All You Need Is One, Part Two (Short Story)

If you missed Part One, you can read it here.

In the next weeks, many glasses of lemonade and single roses were shared between the two neighbors. After all, the two cottages were the only ones around. The summer months stretched into fall. Valerie continued to work in her real estate business remotely. She met friends for dinner occasionally to keep from being a complete recluse. She didn’t know what Carson did besides tend to his roses, but he was gone for hours a day. While she had escaped the city to be alone and heal the wounds of her broken engagement, she was comforted because she wasn’t completely alone. 

One day while Carson was working in his rose garden, she donned some garden gloves and joined him. He pointed out the different types of roses, carefully explaining their differences. She smiled at his passion for gardening. 

“Is this what you do for a living?” Valerie gestured to the rose bushes. “You’re so knowledgeable about plants and roses in particular. It’s obvious you have training that would be useful in several lines of work.”

Carson’s eyes clouded. Then he smiled softly. “Oh, no. Gardening is just a hobby for me. A respite from my other work, I guess.” 

Something about his tone caused Valerie not to follow up on his “other work.” Instead, she asked, “The first day I came here when you gave me your signature single rose, you told me, ‘All you need is one.’ What did you mean by that?”

Carson looked out over the countryside and was silent for a long moment. He glanced at her before pointing to the red rose bush next to him. “Different color roses symbolize different things. Friendship, sympathy, purity. But red symbolizes love. When I saw you that first day, you seemed like you had been hurt deeply. The only thing that can hurt that deeply is lost love. You told me that someone had betrayed you without telling me who it was. But the type of grieving I saw suggested that you thought that person loved you.”

He paused and glanced at her again. Her face was pale, but she said nothing. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “When we consider true love, people often betray us. But my mother always told me there is one love that is true. That is what my single red rose reminds me.”

Valerie’s next question came in a whisper, “Have you found that love in your life?” 

He smiled this time, looking deep into her eyes. “Yes, I have. The one love that I can count on is the One Who died for me.”

“Jesus?” She tipped her head to one side. “That is Who your one rose represents?”

“Yes, Valerie.” Carson looked away again. “If I ever find a woman to share my love with, it will only be because of the love He has given me. I want to be as much like Him as I can be.”

That night as the two prepared supper in their separate cottages, this thought crossed both of their minds: “Do I have what it takes to be the one?” They both thought of the homes they possessed. And they both thought of the other paying rent in one simple cottage. 

Valerie placed the rose Carson had cut for her in a vase. Now she saw that rose in a whole new light and gave thanks to her Savior for loving her like no one else could. Another face rose in her mind. She wondered aloud, “Is one love enough for me to give up my homes for a simple cottage?”

Carson placed today’s single red rose in a vase on his table like he did every night. He prayed his prayer of thanksgiving as he always did. But next to His Savior’s loving face, another face rose in his mind. He wondered aloud, “Is one love enough for me to give up my interest in Dad’s business and stay in this cottage forever?” 

Two people stayed up late into the night typing emails of inquiry. The next morning, Tom Baker received a telephone call. 

“Good morning, Sam! I didn’t expect to hear from you this morning. Everything okay with Valerie’s rental?”

“Morning, Tom. Yes, there’s no problem with the rental. I just got the strangest email from my son last night.” He sighed. “It seems like he’s fallen in love with some girl without much money. I’ve always told him money didn’t matter, but now he’s saying he wants to sell off all his interest in our properties except the one he’s staying in. He wants to just stay out there in his cottage. And marry this girl, whoever she is. He’s had several girls more interested in his money than they were in him, but this girl doesn’t even know his last name. What would you do if Valerie came up with something like that? I mean, he’s usually so level-headed.” 

“Wow, Sam. This is…very strange.” 

“I know! I get the fact that he wanted to stay out there alone and build his own rose garden and just contemplate his future. He has enough invested to make a passive income from his part of our properties. I assumed he’d want to come back into the business with me eventually, but I didn’t press him. I mean, I suppose your Valerie is doing the same thing, renting out my cottage and everything. But she loves to work with you. You think I’m doing something wrong?”

Tom’s answer was a burst of laughter, without humor. “Sam, if you’re doing something wrong, I think I have the same problem. I just got the exact same email from my daughter. Wondering if she could sell me her properties because she’s thinking of just staying there and marrying some guy who lives next door.” 

Then he turned serious. “She just broke an engagement last year. I’m glad she did. That Ned Fowler turned out to be a jerk. But can I trust her instincts again? She’s a smart girl, but love does crazy things, you know. I don’t even know who this guy is!”

Sam’s laughter rang out with real humor. “Oh, Tom! This is quite a surprise. You been out to see her yet?”

Tom shook his head, even though his friend couldn’t see him. “No, she wanted some time alone. We’ve talked on the phone and through emails about business stuff mostly. She comes with me to meetings or renter interviews every other week or so. I was just giving her some space.”

“Well, Tom, I think it might be time to pay our kids a visit. Together.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, Sam?”

“Well, that place you got from me for Valerie? There’s only one cottage within miles of it. And I know the guy who lives there.”

“Oh boy. You know what kind of guy he is? Who could make my daughter lose her head after that last guy treated her so badly?”

Sam’s voice softened. “Yeah, Tom. I know him very well. It seems to me that our two kids may have just fallen in love. And instead of using the other person to advance their financial futures, they’re both foolhardy enough to throw their financial futures away to get married.”

Tom sat in stunned silence. “Your boy Carson? That’s who her neighbor is?” He blew out a breath. “Well, that is unexpected. Huh.” He gazed unseeing out the window for a few moments, only half listening to Sam’s next comments. When the phone grew silent, he gave a genuine laugh, “I guess we’re in a position to make it easier on them, aren’t we?”

Sam chuckled, “Yeah, but let’s make it harder on them first.”

An hour later, the two men had sent their own emails. The two recipients of those emails read them grimly. If they had been in the same room, one would have thought there was an echo as each of them said aloud:

“Well, if I’m throwing away everything, I’d better make sure.”

Before their minds caught up with their bodies, two young people were standing at the fence, each with a single red rose in hand. Later, neither of them would remember who spoke first. But as they parted hours after, they knew two things: that Jesus had planted in each of them all the love they would ever need, and that they had each found the other person in whom that blossom grew. 

Thanks for reading Part Two. Part Three will be published next week.