It’s harder to fix a shoe than I thought it would be.

Iris sits across from me in the flower shop, watching as I attempt to sew the whole in his shoe back together. He knows that I don’t have a clue what to do, but he doesn’t say anything about it. I’m glad he doesn’t.

The rain is still pouring outside and as I try to sew Iris’s shoe back together, my mind wanders off to the transparent flowers Iris had shown me the first time it had rained. He had never told me their name, though. I wonder if they’re doing okay, I think to myself, glancing out the window. The storm is starting to get stronger.

“I had a dream last night,” Iris suddenly speaks, making me return to reality. I look at him and watch as he draws invisible shapes onto the counter’s surface. “I can’t remember much of it but there was screaming, and crying. Now that I say it out loud, it may have actually been a nightmare.” He chuckles and I stay silent, wanting to hear more.

“It felt real,” he continues. “So real. The way they said my name—it sounded familiar, almost as if I had heard their voice before.” He pauses and I watch as his eyes begin to water. “When I woke up, there were dried tears on my cheeks. I was crying and I don’t know why.”

His expressions are a mixture of fear and sadness, and it breaks my heart. I had thought that if I had tried to think of something other than my own misery and past, maybe Iris would go back to the optimistic boy he was when he first invited me into the shop. But no matter how hard I try, nothing works. His smile disappears almost as quick as it appears and his eyes are dull. Maybe it’s because the sunflowers died, I try convincing myself.

“Daisy,” he calls out to me, avoiding my eyes. His voice is soft and almost inaudible, but I hear it over the rain that falls on the shop’s window. “What do they mean? Why won’t they go away?”

He’s in pain, and not even he knows the reason.

Silence falls between us once again. I stare at him, watching as he almost breaks down in front of me once again. I can’t bear to see him like this.

“It’s memories,” I say the first thing that come to mind. “They’re memories from your past life.” I pause, thinking. He’s quiet, listening. “When you’re close to finding your soulmate, your memories of the life you lived before start flooding in. Some will be bad, some will be good—it’s normal for those kinds of memories to happen in a life, but they’ll leave eventually.” I smile when he finally looks up at me, his cheeks stained with the tears he had silently cried. “Don’t worry, Iris,” I say. “I’ll be with you until they go away.”

No words come from Iris and I look down at the shoe in my hand, continuing at my attempt to fix it. As I stick the needle through the hole in the shoe and pull it, I hear him speak. “I don’t believe in soulmates,” he says, sniffling. “I don’t think such a thing could actually exist in this world.”

“Really? Tsk, what kind of world are you living in?” I joke. “Of course soulmates exist—you just have yet to find them.”

“If that’s the case, will you stick around until then?” he asks. Iris’s voice is quiet, as if it wasn’t meant for me to hear. I look up from the shoe and stare into his eyes. He stares back with his brown, doe-eyes, red from crying. They break my heart and make me feel warm inside at the same time.

“Of course,” I say with a small smile. “I’ll be here for as long as you need me.” My response makes Iris smile, and his smile makes mine grow. Again, I focus my attention on his shoe, closing the hole with the thread.

I’m glad I could make you smile, even if it was for a moment.