Wedding Days: Johnny's First Wedding

Once that first summer was over, Johnny went back to school and Wellington's went on without him. The school year begins right after Labor Day, and with it all the summer residents go back to their multi-million dollar apartments in the city. Business at the flower shop tends to slow down, and this was one of the reasons Johnny was such a good fit for Wellington's. Though the day to day business at Wellington's slowed down considerably, business didn't go away completely after Labor Day.

Autumn is a popular time of the year for weddings, and Stewart Wellington made the bulk of his fall business in the world of these (...at least in the world of the rich and famous!) super extravagant affairs. Weddings and other such events keep Wellington's going throughout the fall. Besides, big events like these provide a quick boost in profits without all the headaches of day to day flower business, and one event can equal a lot of gift deliveries!

Read more of part 1 here.

It was a beautiful autumn day in late September, a perfect day for a fall wedding. The setting was appropriate for such an elegant affair: a matrimonial ceremony performed beneath a white gazebo amongst rows of grapevines; a cocktail reception in the courtyard of a monasterial edifice overlooking miles and miles of vineyards; the upper crust of the Hamptons, dressed in their most elegant evening wear, and Wellington's was responsible for making it beautiful.

Read more of the conclusion here.

Brushes with Celebrities

One day, early on in his days at Wellington's Flower Shop, Johnny was sweeping the shop floor when the phone rang. Kona answered. It was one of those worldwide floral networks like FTD, only for a more upscale clientele. For those few moments, the shop was quiet, except for Kona's voice speaking to the other person on the line. Johnny wasn't paying too much attention until he heard the name Madonna.

"I'm delivering flowers to Madonna?" Johnny ran over to Kona the moment she hung up the phone.

"No, no...the order was from Madonna, not to her. Besides, she lives in England these days."

Johnny's excitement vanished as quickly as it came. Well it was still cool to be delivering flowers for Madonna.

"We're not even doing the arrangement," Kona added. "They're going to the city, so we're passing it along to another shop."

"Dang!" Johnny thought. He'd had a feeling when he started at Wellington's that he'd get to deliver flowers to some famous people, and Madonna was definitely high on his wish list of celebrities. It didn't take too long, however, before Johnny did get to make some deliveries to and from some of the famous people that hung about the Hamptons during the summer.

The first one he ever did was to a funeral. Russell Simmons ordered an arrangement sent to the wake of a friend who had passed. It wasn't too exciting, except Johnny got to write out the message from the famous record producer. "With Deepest Sympathy, Russell Simmons." Though that was nothing really, Johnny did eventually get to have some real brushes with some big stars.

There was that time when Johnny brought an anniversary arrangement to Jimmy Buffet's house in Noyac. That was pretty cool! He had like five houses on his huge property, like a little village. Candace Bergen peeked at Johnny through her window as he handed a "Congratulations on your Emmy nomination" arrangement to her housekeeper. Kelly Ripa wasn't home when Johnny brought a Mother's Day bouquet for her and her mom, but she enjoyed the flowers so much she ordered some to be sent to another Southampton couple as a thank you for dinner.



Johnny's biggest firsthand experience with a celebrity came when a magazine editor called the shop to order flowers to be sent to Billy Joel, a year round resident of Long Island. They were a thank you for a recent interview the singer had done for the magazine. As he anxiously waited for Kona to finish making it up, Johnny tried to find the address on the local map of East Hampton, which included the pretty seaside town of Sag Harbor.

Sag Harbor is unlike the rest of the towns in the Hamptons. Most residents of the town are working class people, and Johnny couldn't recall seeing any of the McMansions there that he'd seen in the rest of the Hamptons. He figured that since Billy Joel lived there, though, there had to be a street or two where some big, expensive houses existed. The address was close to the water, so Johnny kept his eye out for just such a street once he got close to the area.

As it turned out, Johnny passed the Joel residence about five times before he realized it. The house was ordinary and very unassuming, completely the opposite of what Johnny expected. Johnny was nervous as he went into the back of the van to retrieve the gift arrangement. He opened the gate to the driveway and walked up to the front door, with butterflies in his stomach. Johnny knocked on the door.

"Hi." (It was him!)

"These are for you," Johnny said, holding out the flowers.

There was no mistaking the famous singer. His deep set eyes were instantly recognizable. He was looking a little ragged, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, and he seemed a little grumpy. "Maybe I woke him up," Johnny thought. As he opened his door a little wider to take the flowers from Johnny, two little Pugs ran out the door.

"Hey, get back here!" he yelled to the two dogs. Johnny had left the gate open and Mr. Joel was visibly agitated that they were going to run into the street. Johnny Driver quickly became Johnny on the Spot as he ran ahead of the dogs to close the gate. Crisis averted. Before Johnny could make it back to the front door, the dogs were already back in the house with Billy, and the door was shut. He didn't give Johnny a tip, and he never even said thank you.

A Flower Emergency

Unbeknownst to Johnny, the loss of the Robinson account was only a small part of a larger discord growing between his new friend Kona and their bosses Stewart and James. Kona was a free spirit, and never minced words whenever something bothered her. She didn't take things too seriously, especially when it came to the strange "flower emergencies" that clients would have fits over. This didn't bode well for her in the long run.

