November Prompt 005: Rose/Artistic License

As he counted out the coin to the vender Luka knew the single flower couldn't begin to make up for the sacrifices his wife had made.

They had been married almost three years and in that time they had welcomed a daughter into their lives and moved to Vukovar, leaving family and friends, as well as the frivolity of their youth far behind them. There were days he couldn't help but wonder if he'd made a mistake in asking Danijela to marry him before he'd finished school and gotten his degree. While he spent all day in classes and far too many evenings either studying or at the hospital, she was left alone to deal with not just the running of their household, but the care of their small daughter as well, and only that morning she had told him she suspected she was pregnant yet again.

She had been so nervous when she had first broke the news to him. Her fear over facing the pregnancy without the support of their family even greater then the concerns over how they could possibly afford yet another mouth to feed. What would it take for him to make her understand that he was willing to give up everything for her? In a way, maybe the rose in itself was doing that, for what it had cost him he could have bought them a loaf of bread, or a small wedge of cheese, he could have treated them both to the luxury of fresh pastries, but, this was for her, and her alone.