For the first edition, go here!

Wearing a gown the color of a blue butterfly’s wings (phengaris arion, as her friend Jackie would say), Flora stepped into the crowded ballroom.  People murmured as she floated by them, her satin blue skirts whispering across the marble ballroom.

“Who is she?”

“I’ve never seen her before.”

“That dress…it’s stunning.”

“Look at the way she moves.”

Flora remained silent, a content smile etched across her lips.  Tonight, she wasn’t the pudgy seamstress with mousy hair and a addiction to watching terrible reality television with toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and stale cookies hidden under her bed, away from her mother’s maid’s prying eyes.  Tonight, she was aware of every curve, the way her hair brushed over her shoulders.

Tonight, she was aware of him.

She had felt his eyes from the moment he had walked in the room.  Trying not to stare, she saw the broad, muscular shoulders, the tall frame striding toward her.  A hand, firm but gentle, touched her arm.  “Flora?  Flora?”

“FLORA!”

Her eyes flying open, Flora peeled her face off her work table.  Rubbing her rhinestone-embedded cheek as several stones clattered onto the table, she winced under her mother’s stare.  “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Heather Oak snarled, crossing her arms over her heaving bosom.  Although Flora had gently tried to convince her otherwise, Heather Oak seemed to think her best asset for attracting a mainly female clientele included dangerously low cut tops.  “Did I interrupt your little nap?  I’d hate to inconvenience you.”

“Mother, you know I was up all night working on that dress”–

“Save me the excuses,” she interrupted, holding up her hand.  “I don’t have time to listen to your whining.  If you had planned your time better, you would have gotten it done on time.”

“You gave me a week,” Flora reminded her, her voice strained.

“God, you’re like a mewling kitten.”  Her mother glared at her, disgust oozing out of every pore on her heavily made up face.  “Where’s my lunch?”  She sighed as Flora blinked and rubbed her cheek, not answering.  “Of course.  Why am I not surprised?”  Slapping a twenty on the table, she shoved it toward Flora.  “Get me a large, extra pepperoni, sausage and ham pizza.  With cheese breadsticks and a soda.”  She frowned as Flora struggled to her feet, trapped under her tiny worktable.  “And bring me back ALL the change–don’t be stopping at that bakery for cookies or anything.”   Her eyebrow curled as she pointed to Flora’s wide hips.  “It’s obvious you don’t need them.”

Before, Flora would have snapped back or simply screamed at her mother.  Now, she knew she was simply wasting her breath.  Grabbing her purse, she hurried to the door.

“And hurry back,” her mother shouted, waddling towards her office.  She wouldn’t dare miss her favorite soap opera.  “We have another client at four.  A huge client.”

Flora paused in the doorway, her purse halfway dangling over her arm.  “Mom, I have class from 4-8.”

Her mother clicked on the television.

“You know, fashion merchandising?  Design?  My major?”

“Flora, do you want to keep your job?  Because, you know without a job you can’t pay rent.  Or your bills.  You’ll be homeless and broke.”

“Funny, considering I live in your guesthouse.”  Flora couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.  “And if someone hadn’t blown all my savings and my trust at a seedy Vegas casino…”

“That pizza isn’t going to get itself!” her mother snapped.  Rolling her eyes, Flora let the door slam behind her. Storming down the sidewalk, she walked straight past the pizza place and past the bakery, ignoring the frosted butterfly cookies and lush cinnamon rolls in the window.  Her stomach growled, but she ignored it too.  Letting the warm summer breeze twist and tangle her hair, she lifted her face to the warm sun.  Taking a deep breath, the sticky air filled her lungs.

Her feet knew exactly where to go as she stared at the frothy clouds overhead, wishing she had a fabric as soft and delicate as the white whispering across the robin blue sky.   She wound past several shops, strolled past a delicious new deli she had discovered last week and hurried across the crosswalk.  Framed under a corridor of strong oak trees, she crossed the gravel driveway and pulled open the glass door to her favorite place in the whole world:  The Butterfly Garden and Nursery.

Her favorite person in the world looked up at her and beamed. “Flora!  I was just about to call you!”  Hurrying from behind the counter, she flung her thin arms around her friend and stepped back.  Raising an eyebrow, she crossed her arms.  “What has she done now?”

Jackie, Flora’s best friend since high school, was everything Flora was not.  She was tall and slender, with sparkling green eyes and white blond hair that cascaded in ringlets down her back.  No matter how long she worked outside, her skin remained porcelain, her hands soft and delicate without a single scratch or callous.  If Flora didn’t know her, she would hate her.

“She’s done something,” Jackie pressed, her gorgeous face scowling.  “Your mother is the rudest, most self-absorbed…”

“She’s just evil.”  Flora sighed and examined a huge pink flower.

“Hibiscus,” Jackie answered, without waiting for her to ask.  “Did that girl like her dress?  The one you’ve been working all night, all week on?”

Flora smiled for the first time all day.  “She loved it.”

“Good.  What about your project?  For design class?”

Flora frowned and Jackie hissed, her teeth snapping shut.  “Don’t tell me.”

“There’s a new client coming at four.”  Flora twisted her hands and realized she was still wearing her shop apron with various needles and pins dotting it like decorations.  “Professor Skippy is going to be furious.”

“Then go to class instead!” Jackie urged.

“I want to, but…”  Flora’s voice trailed off, her fingers twisting and pulling at a loop of thread pinned to her apron.  Her cheeks burned and tears pooled in her eyes.

“I know.”  Jackie’s tiny hand was warm on her arm.  Suddenly, her eyes lit up.  “I forgot!  I have something for you!”

Flora perked up.  “More violets?  I loved the ones you gave me last week.  They’re doing so well!”

“No, no violets this time.  Something better.  In the Butterfly Garden.”  Bouncing down the lush green aisles, Jackie sprinted ahead.  Flora rushed after her, her heart lifting like a balloon.

There was no place more magical than the Butterfly Garden.

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  We have a new Comfort and Whimsy tomorrow and more whimsical fun this weekend!  Stay tuned!