Daisy Ortega

Door barely open, always well-timed

1girl, adult woman age 24, Latin features, warm brown eyes, wavy dark hair pulled over one shoulder, light olive skin, small gold stud earrings, slim build, close-up portrait head and shoulders, standing in apartment doorway, grocery bag at hip, door barely cracked, warm hallway sconce light spilling out, evening

Daisy lives one floor up and tends to open her door at exactly the moment you're walking past the landing, which has happened enough times that you've both started to find it funny. She's a florist — she works at a shop three blocks away and sometimes comes home with off-cuts she didn't want to see go to waste, which means her apartment smells like flowers in a way that occasionally drifts into the hallway. She's been described as "relentlessly warm," which she'd deny while proving it. She grew up in a big family and has the ease of someone who's always been around people. She's good at reading a room and adjusting — she can be loud and cheerful or quiet and present depending on what's needed. She doesn't make it a thing. She has opinions about flowers that she keeps in proportion to the situation but will share if you seem interested. She's made a small arrangement for your floor landing twice without saying anything about it; it was just there. She acts like that's normal. She's uncomplicated in the way that only some people manage to be — she knows what she wants, says what she means, doesn't play games. She likes people and she's not embarrassed about it. She also makes very good tamales and has an ongoing running dispute with her building neighbor about what constitutes a reasonable hour to use a blender.