THE BORROWED LIFE

The bell above the flower shop door chimed softly, a familiar sound that echoed through the quiet hum of The Wild Stem. It was morning, and the city outside had yet to stir fully awake. Cars passed in half-hearted intervals, and the air still clung to the chill of dawn. Inside, warmth bloomed in the form of sunlight spilling through the front windows and the subtle, sweet fragrance of peonies, eucalyptus, and earth.

Juniper Wren stood behind the counter, trimming the stems of ivory roses with the steady rhythm of someone who'd done this a thousand times. Her fingers worked with practiced care, but her mind drifted. Her eyes flickered to the calendar above the register. March 11. Her birthday.

Thirty-three.

She exhaled through her nose, neither sad nor celebratory-just contemplative. Birthdays weren't a big deal to her. They never had been. Eleanor, her foster mother and the only real family she'd ever known, used to bake a lemon thyme cake and fill the house with yellow tulips each year. Since Eleanor's death three years ago, Juniper hadn't made much of the day.

Now, it was just a marker. Another circle on the calendar. Another reminder that life was moving forward whether she was part of it or not.

The front door creaked open, and Juniper looked up.

"Morning, June," called out Mrs. Pettigrew, a regular who wore long scarves year-round and had a deep affection for daisies.

"Good morning," Juniper replied with a warm, practiced smile. "You're early."

"Couldn't sleep," the older woman said, heading straight for the bucket of fresh marigolds. "Dreamt of my Harold again. He's always late in my dreams, just like he was in life."

Juniper offered a sympathetic laugh, one that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Maybe dreams just know us too well."

Mrs. Pettigrew hummed. "Maybe so."

They made small talk as Juniper wrapped the bouquet and tied it with a burgundy ribbon. Once the sale was done, the woman waved goodbye, leaving behind the faint scent of lavender perfume and memory.

Alone again, Juniper wiped her hands on her apron and stepped into the greenhouse at the back of the shop. It was her favorite space-quiet, humid, alive. Vines climbed the glass walls. Hanging baskets swayed gently from above. Everything in this room breathed.

She knelt beside a tray of sprouting moonflowers and gently turned the soil.

"You're the only ones who've never let me down," she murmured.

Her words were soft, but the silence that followed was deafening.

She didn't cry, not really. The ache she carried was more familiar than sharp, more like a dull echo than a scream. The weight of years-of being forgotten, of loving people who left, of fearing she was always the one who wasn't enough-pressed down on her in quiet ways. She wore it like a second skin.

A knock at the front door jolted her upright. Her sign clearly read "Open," so why knock?

Wiping her hands again, she stepped out of the greenhouse, crossed the shop, and opened the door.

There was no one there.

Just a manila envelope resting on the welcome mat.

She stared at it, heart suddenly stuttering. Her breath caught.

No. Not again.

She bent to pick it up, hesitating for just a moment before sliding her fingers under the flap. Inside was a single sheet of thick, cream-colored paper. No name. No return address. Just a sentence written in elegant black ink:

"You are invited to Borrow a Life."

Her hands trembled slightly. She'd received one just like this every year since she turned twenty-three. Always on her birthday. Always the same sentence. The same stationery. She had thrown the first one away without opening it. The second, she burned. The third, she laughed at and left in a drawer. Over time, they became part of the ritual-an eerie joke the universe played on her.

But this year, something in her shifted.

Maybe it was the quiet. Or the feeling of drifting. Or maybe it was the envelope's weight-it felt heavier somehow, like it meant something today.

She closed the shop early.

Back in her apartment above the store, she set the envelope on the small kitchen table. The place was filled with secondhand furniture and antique teacups, tiny potted succulents lined along the windowsills. A worn notebook sat open on the table, blank pages accusing her gently.

Juniper sat down. Stared at the envelope.

Then she opened it again.

This time, a second line had appeared beneath the first:

"One life. Seven days. No interference with fate."

Her lips parted, a quiet intake of breath betraying her surprise.

She flipped the paper. Blank.

Heart beating faster now, she whispered, "What are you?"

It was then that she noticed the envelope's interior had something else-something tucked behind the paper. A small card.

It was black, embossed with gold. Elegant and strange.

"If you accept, sleep with this under your pillow."

That was all.

Juniper leaned back, staring at the card like it might combust. She reached for her tea, only to realize she hadn't made any.

Her phone buzzed. A message from her ex-fiancé, Damien.

Hope today's not too hard. Still thinking of you. Happy birthday, June.

She didn't respond.

The evening passed in quiet gestures-watering her succulents, flipping through a dog-eared book, watching dust spin in the sunlit air. Yet the card haunted her. It stayed on the table, glinting in the fading light like it was alive.

By the time she climbed into bed, the card was still there.

She held it in her hand, thumb tracing the gold edges. A thousand reasons not to do it swirled through her mind.

But she didn't want another year of her life to pass untouched.

With a shaky breath, she slid the card under her pillow and turned off the light.

The last thing she thought before sleep took her was:

What if this is real?