Gerrit looked over all the loose papers, books and notes on the table. He sure wasn't stupid (despite being told so for most of his life), but all of this bureaucracy and paperwork was a league of its own. Who knew that buying your own store was this difficult?
He saw it coming weeks ago: the owners of Rosie's Roses overstretched their budget, made a few bad decisions and ultimately had to sell the flower shop. The fact that Gerrit was a reliable worker and somehow got a good standing with some of the other local business owners just made him seem like a natural fit for a buyer.


He had to use almost all of the money he had put aside over the months, but after hitting the library and even asking the resident businessman Anatole for financial advice he felt like he could go for it.
There still was a lot of risk involved, but even Seraphina - the Queen of Desire herself - advised him to follow his dream and do this. And he was close. He just had to muscle through some more red tape and then do some renovations.


***



The last few days had been a flurry of moving furniture around, sanding off old paint, repainting stuff, and buying some new things here and there. This was Gerrit's dream and he wanted to do it right.
This shop most likely wasn't a big deal for the Freehold or his Court - it's not even something most people would call essential.. but that's probably what made it a perfect for for a Winter Courtier. He just wanted to bring some beauty into the world, some light into all the darkness - mundane and fantastical alike. Everybody deserved to have their burden lifted off of them for a few moments, even if it's by something as simple as a thoughtful gift.

The changes he made to the store weren't too substantial, but even the small things added up.
He chose to add some touches of blueberry to the color-scheme - a small token of remembrance to his old life - and focused more on lose flowers and ingredients for more personalized arrangements. Two chairs placed in a private corner provided a chance for customers to relax for a moment or have a discussion with Gerrit about the gift they want him to make. He put adjacent shelves in a way that the seating-corner wasn't visible from the outside, if privacy was needed for some reason.


He was almost ready to re-open Rosie's Roses. This was it.
He worked diligently, he saved and abstained, and took some risks.


This dream was about to come true.