Little Touch of Heaven

Rosey Jungle

The delicious-smelling vanilla bean latte sitting on Allie's desk radiated its warm fragrance to Yoimiya's nose, making her mouth water at the idea of a perfectly blended cup of expertise-made coffee. 

Yoimiya stood behind Allie as they went over the monthly April report of their sales, finances, revenue, inventory levels, and more among other columns of data displaying pivotal information surrounding her business' success. She had learned to speak well and clearly without nerves in her reports with her boss. After all, they had known each other since the ninth grade, and Allie had never belittled her when she'd been nervous to present to her the facts of each month's report.

Allie nodded gingerly in response to much of Yoimiya's consistent yapping about the rows of data in front of her, her posture relaxing as she studied the numbers with her assistant. This was one of the routines she enjoyed most about her business life. Seeing her success range higher every month to month was a huge boost to her happiness and esteem, especially during some of the times in her life where she felt like she wasn't going to make it, Yoimiya had been there with the standardly improving report at the end of each hectic month. It motivated her to keep going on with her life, no matter how challenging or complex it seemed the path would become.

Yoimiya finally stood back to let Allie look over all the reports and slides she'd collected into her monthly presentation. The idea in her mind pricked at the back of her head, it irresistibly tickled her pink when she finally felt the overwhelming confidence to ask. 

"SoOo....I heard we have a new competitor!" She said in a sarcastically enthusiastic way.

Allie swiveled around to her in her leather office chair. "Oh, have we now?" Her smile was forthcoming, her eyebrows raised. "We've done pretty decently with competitors in the past." 

"Sure, but you should go take a look after we're done here. It looks like they're planning some serious remodeling, which could mean serious business." Yoimiya jokingly replied, half seriously meeting Allie's emerald irises with her own sandy brown ones. 

"I'll take a look after I finish my latte." Allie remarked deftly, turning away slyly to sip said creamy, vanilla latte. "Let's finish the monthly report, shall we?

.

"I know you said serious business, but I was almost convinced you were pulling my leg." Allie's centered eyes were studying the other side of reality through the Glamour's glass windows, so much that she didn't even hear Yoimiya's response. The businesses on this particular stretch were normally smaller than hers, or of relatively similar size, not considerably larger. She wasn't sure if her stomach flip-flopping was an appropriate response or not to a possible competitor, and one of indefinite size.

On the other side of the street, however, laid the closed off redesigning of a new, very large building of some sort. Definitely wider than the Glamour in width and quite tall, possibly half a story taller than the Glamour.  

"Allie?" Yoimiya said, breaking her boss out of her accelerating thoughts. Allie turned to face Yoimiya calmly, who smiled kindly as usual. "You've been staring out that window for the last five minutes."

"Oh." Her head glanced to the clock on the wall on automatic, noting it was a quarter after three. "Just had something to think about." Allie shrugged, trying to scratch the invisible itch in the back of her brain with a 'I'll deal with it later'.

Yoimiya nodded. "Don't worry, miss Doki, you're doomed for success no matter what in my mind." She asserted her boss with a salute.

Meeting Yoimiya's brown irises, Allie half-smiled. "It just makes me think too much, is all. We'll probably be fine. We've been fine every time we had a new competitor before." She assured her assistant, although it was herself, not her assistant, that needed the reassuring. In addition, it was also her churning stomach that needed it. Inside her gold-blonde noggin, it made her think towards the fact that the business was only a few years old, and was practically a miracle to be going this strong so early on in contrast to some of the very businesses down the road. She'd met some of the owners of course, it wasn't very hard to do, most of the people knew who Allie was, of course. She wasn't particularly sneaky or camouflaged when she was in public.

Yoimiya had some thoughts of her own. One being an idea that, gripping her clear smoothie cup, she spoke quietly on. "Do you believe it's time we potentially hire someone else to help with competitors?" 

Allie merely paused with the new idea. She had considered hiring someone all throughout her career, specifically in the beginning, but it was quite a bit of money and her budget was already so tight back then. Nowadays, however...She could definitely afford it. "Well, I have thought about it..." She began hopelessly.

"I know you've thought about it for the last three years, Allie," Yoimiya countered softly. "Why don't we look at marketers? Every great big business has got to have a marketer or two. It...I think it'd be our next smart business move." Yoimiya smiled again, trying to coax her boss into the direction of her idea. It would aid to have more sturdy ideas to keep her masked anxiety from spiraling when she wasn't around to lock her back down to Earth.

Allie inhaled a big breath of air, slowly exhaling as her ribcage expanded and shrunk to size. In the resplendent late-day sunlight, she gazed out at the construction and gently chomped the inside of her cheek to prevent a frown. "I'll think about it." She murmured quietly, just barely audible for Yoimiya to take in.

 Yoimiya's eyes fell to her smoothie cup, a brilliant icy swirl of raspberry and lemon, and she offered a nod Allie neither saw or acknowledged.

.

It was a hot couple of summer months drenched in stress for Allie. Although her employees seemed easy-breezy in the hot sun, she felt like an over-cooked French fry every time she set foot outside. Perhaps that had something to do with spotting a couple of them with Botanical Bistro cups of something green and iced. Or the advertisements all around her general location about their Botani Bites  or Petal Pops or their Sakura Sphere sundaes or Zenblossom coffees with your choice of matcha, Sakura, or regular whipped cream. 

