The morning peaked through the grey curtains of Rosa’s apartment. The morning sun transmitted the shapes cut out on the curtains onto the pale creme walls. The curtains seemed to be more like those traditional ones that grandmothers collected. The shapes resembled Egyptian symbols, much like hieroglyphics and geometric shapes.

The apartment itself was like a collection of a historian. On the drawers were countless old vases or at least remakes of them. On the walls were countless paintings. All them being gifts from her grandfather who was quite a remarkable artist. At first Rosa used to keep the paintings all in one big pile in a faraway corner. But later, when Theo visited her he urged her to put them all up, at least with monkey hooks.

Rosa woke up with a grunt as she turned towards the wall, trying to get some more sleep. This week was the week off for her work. She shared the work with a fellow anaesthesiologist to split their work in weeks. Her head ruined her plans for sleeping when it started throbbing as soon as she turned in bed. It has been one day not on the job and already a small symptom of withdrawal caused her to feel very bad discomfort. She let out a groan in defeat as she turned and sat up on her bed. She took a moment to breathe and calm down nausea that mixed in when she sat up. She muttered curses under her breath as she dragged herself to the small living room. The living room wasn’t divided from the bedroom at all, only one small wall by which was the nightstand and then the bed. It surprised her to see that the medication was on the table along with a full glass of water beside it. It was like she remembered putting the two on the table before, but she didn't remember the feeling of the glass. She emptied two pills out of the container and downed them both with the full glass of water.

Rosa was impatient with her medication. She knew that taking this dosage would pretty much kill her liver. Though, she’d rather pile everything to later and enjoy current life.

She left the pills on the table, knowing she will need them again after a few hours. Oh god she hated withdrawal, but then again, she had a week free too, so it was a win/lose situation. She sat down in the armchair as she powered on her phone, noticing a note inside the notepad app.

“visit Theo he is sic”, the note got cut off at what she guessed was the word ‘sick’. Rosa felt nausea at the top of her throat. She both wondered when she even wrote this, getting only a mere glimpse of Deja-vu. She remembered writing this down while talking with Theo on the phone. But if it was Deja-vu, how come it was in real life? Did she wake up in the middle of the night and get the call? But then she would come visit him in the dead of night for sure, and not when she wakes up. Rosa decided to go visit Theo and see how he's doing. She stumbled into the bathroom to go and get ready. While getting ready, she felt a sudden rush of energy and her pupils dilated. The deep blue colour of her irises becoming almost unrecognizable. The amount of energy, though, also came to Rosa in a form of trembling hands.

“Seems like I’m coming down with something.”, she muttered to herself. She ran the comb through her messy black hair, getting agitated halfway through. She tied a quick ponytail before changing into a simple grey turtleneck and a random pair of pants. She shivered at their coldness when they came into contact with her skin.

As she was about to leave her apartment, she felt like she got out into below freezing temperature. She could feel her arms were warm and her face even more, though. She returned and grabbed a trench coat from the hanger beside the wardrobe. She buttoned it all the way up before once again going towards the door. It took only seconds for her to realize she didn’t pack anything into her bag. She bit the side of her finger in frustration as she packed in her phone and wallet along with some medicine. She didn't even read what some of them were, she felt brain-dead.

“Come on. Keep it up until Theo’s house.”, she muttered to herself as she finally got out of her apartment and out of the building. Rosa walked as close as she could to the wall. She counted down steps to Theo’s house. Though, it soon became more and more difficult to keep focused.

She felt relief wash over her as she saw the building grow closer to each step she took on the dark asphalt. She entered the building and walked from floor to floor. She repeated his room number in her head repeatedly. Her eyes didn’t coordinate with her, though. After going by the number 25 a couple of times, she bit her thumb, almost drawing blood. After the bite, her eyes have caught up with her brain and she noticed the number a few doors down. She walked down to the number and knocked on the door. Rosa stopped her breathing for a moment to listen to any movement in the room.

“Theo, are you there?”, she spoke out. After standing there for some time, not hearing any movement, she concluded he was likely out. She sighed as she exited the building. Advancing forward on the route to the shop, her head and eyes feeling like they would pop out at any moment. She counted steps, this time saying them aloud to herself as she walked down the street. Rosa tried to keep her eyes steady on the path in front of her, knowing her head would hurt as soon as they rolled back. She sighed in relief once again, seeing through the big window of the shop and spotting Theo. A customer was inside as well. She opened the door with a smile as the small bell above the door jingled. This alerted Theo that someone has entered the shop. He looked beside the man standing at the counter. He waved at Rosa, before getting back to advising the man at the counter.

The shop was rather warm, making Rosa take off her trench coat as she waited for Theo to be over. As she looked around the shop, her headache decreased. A mix of flower fragrances entered her nostrils, calming the sober pains. The shop was full of different plants that stood in rows on a metal stand. There was a cardboard arrow burrowed in the soil in one of the pots. It stated the name of the flower along with the Latin name written in a much smaller font. There was a smaller path to the counter, which was tall. Theo had to use a small stool to stand on since it was a bit taller than half of his body. The walls were a pale green colour. Across the ceiling several metal bars stood suspended, on which were a couple of hanging pots. Vines swayed from the pots, some having smaller flowers over them and some with only leaves. Taking a closer look at the windows of the store, Rosa noticed small holes in the glass. They were likely ventilation holes, she guessed.

Rosa snapped from looking around when she felt someone rush by her. She jumped up, almost knocking over a flower pot beside her. She heard the person mutter something as they walked out but Rosa shook it off. When she turned to look at the counter, she saw Theo was gone. It startled her when someone wrapped their arms around her, in a hug.

