I'm not planning to get married

The next morning at work, we all had breakfast together minus Mr. Gold. Joe had made enough food to feed an army, or just Bryson and Henry while the rest of us just hoped for a piece of bacon or two. When Gold did slip in for more coffee, he asked Bryson and me to meet him at 7:45 for a moment.

As requested, at 7:45 I was sitting in the chair across from his desk as Bryson sat on the arm.
"Good morning." He addressed us, before we could answer he continued. "I need you to go to the flower shop, as a couple getting married." Mr. Gold instructed.
"Absolutely not, no." The words came out without thought.
"What?"
"It's one thing to pretend to be married but planning a fake wedding? No." Mr. Gold stared at me, brows knit together.
"Lawrence, you're acting ridiculously. You're just going to watch."
"So we aren't picking out flowers?"
"Of course you are, but you are there for observational purposes. You can't just stand there. That's suspicious."
"Will someone be helping us pretend to pick flowers?" I asked, arms still crossed. My question was met with confusion.
"I don't know, I didn't have a traditional wedding." I stared at Gold. His non-traditional wedding didn't surprise me, but I was still annoyed.
"Fine." Bryson watched me with strange eyes. The room was silent for a moment before Gold gave us further information. Part of me was annoyed Bryson didn't agree with my protest, but then again maybe he doesn't have feelings as I do.

Joe had some clothing for us to change into. Bryson got a pair of tighter khakis and a blueish green polo. His eyes popped, matching his shirt and his hair was combed back like always. Joe gave me a pastel pink dress with flowers all over it. It was very much out of my normal attire but I wore it. He pinned my hair back in a bow and did some quick makeup before we left. Before exiting the room handed me a garter for my gun. He knew me too well.

We got into Bryson's car and rode in silence for a while. My eyes were trained out the window, his car jostled us slightly.
"Why are you so against the idea of planning a fake wedding?" He broke the silence.
"A wedding?" My focus snapped in his direction.
"What? Did you think we were going to stop at flowers?" My stomach turned. I had to plan a whole fake wedding with the guy I have feelings for. Someone I can't have, ever. Could this be any worse?
"I never thought about future tasks." I turned away.
"Why are you so against the fake wedding thing?" He asked again.
"Because it's not in my wheelhouse. I don't know how to be girly or romantic." I fluffed the skirt of my dress that balled unnaturally in my lap. "I'm awkward and can list more tools than I can flowers." Bryson chuckled.
"That's what makes you, you. I'll help with the flowers." I leaned my head on the window, wishing it was as easy as picking out flowers.

The first flower shop was tiny and tucked back. The building was slightly worn down, inside the walls were lined with all different colored flowers.
"Good morning." The lady behind the counter smiled. "How can I help?"
"Yes, we have an appointment under Gold." Bryson dragged me to the counter by my wrist. My head was on a swivel looking at the ludicrous amount of flowers on the wall.
"Oh don't worry dear," the woman touched my arm. "You're going to our bridal room. So many more flowers to choose from in there." I faked a smile.
"Oh great." I squeaked. Overwhelmed was an understatement for how I felt.

In the room she lead us to was covered in flowers. Different bouquet arrangements slime the wall as independent flowers sat and each table. The only other place I had seen this many flower was in a field. The scent alone nearly choked me.