Maybe it was that swamped, geometric and glassy green place across the place that brought her so much burnt thinking. With it's colossal-sized hexagon windows, each of their boundaries gold, the whole front of the establishment was essentially windows, including the front double doors. Rounded little tables for two sat outside next to the marble steps and beside the fluent flower beds. They had actual log-looking seats that, from her position inside her pink paradise, she couldn't distinctively decide if those stupidly genius seats were real or artificial, but she knew they were not as genius as their giant leafy replacements attached to the tables by a thick stem that acted as the traditional umbrellas often sheltering it's guests. 

The last straw was when she spotted one of the trendy-green cups on Yoimiya's desk one humid July afternoon. Her own assistant ate whatever it was that was so special and addicting right under her nose in her own direct competition from such a place. 

That was the day she finally crossed the busy street in white strappy sandals with painted toes to the geometric madness known as the "Botanical Bistro". The clearly cursive sign that positioned tall and proud above the front double doors reminded her agony all about it.

Allie glided past a couple teens exited who held the door for her to the dark hardwood floors. Inside, her emerald irises met a room as green as her gaze. From the main entrance she dashed her vision upon a massive room with lofts on either side and three separate counters in secluded corners of the room nearly overrun by yours truly, a jungle. Customers packed almost every table she could manage to come across, a general population of all ages present throughout the geometric blossoming utopia. Simple potted plants to messy, giant leaved saplings partied in every nook and cranny. Viny blossoms trailed downwards, up to several feet in length, while strings of fairy lights were taking over, strung over the airspace of the first floor where the lofts did not occupy.

Allie felt a surge of jealousy at the success, the prosperity, the newness, the trendiness, the...

Everything.

Why? She was doing well, she wasn't having a tough time with anything but the idea of a new neighbor. She switched apartments five times, this should be a piece of cake. But now that she was here...

Those Petal Pops did look rather appetizing.

She whisked her blonde curls out of her face and off her shoulders, exposing her beachy, white tank top. A little teal and pink beach scene adorned it. Obviously she should've put her hair up, worn an adventurer's suit and kidnapped a monkey just for the cause. She continued onward into the jungle haven. She was nearly surprised there weren't parrots or blue jays or robins raising families inside the upcoming trees. She did, however, take note of the few massive butterflies hanging from the ceiling like planes did in a museum. The classic monarch stole the show as being the one closest to the size of a mammoth, a blue and black one not far behind it among a few others way up there in the scattering sunlight breaking through the glass.

Allie found herself blessed enough to stumble upon a man giving a little lesson about cactuses to a group of smaller children. Very simple; cactuses will stab you; don't reach out and hug them. Not a bad lesson. She watched the younglings shyly attempt questions to their teacher. He was obviously on the younger side, his eyes shone like the kids themselves and he wasn't afraid to smile. Mid-twenties perhaps, a quite tall, trim dude embellished with brown roots and slightly darker edges. She couldn't tell if his eyes were brown or black, but she guessed it didn't really matter as long as she didn't buy a cactus.  

She continued to stroll around for a while, realizing it might be true that even in a flower shop she'd never seen so many different kind of flowers and plants in one place before. She strolled upon flowering buds and blossoms of irises, peonies, marigolds, carnations, sunflowers, dahlias, tulips, azaleas, and oh, so many others she couldn't have known the names of. At the very end of the wild display was a wide glass vase half her size full of roses of assorted colors.  

She couldn't help herself, just couldn't, not when the sign ordered she took one for free. Her painted pink nails chose a matching, healthy pink rose. She attended to the dew, or what seemed like dew, on some of the outer petals before she turned to hearing her name.

"Excuse me!" The familiar face of the teacher was approaching in a hurry. "You must be Miss Doki." He ceased his hurry once he was next to her, smiling, although something ringed coy about it. "I see you like my roses."

...His roses?

Oh, no.

No, no, no, no, no.

"Aha, not..." She really did not have the words to be polite about not wanting his free rose. "I was...just looking." 

He nodded, up close he was six foot and some undecipherable number of inches. And since she could see now, his eyes were a deep, earthy brown. "You own The Glamour, across the street. It's a pleasure to meet you." He bowed smally.

She could hold her own at 5'8. She returned said bow politely. "Yes, the pleasures all mine." She smiled docilly, pondering over if she was dealing with a CEO, founder, owner, all in one, or something else. 

"I'm Atsuo Yamamura, founder, CEO, and owner of the Botanical Bistro." He cocked his head to the side, easily studying her from the high ground he'd gaged with a knowing smile. He reached for the very rose she returned to the massive bouquet of exquisite roses and offered it back to her.  "We should get tea sometime." 

In her new, unwanted phase, she couldn't exactly process what was happening. "You are...my assistant's brother."

"That I am." Atsuo continued to provide the pretty pink rose until Allie eventually reached out to take it. 

She half-scoffed. "You will have to excuse me, Mr. Yamamura," she said with a fake business smile. "Unfortunately, I believe I need to have a few words with my assistant. I wont be dining for tea today." With that, Allie humbly turned from him with his rose, scooting to the front as modestly as possible to avoid anymore paparazzi for the day. 

It only took a decent thirty seconds to cross back over the street to her glowing pink dimension of where she really lived. 

Coming inside, Allie made an appropriate stop in her empty office to drop off the...whatever kind of gift it was before knocking on Yoimiya's office door and entering promptly.

...