<human>: Can you condense the text into a few key points?

I rented a number of items from a florist (vases, etc) from a small flower shop in a small town. The florist delivered these items in four open-faced cardboard boxes on Saturday for an event on Saturday night. We asked her if we could return on Sunday as that would be most convenient for us and she said we could despite being closed, and that we could just leave the items behind the shop. We expressed reservations about that, but she reassured us that would be fine.

So we returned the items on Sunday, in the same boxes they were delivered, leaving them behind the shop as she said. A few days later, we get a nasty email about missing a bunch of items and how we left all the items out in the open to get stormed on and that we owed her almost $300 (she listed the missing items). She claimed only two boxes were behind the shop (we dropped all off four).

Unfortunately, very little of this was documented...we were never given an official inventory of what we rented prior to the event, and we did not take inventory or pictures of the items that we returned.

There have now been multiple emails back and forth where essentially we say we are not responsible, and she says that we are. She has now sent an 'official' invoice of what we owe despite us repeatedly saying we will not pay and that we will dispute any charge made on our card.

So here are my questions. To an outside party, this seems like a he said/she said scenario...how do we keep ourselves protected here? Is there any I can do now to be in a better position if/when she tries to charge my card? Can she sue us? Thanks.
<bot>: Florist said we didn't return items that we did and wants us to pay. If outside parties become involved it becomes pretty much a he said/she said scenario because documentation and evidence is thin. How do I protect myself?