Once given our papers, we were sent to roam the room. Bryson being the charming individual he is started small talk with a short woman with pale blonde hair.
"You look lost." She grabbed my attention.
"It's a bit overwhelming. I don't know what I'm doing."  I smiled sheepishly. The gestured to the dark-haired woman across from her.
"She doesn't either." She beamed. "But I'm here to help!"
"Silly me for thinking I could just copy and paste her flower arrangements." The other woman piped up, smiling uncomfortably. No one mirrors someone else on their wedding day. I had to get her name.
"Oh, I'm Rene, this is Bryce." We introduced ourselves.
"I'm Kimberly and this is Jan, we'll be family soon!" Jan's lips crinkled into a smile. "She is marrying my best friend and I'm marrying her cousin. Crazy isn't it?!" Kimberly beamed. The energy from her was nearly electric. She looked so happy and hopeful. If only she knew our real reason for being at a florist and my suspicions of her newfound friend.
"Wow, what a web." Bryson smiled, snaking his arm around me. Goosebumps formed in the wake of his fingers.
"How did you two meet?" She asked cheerfully. My stomach felt sick.
"At work. You know the whole classic, we hate each other then we are forced to work together and we see more in each other." Bryson rambled.
"He saw more, I wasn't convinced." I chimed in. Kimberly laughed, but Jan was fairly unemotional. That raised another red flag.
"Oh, that's so cute. When is your wedding date?" Bryson and I exchanged a look. That was never something we discussed.
"In a few months." I smiled at her.
"That is so exciting!" Her smile was a mile wide. My stomach clenched and twisted.
"Excuse me, I'm going to run to the bathroom." I darted out of the room. My guilty conscience or my feelings; I don't know which was worse at play. I stood with my back against the wall, tucked away from the door. Bryson appeared in my line of vision.
"I feel sick." My voice was horse.
"Why?"
"We are lying to these people." His head dropped slightly.
"That's our job? We are going undercover?" Confusion was evident in his tone and facial expression. Sighing, I ran my fingers through my hair.
"Lying at the ball was fine, I can be a rich married woman for a day. But this is different. This is supposed to be the happiest day of their life, someone they think they're going to spend forever with. We're trying to find out who's being scammed as we bullshit our way through planning a wedding. That's crazy." For a moment he said nothing, then he nodded.
"I see your side but have you ever looked at their side?" I shook my head. "They might get swindled out of thousands of dollars, we are trying to stop that. And so what if we are faking a wedding, you can use all of this when you get married. You're enjoying yourself, are you not? Free cake? Touring beautiful churches? Pretty flowers? Trying foods?" He smiled widely. I hadn't reaped all those benefits yet.
"You're right but it still feels wrong."
"You have such a big heart for someone who can be so cold." I smiled slightly.
"Trauma works in weird ways." He pulled me into a hug.

We broke apart. The red flags popped back into my mind.
"Hey, that woman Jan, something is off about her."
"What do you mean?"
"Who copies and pastes someone else's wedding? Especially a woman? No. Even I wouldn't do that." Bryson thought about what I was saying. "Plus she doesn't look too happy about being a bride."
"You're not happy to be a bride." He countered.
"I'm not a bride." Bryson opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it.

Bryson and I split up. I went back into the floral room while he wanted around trying to find more information about our friend Jan over here and her cousin who will be marrying sweet Kimberly.

Shortly after I re-entered the room, Kimberly and Jan said their goodbyes to me and left. The room was fairly empty minus the employee cleaning up the room.
"Busy lately?" I tried to make a casual conversation.
"Yeah, in the past six months or so we've seen some good business." She smiled at me.
"That's good. Gotta love love." I shifted on my feet. Bryson saved me from my impending awkwardness.
"Hey you, pick the flowers yet." I handed him him sheet. I had filled out random flowers that had the same color.
"I think so." I smiled up at him.
"Alright, let's go drop this off then get some lunch." I hummed in agreement.

In-car I pulled out the iPad and called Joe.
"Hello flower girl." I looked down at my dress. Funny. "How is it going?"
"She's having a blast." Bryson teased.
"Oh, we are on the speaker, okay." My heart squeezed at the gossip Joe could have accidentally spilled.
"Yes, I always call you on speaker for work stuff," I informed him. "Did you get the files Bryce sent you?"
"I did."
"Good, find anything you can about Jan who was in two, and her cousin who a girl named Kimberly is marrying."
"Why those two?" Joe questioned me.
"Don't question me. Also, can you see if any of the phones numbers or names are duplicates in the past 6 months? The girl said business has really picked up since then and according to the case file the first case of fraud was reported about 7 months ago."
"You got all that in there?" Bryson asked.
"Yes?"
"I just got that I really like tulips." I chuckled.
"Thanks for your help, Bryce."
"Any time." He beamed.

The next floral shop was a lot more commercialized. The building was a stark white with advertisements of bridal bouquets on the front window. Inside it was much more organized than the last place. They were sorted by color, and by size. This place seemed more analog than natural. We weren't escorted into a separate room fell with bridal flowers, we were put in a room with a desk and many pieces of paper with different flowers and their prices. Bryson somehow snuck away to go link up to their computer system to pull the data for Joe.

Unfortunately, that was not our last stop for the day. We went to two more bridal shops after that. They fell somewhere between the first and the secondshops we viewed. They weren't completely unique nor were they completely corporate.