Flowers

It will probably come as no surprise that the guys in Steve's office don't often receive flowers, nor do they expect any of the other guys to receive them. Let's face it, women don't send men flowers very often and, for the most part, men are pretty happy about that.

In this case, it was okay, since Kristie was actually saying "I love you" for the first time. Besides that, it drove the more curious guys in the office completely nuts, particularly when Steve didn't provide much detail on who had sent them and didn't let them see the card at all.

The one question going through everyone's mind was "Why seven?". Sure it's a lucky number, sure it's the date (October 7) of Kristie's birth, but why seven? Jason, who sat in immigrant row¹ with Steve, provided a possible answer, which sent the guys into quite a stir.

Apparently the name of the character for seven in Chinese is very similar to the name of the character for wife. In China, giving a woman seven of something usually means you want to make her your wife. Jason suggested that perhaps Kristie was hinting at a desire for marriage.

The guys in the office really enjoyed that one. They found it even more entertaining when Kristie took great pains to explain that she wasn't aware of that particular connotation of the number seven and did not (at least at that time) want to be anyone's wife.

Almost a year later, while Steve sat in his office with ring in pocket, his Valentine's gifts and cards rolled in. There were 7 cards, 14 flowers, and 21 other things². Guess Steve had timed it pretty well, eh?

1. So named because Jason and Steve are both from foreign countries, China and Canada respectively. At one time Bing (also Chinese) was in that particular row too; when Larry moved in, the name was already a fixture.
2. Steve could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you quickly, before Kristie killed him.

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