think you know.” A slight pause. “Did you get them?”
“Oh, it’s you.”
“Did you get them?”
“Ahh… I should have guessed. You must think I have a green thumb,” she replied coolly.
“Please Teri, I don’t want to argue. I want to get this solved. I’d hoped that I could soften your resolve with a little subliminal message. I guess it didn’t work.” Dejected.
“Sorry,” she replied aloofly. “Anything else you wanted, Highness?” Sarcasm.
A heavy sigh. “Teri, I know that’s not what you really feel. You’re angry that I forgot. And I’ve told you, I’m truly sorry. Why can’t you accept my apology and get past this?”
Teri paused to think for a minute. She rubbed a hand across her tired and aching neck. Why was she putting up such a fight?
When she started to speak again, a small glimmer of hope flared again.
“I’ve missed you,” she admitted. “I knew when you left that this might happen. I kept telling myself that it would: even though we’re close, things change. I suppose I should be proud that I was right. But I’m just not. It just hurts too much.”
“What exactly ‘happened?’ “ Brian asked curiously. “I just don’t see what you’re getting at.”
“You’re not the same,” Teri explained. “When I first met you, none of this existed. You were happy-go-lucky church boy. I could tell you anything and know you’d help me get through it.
“But when all of these great things started to happen for you, you changed. You were always busy, and never home. When you were, you were too busy to hang out. Or I couldn’t find you through all the security fences, dark glasses and disguises, or guards. I worried right from the beginning, but you promised me you would never change: that you would always be the same old Brian. My best friend…”
“So what am I now?”
“I don’t know.” A hint of sharpness returned to her voice. “I don’t know who or what you are anymore. But you’re not the best friend I used to know, that’s for sure. You forgot the one promise you ever made me. But it’s OK.” Her voice became suddenly and strangely mellow. “I’m sure you’ve got things to do. Talking to me for ten minutes and ordering all those flowers must have taken at least a half an hour of your day. I used up my daily allotment, I’ll be going now.”
“Teri knock it off! Don’t play these games with me! I know you’re angry and I’m trying to apologize to you and make it better! You’re trying to make me feel guilty. And dammit, it’s working. There, I said it. Happy now?”
Teri was too shocked to make a retort.
“I won’t make excuses. Yes I’ve been busy. But I should have made time for you. You are my best friend. I just didn’t try hard enough. And for that I’m sorry. I didn’t treat you the way you deserved. There, I’m done.”
Surprisingly, Teri found her eyes brimming with tears. When she didn’t answer for a moment, Brian began to worry that his confession hadn’t had an effect, and she had really hung up. He sighed and started to disconnect, then heard a soft whisper.
“Wait.”
He waited, silently. She could hear his soft breathing on the line. This was not the conversation she’d imagined. She had honestly prepared herself to lose the best friend of a lifetime. His surprising confession had caught her off guard.
She stammered slightly before coming up with something reasonably intelligent to say. Brian continued to wait, to show his dedication to his friend and the truth of his words.
“Why yellow?” The question slipped out unbidden. She hadn’t considered it before; the thought came to her in a flash.
“I don’t know if it’s true…”
“Yes?”
“They say yellow rose signify friendship. True friendship, the kind that lasts." She could hear the smile in his voice. "I was hoping you’d get the message.”
“Loud and clear, buddy,” Teri