Flora's Shop of Decor - A Short Story by RD Larson.

In a shop on the main street of Margarete, a small town not far from the city and still not far from the country, two young people worked. The shop is narrow with one wide window and a red door that opens on the cobbled sidewalk. The young woman called Plesi came from the countryside.

"Plesi, you have such a flare with decorating that you should do it for a living!" Everyone in her acquaintance said to her. So she started for the city, but ended up at Flora's Shop. She worked many long hours for very low pay. The truth is that Plesi loved the shop and its customers. Plesi especially loved the flamboyant dark-haired Flora, the owner of the shop.

Henri worked there, too, in Flora's Shop. Sometimes, he was on the "floor" selling, but mostly, Henri traveled to foreign ports to buy merchandise for the store. He loved to go to different cities and haggle with intense, dark-skinned vendors over pennies for even the most mundane of items for the shop. He was not paid much either for his efforts; he did not care as long as the excitement continued. His life in the city had been more boring than his life in school. He could not picture himself behind a mahogany desk, a pen clutched in his hand, glasses perched on his aquiline nose, then going home to a lonely flat with no one with whom he could argue. Mostly, as part of his employment, he enjoyed his on-going arguments with the opinionated and stubborn Flora.

The two young people were very poor and often complained about Flora when she was absent from the shop. Even so, they were not often alone together in the shop. Sometimes when they were near each other, the glances between them would have melted a hard cheese.

Flora often thought to herself that they were in love and did not yet know it. She did not care. She only concerned herself with how well the shop was doing, how rich she was, and, of course, how much she loved her Persian cat, M. Robert.

M. Robert was a vile creature, surely springing from the loins of Lucifer, as he went about his malicious and caustic business. Only Flora loved him. He objected loudly when anyone made a fondness over Flora. His angry cry was like a scrape of a fingernail on the menu chalkboard at Cafe Mirabella.

And, oh they did make over Flora! She was a rounded woman in the summer of her life. The town people often nodded to one another, speaking of when Flora had danced in the theater or when she had toured in New York! The old gentlemen in the plaza blew her kisses as she breezed past, the plutonic cat hanging from her shoulder, his tail thick with hate.

Flora's Shop of Decor is soon to be published. Watch RD's Website for details of where to purchase Flora's Shop of Decor.

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	*"Ruby Red"* and *"Christmas on Red Dog Road"* - in Kaleidoscope Buy it at: Amazon.com

Excerpt from Flora's Shop of Decor