Emma Chen had always thought she would return to her grandmother's flower shop under different circumstances. Maybe for a visit, maybe to help with the busy season. Not like this - jobless, heartbroken, and completely lost.
The shop looked exactly as she remembered it - the same faded sign that read "Chen's Garden," the same window boxes overflowing with flowers, the same bell that chimed when you opened the door. But inside, everything was different.
The shelves were half-empty, the flowers were wilting, and there was a "For Sale" sign in the window that made Emma's heart ache.
"Grandma," Emma said, finding her grandmother in the back room, surrounded by seed packets and gardening tools. "What's going on?"
Her grandmother, a tiny woman with silver hair and kind eyes, looked up and smiled. "Emma, my dear. I'm so glad you're here."
Emma hugged her, feeling the familiar warmth of her grandmother's embrace. "Grandma, the shop... it's not doing well, is it?"
"No," her grandmother admitted. "But that's okay. I'm getting old, and the shop needs new life. New energy." She looked at Emma with those knowing eyes. "Maybe it needs you."
Emma shook her head. "Grandma, I don't know anything about running a flower shop. I'm a botanist, not a businesswoman."
"You know more than you think," her grandmother said. "And besides, you need this as much as the shop needs you. Sometimes, when we're lost, we need to go back to our roots to find our way forward."
As Emma looked around the shop, at the flowers her grandmother had tended for decades, she felt something she hadn't felt in weeks - a spark of hope. Maybe her grandmother was right. Maybe this was exactly where she needed to be.