Zak checked his watch to mentally mark the time since Bette started going through the stock of flowers in his store.  Hmm, twenty minutes since she went back there to select flowers on her own.

He signaled to his assistant to take over the cash register, and ring up several well-suited men from nearby consulates who were repeat customers of the 3^rd  avenue flower shop Zak owned.  They looked like they were ready with their selections.  Unlike Bette, he said to himself.

“Not in the doghouse again, are you?” he asked with a teasing laugh, as he walked up beside her.  He knew from past interactions with the brunette that when she was particularly anxious about what she wanted to tell Tina, she tended to be undecided about what flowers to get.  There was a time, for example, following what he thought at that time was a pretty serious disagreement, he’d helped her find a long-stemmed and well-shaped rose that had been successful at finally conveying what she’d wanted to say, after several arrangements Zak had fixed for Bette to give to Tina days before had only elicited a tepid reaction from the blonde.

“So what do you want to say this time?” he prodded her.

“Umm… that I love her, of course,” Bette responded, turning to him with a smile.

“Just like the last time when you took so long choosing something?” Zak asked, one eyebrow raised.  Another argument?

Bette laughed, then demurred, “No, no.  Not like when it took me this long to choose.  Not an “I’m sorry” type of  “I love you” this time.”

“Then what?” Zak asked, before quickly catching himself.  Of course.  If not making up after a fight.  Then just … He winked and teased, “Oh, I get it.  You want the “I l-o-o-o-v-e you” version of “I love you.”

Bette smiled, and answered, with a wink of her own, “Yup.  Something that says that in all caps, in fact.  Do you have anything left that’ll say that?”

Zak looked around, scrunched his eyebrows in thought.  Given the hour of the day, past the rush hour, and this being a Friday night, his stock had already been picked through by other customers.   “Let me think a bit,” he said as he half-turned away from her, to look up and down the rows of flowers piled in buckets around them.