Stop To Smell The Flowers

She stopped to smell the flowers. The problem was she stopped to smell all the flowers. Spring time and summer had been extremely difficult for her growing up. She couldn't concentrate on school and spent the warmer months of the year being home schooled or else it would take her the whole day to get to school. When she left for college she decided to study in the most barren place she could find. She found a job studying the arctic. Once in a while she would have to visit her family but it would take a week longer than a normal little holiday and she'd never go home during summer. She'd tried holding her breath, she'd gone to therapy when she was younger, she'd tried being blindfolded and guided around, but nothing had helped. She simply had to stay away from the flowers all together. One day at the research centre a man came walking in. He was the new employee. He had kind eyes and bouncy, dark curls. He smiled at her and she felt smitten right away. They worked together closely over the next few weeks, because she had been assigned to showing him the ropes. One evening they sat in the research centre's living room in front of the fire place. He moved a bit closer to her on the couch so their hands were almost touching. "Can I ask you something personal?" she asked and bit her lip. "Sure." he said and looked at her. "Why did you come here? It's just... it's such a unique and lonely place to come to." she asked and looked at him. "You're gonna think I'm crazy, if I tell you the truth" he answered and shook his head a little and looked at the fire. "Try me. I think I know about crazier things than you." she said and chuckled. He took a deep breath. "Come on. You can trust me." she said and looked at him while she squeezed his hand kindly. He looked at her and then looked down at their hands. "I..." he started. "Yeah?" she encouraged. He continued, still looking down: "I couldn't stop hugging trees."