Hydrangeas are the unofficial flower of the Hamptons. During the blooming season in late July/early August, hydrangeas would line the fronts of seemingly every Hampton garden. Hamptonites not only love their hydrangea outside, but many just have to have them inside, as well, adorning their foyers, living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens and bedrooms. Rather than cut from their own gardens, however, they quite often would pay upwards of fifteen to twenty dollars per stem of the puffy flower to be included with their weekly orders from the shop. For Stewart, hydrangeas were a must each week at the flower market, and they were very profitable!

One particular week, the demand for hydrangea was unusually high. The shop was running low on them and Stewart desperately needed some for a dinner party that was upcoming. On the way to the Robinson's that Thursday, Kona was telling Johnny about the shop's own "flower emergency." Along the way, Johnny couldn't help but notice some of the beautiful specimens lining the entrances to some of the gates on Captain's Neck Rd.

"We should just come back tonight and cut some of these," Johnny suggested jokingly.

A light bulb went off in Kona's head. "That's it! After work, you and I are gonna come back and clip some. We'll wait til after dark and take some from here and some from there. No one will ever know."

"I was just joking Kona. We can't do that. We'll get caught!"

It took the rest of the day for Kona to convince Johnny to go with her on this scheme. In the end, it all went off without a hitch, and Stewart unknowingly made a little extra in profits that week. All in all, it was fun for Johnny. He wasn't used to breaking rules and got some sort of a thrill from doing something underhanded. It was the kind of thing he liked about Kona, non-conformist that she was. Eventually she confessed to the scheme and Stewart, with only a slight disapproval, let it go, but in the end it would turn out to be another nail in Kona's coffin.

Drama at the Flower Shop

Kona lived upstairs from the flower shop. The apartment was part of her contract agreement with Stewart and James. She'd get to stay there as long as she worked for Wellingtons, but it didn't take too long for some drama to surface with regards to the apartment. Kona's extracurricular activities would ultimately prove to add to her already tense relationship with James and Stewart.

It wasn't bad for Kona living in Southampton because she'd had roots there and she was by no means shy. Once the shop was closed for the day, she'd always managed to find ways of keeping herself busy, going to the local meeting places and having fun. About halfway through the summer she started dating a much younger guy, Troy. Troy was a pup, much younger than Kona at a mere 21 years of age, and her attraction to him seemed to be more physical than anything.

Apparently, Troy had also been within the sights of Kona's cousin, who also lived in Southampton. Johnny never really found out the true story of what happened, but Kona's relationship with Troy ended up into a developing war between her and her family. At the same time, Troy had had a falling out with his own family and at first only quietly moved into the apartment with Kona, but since the apartment was right upstairs, it didn't stay quiet for too long.

Read more here.

A Weekly Gone Awry

As that first summer at Wellington's wore on, the relationship between Johnny and Kona warmed quite nicely to where a point where they'd actually become friends. After discovering a shared affinity for cute guys, they found they had something in common from which they could form a relationship. They shared similar interests in music, hip hop mostly, and found themselves singing along in perfect synch to the latest hip hop hit on the radio:
"Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur."

"the whole club was looking at her..."

Kona had a witty sense of humor, constantly sending her coworkers into fits of uproarious laughter. But where she excelled in the humor department, she lacked in customer service. Kona never takes things too seriously, and had a tough time reconciling the demanding nature of Wellington's clientele with what she saw as a not so serious subject as beautiful flower arrangements. It was hard for her to hide her disdain for them when they'd fuss in their often dismissive manner. This got her into lots of trouble with Stewart and especially James.

There was a weekly client that Kona was responsible for. She had sold the weekly installation herself Stewart put her in charge of it. They were an uber-rich family that made their money through hedge funds (Johnny never quite understood what that was exactly.). The Robinsons spent a lot of money on flowers, and the Mrs. was very particular about her weekly flower arrangements.

The Robinsons had a huge home with lots of servants. It was the first house that Johnny had been to that had its own manager, a personal assistant who took care of all house business for the family, like overseeing the staff, and making sure things went just as the Robinsons wanted them to. His name was Peter, and both Johnny and Kona thought he was adorable and often debated over which "team" he played for. (Johnny was sure he was on his team!)

Johnny and Kona went to the Robinson's every Thursday morning, with numerous arrangements. They weren't allowed to enter through the front door on the main floor of the house, where all of the flowers would be placed. Instead, they had to go into the house via the garage, at the basement level of the house where the servant's quarters were located. Kona would usually grab one arrangement on the way up, but Johnny was the one to trek up and down the stairs and navigate his way around the various obstacles (including a flotilla of bicycles which belonged to only two or three kids) in his way several times. This installation always proved to be a good aerobic workout for Johnny.

The first few weeks at the Robinson's went well. Though complements were never received, neither were complaints, and for the Hamptons that's always a good thing. Towards the end of July, however, things suddenly changed. Before Johnny and Kona had even returned from their installation, Mrs. Robinson, who had gone unseen during the visit, had called the shop, unhappy with that week's choice of flowers. Johnny and Kona would have to go back to the house to pick up the arrangements and Kona would have to do them all over again and return within two hours, for the Robinsons were having guests over the weekend.

