The Accidental Florist

doing it.
    “Why’s it changed?“ he asked.
    “Because Dad finished up early translating for the Danes. So they are coming earlier. Almost everything is set up for three weeks from now. But I need advice on one thing.“
    “Anything I can help with will be a pleasure,“ he said.
    “I need to make an appointment with a judge to do the civil service before the big fat wedding happens. Addie, Mel’s mother, is planning most of it.“
    “She’s a terror.“
    “But a rich one. I’ve made rules. I chose all the flowers, I’ve chosen the hotel, and they can only supply rooms for three hundred guests.“
    “I don’t think I even know three hundred people I’d want to invite to a wedding,“ Jim said with a laugh.
    “Neither do I,“ Jane admitted. `But Addie wants to force all her richest clients into coming to `her’ wedding and eating and drinking well. Purely a business deal in her view.“
    “If she’s paying for it, good for her. So when and where do Mel and I go to be fitted for tuxes?“
    Jane consulted her notes and told him the answer. “Now, you tell me a good, pleasant judge we can prevail on to marry us.“
    Jim gave her three names, in order of preference, and told her their office phone numbers. He said again, “I can’t wait to get to meet with your parents in person. It’s been far too long since I’ve been able to just sit around and jaw with them.“
    “They feel the same way, Uncle Jim. And thanks for the names of judges. And by the way, would you take Todd along with you and Mel? Mike will have to go, too, the minute he gets home.“
    Two more revisions to the list, she thought.
    Jane was pleased to cross a number of things off her list. The first judge she called was very impressed that Jim was her honorary uncle and would be glad to do the civil wedding. They set up a time.
    The printing outfit she’d interviewed about business cards was glad to do the inserts for the wedding invitations. Jane instructed them that they should say, “Jane Jeffry and Mel VanDyne are combining households and don’t need gifts. If guests wish to make a donation to Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, or the Salvation Army, Jane and Mel would be very grateful.“
    The printer suggested the printing style, the paper weight, and the color, and Jane accepted all of his advice. They would be ready by tomorrow.
    Next on the list was picking up her hat. She still had a few quarters left; and the hat was ready and looked wonderful and wouldn’t blow or fall off her head.
    When she got back home, she called Ted about web-sites. He told her who had set up and updated the Jeffry Pharmacy pages. “It’s a bit expensive, but you won’t have as much data to work with quite yet. Here’s the name and number of the Webmaster.“
    She’d deal with this after the wedding, but was enormously smug at having tended to everything on her list. All she had to do was pick up the inserts for the wedding announcements the next day and FedEx half of them to Addie, then alert everybody involved as to where and when the civil wedding would take place.
    A new list to make.

Chapter Twenty

    Jane had finished everything on her list the day before, except calling the Webmaster Ted had suggested. That could wait until after the weddings. She started a new list. The fridge was nearly empty and after getting rid of some very overripe cheese and lumpy milk, and the last of the congealed inch of orange juice, she went hunting for other things that were way past their sell date. Some cream cheese that had never been opened and she feared it was too old to even examine closely.
    Then she made a new list of meals and what she needed for each one. Chili sounded too hot for summer, and so was pot roast. Though she did both superbly in the winter. So she put down eggs, salad stuff, and good sourdough bread. Since the caper bottle had only four little mildewed globs, she also disposed of those and put them on the list along with a new bottle of salad dressing, mayo, and a variety of chips and soft drinks. Hamburger, hot dogs, bacon, and good summer tomatoes.
    Then she rewrote the list by aisles in her closest grocery store. No point in wasting time going back to where she’d already been for something else.
    Shelley was the only person who fully understood Jane’s obsession with lists. Shelley sometimes made lists herself.
    Jane came home with six bags. She had everything on the list, but she’d been drawn to some expensive little