“Hey!”, she heard someone call out. Rosa looked to her side, seeing that in half of a second Theo managed to rush from one side of the room to the other to hug her.

“You’re like a child.”, Rosa laughed as she pat the smaller man on the head, messing with his blonde hair. This made him pout like a child. When Theo hugged her the height difference was clear. He was only 5’4 while Rosa was like a tower, standing at 6 feet tall.

“Whoa thanks, I didn’t spend 30 minutes of my morning to make my hair at least little presentable.”, Theo whined. He let go of Rosa to try to get the loose strands of hair down with the existing hair gel in his hair.

Rosa tried hard not to laugh as she saw his frustration. It showed in his dark green eyes. She watched him try to get his hair in place before he let out a defeated sigh and let the single strand peek out.

“Anyways, what are you doing here? Don’t mean it in a bad way, though. You don’t come here often.”, Theo said. He was a bit concerned with her appearance in the flower shop. But he remained happy since he likes having company in the shop occasionally.

“Do you want a Belladonna Lily? I got them today, I was only supposed to get one because it was a special delivery kind of thing. But I got more just in case.”, Theo said, not letting Rosa reply as he took a flower from the stand and showed it to Rosa. The flower was long and thin, the end of the flower showing the individual petals rolled back. It was white with the edges of the petals and some splotches on the inside being a soft pink colour.

“Well, now you got me. I will take one of them home, but I came here to see if you’re alright. I had a note saved to go visit you, but you seem fine.”, Rosa said. She glanced at the man up and down, searching for any signs of sickness, but he seemed to be doing fine.

Theo turned pale for a second after hearing the saved note, remembering his dream clearer as ever.

“Oh, you mean-”, he started but stopped himself. Rosa likely forgot the dream and better if she did, it was horrifying. “Nothing actually, but you’re asking me if I’m okay, but look at yourself! You are pale like a dead man.”, Theo said, and it was true. Rosa’s skin was an ashen colour, instead of the usual brown tint it had. Now it looked pale and grey, her eyes were also rather dull and her pupils still very dilated.

“I’m fine, I’ve got a pretty strong immune system, so it will likely be gone in a few hours. I already also took some medication. It might be fading soon.”, Rosa said, trying to mask the signs of withdrawal with a simple illness. Theo didn’t know she was struggling with the addiction. And she’d like to keep it that way. She knew that if Theo found out he would freak out, which isn’t a pretty thing to see.

“Anyways, who was the guy you were with at the counter? You seemed pretty friendly with him.”, Rosa said. She tried to switch the conversation away from her.

“Oh! That is Emil, he has been coming here for the last few months. He likes to order exotic cactuses and succulents. He spends a lot of money on them, it’s like he is making a whole botanical garden with them. And damn, his hair is nice.”, Theo said, starting to get carried away. Rosa lowly chuckled, looks like the boy fell in love again.

“He has dark brown hair that reaches somewhat below his shoulders and it seems pretty fluffy. I also got lost in his brown eyes countless times. It wouldn’t be a problem if he wasn’t so taller than me and I had to look up at him. Then it was obvious I was staring at him-”, Theo stopped. He put his hands over his face, which flushed red all over. This was both from embarrassment and from the memory of how the other man looked.

“His glasses confuse me! He looks both attractive AND cute, but I’d say he is attractive because of the way he acts and dresses. He usually acts mysterious and is straightforward with everything. He has a problem with his sight though. I must read him the information from the pamphlets for plant care. He can’t see the letters at all.”, Theo stopped to catch his breath. He was sure if he had all the time in the world and good lungs he could’ve recited a whole novel about the other man.

“Sounds like someone is in love with a customer.”, Rosa teased. She pat Theo on the back. She didn’t have such an experience herself (at least she thought) so she couldn’t relate to him that much, but she tried.

“Yeah, I am, hah. But the problem is that he likely has lots of other ladies throwing themselves over him. There is no way he could be gay, I mean what lady would not want him as hers? Good looks and money through the roof...”, Theo uttered the last words with a frown. The guys he thought were perfect for him always turned out to be not swinging his way.

“Shh, I’m sure you will find yourself someone like him.”, Rosa said. She pat his back a few times.

“You still have time. You may not have found your soulmate in high school but hey, you have a job and different people pass through. You will fish up your soulmate someday.”, Rosa said with a comforting smile. Theo finally took his hands off his face, which has calmed down and wasn’t as red as it was before. He looked up at Rosa and Rosa could feel how concerned he became when he looked at her.

“Uh, Rosa? Your eyes are pretty bloodshot you should go to the doctor-”, Theo said.

Rosa didn’t feel anything as her headache channelled out from all the fragrances in the room. But when Theo said that, she realized that she will experience hell when she gets out.

“Yeah I should go. I also wouldn’t want to forward the illness to you by any chance.”, Rosa said as she was about to leave. Theo yelled out to her before.

“Hey! Don’t forget your flower!”, he yelled out as he put the flower into a bag and handed it to Rosa. Rosa smiled at the man before giving him a 20 dollar note, even though the flower itself was 8 dollars at least.

“Have the rest for a coffee later.”, she said with a laugh. She put her trench coat back on and took the flower. Rosa once again walked to the exit, as she opened the door she waved to Theo.

“Call me later. It’s sad being alone in the apartment alone.”, Rosa said with a laugh as she exited the store. Her fun demeanour faded as a headache came into its place. Once again, her eyes burned and felt like they will pop out of her head at any moment.

She needs to survive the trip home now, please.