Kona was fuming! She'd worked hard on those arrangements and in her opinion she hadn't deviated from what she'd been doing all along. She redid all of them, mumbling angrily under her breath all the while. It was the first of what would be an almost weekly occurrence for the remainder of that summer, and before the end of the season, for reasons unbeknownst to Stewart, Wellington Flowers was fired from the Robinson job. Though it wasn't necessarily her fault, the situation instigated a rift on Kona and Stewart's relationship.

To be continued...

Chapter 5: The Weeklies and Another Mishap

One of Johnny's least liked things about working at Wellingtons was helping out with the weeklies. When he'd first learned about these weekly "installations", as Stewart calls them, he found it hard to believe that people actually paid upwards of a thousand dollars or more per week to put flowers in their home. But it is the Hamptons, and if anyone can afford doing so, it would be these people.

The weekly clients are a part of the upper echelons of the Hamptons elite. Going to their homes every week would always prove to be a new experience for Johnny, and would add to his already strange fascination with the rich folk. To him, these folks embody all of the preconceptions people have of the wealthy and then some.

Nearly every house in the Hamptons is its own fortress. Hedges standing ten feet tall surround these compounds to prevent curious gawkers. Automated gates guard the entrance to the driveways, with call boxes standing by that will or will not necessarily garner one admission to the premises. All of the driveways in the Hamptons are made of loose stone or gravel. Johnny could never figure out why. They're probably just too long and would cost too much money to be paved, he thought. Or maybe they're afraid of being ostracized for daring to be different.

Hamptonites take great care that their neighbors' homes are just as they'd like them to be. Not exhibiting the same aesthetic as the rest of the homes in the neighborhood can cause an uproar. In fact, a house on Meadow Lane, purportedly owned by Calvin Klein, was demolished several months ago and is now being rebuilt because the manse was considered an eyesore for many years by its neighbors.

Once inside the grounds of these fortresses, gaining access into the house can be just as challenging. Seemingly, none of the doorbells in the Hamptons work, and oftentimes you have to knock on a thick wooden door that makes such a small sound one can't imagine someone in the expansive house will hear. In these cases a simple opening of the door to let yourself in is what ends up happening. It's quite strange to Johnny that they many of these people actually expect you to do this.

The only thing fun about the weeklies was getting to talk about them afterwards. Stewart, Kona, and Jackie all had names for many of these clients, some to match their little quirks, and others simply for the fun of it. There's "Matchy, Matchy", who always wears her accessories to carefully match the rest of her outfit, and Bambi, the one who's always having dinner parties and looking for free advice on her table settings from Stewart. "Bigfoot" should never wear thongs in public. "Polly Wanna Cracker" and "Branch Lady" both have a flair for the dramatic, with large opulent branchy things in their foyers each week.

One day the shop had gotten really busy, and Stewart wasn't able to go out with Johnny to Branch Lady's house. He asked Johnny if he'd be willing to go it alone.

"Huh? I don't know", Johnny answered. He was a little apprehensive about it because he'd never gone there alone before and he was afraid to run into the previously unseen Branch Lady, for fear of scrutiny at his having to set up the arrangement.

"It'll be simple. I'll fix the branches in a vase and all you'll have to do is bring it there and switch em out."

Reluctantly, Johnny agreed. That week's installation was olive branches, and they were big and bulky. He loaded the precious cargo into the van and took off. The roads in the Hamptons are surprisingly uneven and bumpy, and Stewart had always told Johnny to take it slow on his deliveries. Unfortunately, he took a turn a little too fast, and the olive branches tipped over, spilling gallons of water on the floor of the van and messing up the carefully arranged composition. Johnny pulled over, lifting the giant vase upright and fixing it more securely for the remainder of the trip.

He arrived at "Branch Lady's" house in Watermill, uneasily letting himself into the house and rearranging the branches as best he could. Though he was by no means a floral designer, he'd thought he had done a pretty good job at recreating Stewart's original arrangement. He removed the previous week's branches, crab apples, and returned to the flower shop, having already forgotten what had happened during his trip.

The following morning, Stewart told Johnny to go back to "Branch Lady's" house. "I don't know," he muttered. "She called this morning to say that the whole arrangement was dead looking and she wants it replaced." Johnny's eyes bulged. He had forgotten to replace the water that had spilled in the van and the darned things dried up.

"Oh well," Johnny thought as he hopped back into the van to return to Watermill, "He didn't seem suspicious as to why the branches died so quickly. I'm not going to say a word." Stewart never found out what happened that day...that is, until now!

Chapter 4, A Polo Club Fiasco

With time, Johnny's awkward relationship with Kona would dissipate, but not before a mishap or two. One Friday, Stewart was out on business and Kona was the only designer in the shop. She'd recently sold a weekly job providing flower arrangements for two sponsoring companies of the annual Bridgehampton Polo Tournament, a six-week deal.

"John, listen, I need you to get these arrangements to the polo club in Bridgehampton, ASAP. They have to be there by one o'clock, so make that your first stop."

Read more here.