Sometime, nearly 3 years ago now, I wrote a story called "Ya Never Know" about Seymour and Audrey's first encounter on the day Audrey got her job. In that story, Seymour dropped a vase and Audrey had told Mr. Mushnik she was the one who broke it. That was always one of my favorite stories and this follow up has been floating around in my mind since I had written it. I decided to finally write it down (5-18-21):


"Krelborn!"

Seymour's entire body ached from the fall. His glasses had flown off his face. Through his blurry vision he saw a pair of heels walking across the shop, bending down to retrieve them and come over to him. Audrey handed them to him without a word. He slid them on his face and she came into focus. He noticed some of the soot from his trip had landed in her hair, which was fairly visible against the platinum blonde.

"I'm so sorry, Audrey."

"It's okay, Seymour. It's not really a big deal."

Audrey had only been there a week but her kindness still threw him off. He was always expecting her to yell at him or at least roll her eyes. But she hadn't done anything like that yet.

"Not a big deal?!" Mr. Mushnik growled. "That bag of potting soil was for a pick up order for a gardening party uptown! But I'm sure they wouldn't mind a punctured bag!"

"There's another bag downstairs, sir. Would you like me to go get it?"

"No, I'm sure it'll walk up the stairs on it's own. Think, Krelborn!"

Seymour rose from the ground and tried to brush the soil off his sweater vest before silently retreating to the basement.

"Ah what a useless klutz," Mr. Mushnik continued to grumble.

Audrey wanted to tell him he was treating him unfairly, but knew enough about men that sometimes they just wanted to argue, and it's best to stay out of it.

"He's always been clumsy, since he was a kid! There's the potting soil today, the clay pots on Wednesday, then there was that vase last week…"

"What vase?"

Mr. Mushnik hadn't expected to be interrupted but answered nonetheless. "The glass one with the roses on it. It was perfect. Nobody could tell it wasn't real crystal."

"Was that the day I came in?"

Mr. Mushnik nodded, irritated.

"But sir, I broke that vase!"

He looked at her startled. She was looking both shocked and very serious. Clearly this wasn't a joke to her.

"It's fine, Audrey. You don't have to lie. Krelborn already owned up to it. And it's already out of his paycheck…"

"Oh sir, that's not fair! I was the one who broke it! I swear! Take it from mine."

Seymour returned at the top of the stairs. Mr. Mushnik had begun to find some amusement in this and decided to ask a question.

"Krelborn, do you remember the glass vase last week? Who broke it? You or Audrey?"

Seymour was perplexed why this had come back up. He looked from Mr. Mushnik to Audrey. She was looking at him very seriously and tried to give him a nod. But why she was doing this was lost to him.

"I did?"

Audrey exhaled. "It's okay, Seymour. I told him the truth. It was me."

Seymour stood in stunned silence. This was clearly a lie. He remembered what had happened vividly. Audrey had come into the shop for the first time and her back was to him. He came behind her to ask if she needed help finding anything, but in doing so startled him. And the glass vase he was holding fell at their feet. But when Mr. Mushnik came out to see what all the racket was, Audrey had told him it was her that broke it. He didn't believe her, and after she had left Seymour owned up to it. He still wondered about why she had done that. And he was even more confused why she continued to lie.

"Well one of you is clearly lying." Mr. Mushnik sat in his chair and folded his hands on top of his head. "But 'why' is the question."

The day had been slow, and this was the most entertainment he had seen in a while.

He pointed to Seymour, "You are a terrible liar. You look away and fidget like a jitterbug." He moved his point over to Audrey. "But you have no reason to be lying."

"I'm not."

"Audrey, I..."

She glanced over at Seymour before he could finish and shook her head.

Mr. Mushnik pointed at Seymour. "You're the one lying," he decided. He pointed at Audrey. "It'll come out of your paycheck."

Audrey exhaled in relief and almost smiled.

Seymour began to protest. "But that's not…"

"It's simple really. You just have to consider the motive."

"Motive?" he asked.

Mushnik motioned at Seymour. "I could easily see you lying for her. She's a pretty girl and you like her."

Seymour blushed redder than the roses.

"But Audrey has no reason to lie for you. She has no reason to like you. You're not exactly a catch."

"Sir, that's very rude," Audrey interjected.

This startled Seymour more than it did Mushnik. He chose to ignore her and turned to Seymour.

"I'm sure that soil is just going to clean itself up?"

Seymour remembered what he was doing and placed the fresh bag on the counter. By the time he had grabbed the broom Audrey had already grabbed the dust pan.

Both Audrey and Seymour worked in silence to clean up the mess, as they both contemplated different thoughts.

Audrey was thinking about what Mr. Mushnik had said about Seymour's reasons for lying. And how his reasons would have been that he liked her. But before she could sit with this pleasant thought for too long she reminded herself that he hadn't actually been lying. She kicked herself for getting her hopes up.

Seymour was also thinking about what Mr. Mushnik had said, but the other part. How unrealistic it would be for Audrey to like him. Why would she continue to lie though?

Mr. Mushnik had grown bored with watching them clean and decided to go to the back room for his newspaper.

The door closed behind him and Seymour whispered in a haste, "Why'd you do that? That wasn't true."

Audrey kept her eyes away. "Because he'll forgive me. I don't like how he treats you."

Seymour froze. That was why she lied? To get Mr. Mushnik to pester him less?

Audrey decided not to disclose that this perfectly rational reason behind lying had only occurred to her later on. The other reason was because when he had broken it, she had seen herself in the fear in his eyes.

"I'm used to it," he admitted.

She shook her head. "I wish you didn't have to be."

The entire situation, though thought of often, was not spoken of for another year. Whereupon sales had dropped even further and the hours were long.

On an especially long day, Mr. Mushnik asked across the shop, "Audrey?"

"Hmm?"

"The day you came in for a job, who broke that vase?"

"I did, sir," she answered without the slightest hesitation.

Mr. Mushnik, who could still see no other motive, disappeared behind his newspaper.