Free TeaseMeinTunisia by Allie Standifer

Chapter One
     
    “I’m really not sure about this.” Daisy Oliver nibbled on her lower lip, mulling over the situation.
    “Oh my, dear, if we don’t try this out on a non-paying customer first, how will my sisters and I know if paying clients will get their money’s worth?” Flo sat straight in her chair.
    Daisy Oliver didn’t know what to think. The 501 Travel Agency had been located next to her own modest flower shop for two years. As with most small business owners Daisy had become friendly with the three charming older women who owned it. After a long day of dealing with petulant customers who didn’t know a rose from a weed, walking into the 501 felt like entering an oasis of peace.
    “Daisy, dear, I know this might seem a tad abrupt to you, but we really need your help,” said Fanny “Flo worked for months on this particular trip only to have our regular tester break her leg. If we cancel everything now it will take months to get back to this point. You’d be doing us such a huge favor.”
    Things like this just didn’t happen to people like Daisy. In high school she’d been voted most likely to be sat on. Not an auspicious start to adulthood. With her plain brown hair, mold-colored green-brown eyes and rounded body, nobody offered Daisy things unless it was a blind date with their accountant.
    “I’m… I just… Really, I’m sure I’m not the person you want.” Nervously she twisted her fingers together, pulling and tugging each digit as her tension increased. “It is so sweet of you to offer, but I totally doubt I’d be what you needed.”
    Dora’s pink-haired head nodded in gentle understanding. “Hon, I know you think this would have disaster written all over it for you, but what if it didn’t? What if this turned out to be the trip of a lifetime? You could see sights thousands of years old, walk the path of Hannibal and his elephants, touch the great mosque of Medina.” Her voice lowered to a confidential whisper. “You could get laid.”
    Daisy’s shocked gasp echoed in the room. “Dora!”
    Instead of looking repentant, the pink-capped love-doctor grinned and patted her shellacked hair. “It would do you a world of good to get something besides potting soil between those thighs.”
    Flo squeaked in laugher while Fanny pulled out her ever-ready linen hanky and started fanning herself.
    “Ladies, as much as I thank you for the offer, I have to decline. There’s no way I can take off and leave the business. I can’t afford to close down. I really am sorry.” Regret would eat away at her later. Regret and sorrow for the things she had no courage to do. Things she’d love to do if only her life were different, if only she were different. Twenty-five-pounds-lighter different. Throwing in a new face wouldn’t hurt, either.
    “But, dear,” the ever-persistent Dora barreled on. “Flo has watched over your shop many times. I’m sure she’d be capable of taking over for two weeks.”
    Flo’s cheeks filled with color. “Oh, I’d love to. Working with those beautiful flowers all day would make anyone happy. Please say you’ll let me temporarily take over Buds and Bows .”
    Although Flo looked eager, none of these three women had seen sixty in a long time. How could Daisy in good conscience leave her business in the hands of her dear but elderly friends?
    Somehow the three sisters, different in every way, still managed to complement each other in a natural fashion.
    Dora was like a china doll with her pink hair, brown eyes, and perfect twinsets that flattered her petite five-foot-two frame. If she weighed over one hundred pounds Daisy would eat her best crystal vase.
    With a penchant for bell-bottoms, and insulting t-shirts Flo looked like a throwback from the wild and wicked Sixties—long purple hair braided down her back and ever-present John Lennon glasses perched on her aristocratic nose emphasizing her large cornflower-blue eyes. At almost six feet tall and a hundred and