worked at Snell’s for less than two weeks, but it already seemedlike months. He despised every second of it. Here he was, almost adegreed chemist, spending all his time behind the wheel of a whiteChevy van with the words “SNELL’S FLOWERS—LET US MAKE SOMEONE’S DAYFOR YOU!” cheerily printed across it. He delivered roses andchrysanthemums and jonquils to people all over the city,happy people who had not taken a wrong turn in their lives,like he had. If Neal had just pulled out of Annie just amillisecond earlier—just one lousy, goddamnmillisecond—everything would be different now. Anniewouldn’t have gotten pregnant, Neal wouldn’t have felt obligated tomarry her, and she wouldn’t have had the baby. And instead ofdriving a damn flower truck all over the city, he would becompleting the last year of his college degree. After that, medicalschool.

But, of course, Neal hadn’t pulled out ofAnnie in time. He had hesitated a fraction of a second to enjoy alittle extra pleasure...and boom! His entire world had beenturned upside down. Annihilated. One fleeting moment of extrapleasure in exchange for a lifetime of success and happiness.

It just wasn’t fair.

Neal dragged himself out of his car and,just as he locked the door, old man Snell rolled into the parkinglot in his big blue Cadillac. He gave Neal a fatherly kind of nodas he glided the huge vehicle into the reserved parking space nextto the front door. Two crimson pom-poms were visible in the car’sback window. Buford Snell had been some kind of football hero backwhen he’d attended University of Georgia. Based on his age andvalues, Neal figured it must have been back at the time footballplayers wore knee socks, striped shirts, and those thin littleleather helmets that looked like bathing caps.

“Early bird catches the worm,” Snell saidapprovingly as he got out of his car. Neal cringed. Snell and the