Page 127 of The Tenth Muse

All that matters is moving quickly.

The Senator said something about a wedding, and just the thought alone makes me nauseous. I don’t need outside confirmation, I don’t need a plant who screams to tell me what I feel, and I didn’t need a psychic to warn me ahead of time.

America is my soulmate.

She’s the person for me, the one I’m meant for, and nothing in this world will separate us.

So it’s time for plan B.

The one I’ve been holding onto in my back pocket as the bills pile up and the sales go down. There’s no shame in admitting defeat, that I can’t make ends meet and that The Portal can’t survive another fiscal year regardless of how many prosperity spells I do.

It’s only when I’m locking up the door for the final time, and slipping the key into the mailbox for the landlord that I realize I have no idea where to go.

I don’t know where America is.

Aside from knowing her name and that she’s the Senator’s daughter, I have nothing else. No phone number, or address, no inkling to where he might have taken her.

My hands shake, the fear of wasted effort washes over me like a deluge of disappointment, I was ready to throw it all away, I was ready to explode my life and start all over–for her.

A cold laugh escapes me as I’m hit with the realization that her leaving might have been for the best. Feelings this powerful, this strong–they can’t be tamed, too wild, too raw to be anything but destructive, and maybe that’s why Meri chose to save the plant instead of fighting for us.

To preserve what she can of what she has.

“You’re leaving, then?” A soft voice whispers behind me.

I scream, unprepared for a confrontation in a pitch-black alley at the crack of dawn. Arms wrap around me to comfort, her smell floral and sugary as she pulls me close. “It’s me.”

I tremble in her hold, tears streaming down my cheeks as I turn to face her, “You came back?”

“He would have taken Chewie if I didn’t leave.” She shakes her head, “Plus, going home was for the best.” She gestures to the duffel bag strapped to her arm. “Now I’m more prepared.”

I take a deep inhale to steady myself, my thoughts, my heart before. I dare ask, “Prepared?”

“Yeah,” She nods, “So, where are we going?”

“Meri,” I whisper, “You’re going to give up everything for this? You don’t even know where I’m going.”

She swallows, “Well. Where are you going then?”

“I have a cabin in the middle of Winchester Forest, my mentor, she left it for me in her will. It isn’t much but, it’s across the state line and it’s practically off the grid so–”

“It’s perfect.” She interrupts me, taking the bag from my hand. “I’ll load this in my car, is there anything else you want me to take?”

I shake my head, still not fully processing the moment, unable to comprehend how she could so easily just let it all go for me. “I-I don’t think you understand, Meri. I’m not coming back, this isn’t a quick little trip, and I can’t ask you to upheave your life, your wedding–”

She silences me with a kiss, one that feels like her entire body is somehow in it. The kind where our lips collide with need, they part so our tongues can meet and dance, and with just that I know everything I’ll ever have to know about America.

The rest can come with time.

She will be mine, if I am hers, because we’ve both been waiting for each other to come along. It’s only in that thought that I acknowledge there’s no more pain, only us.

“A wedding?” Meri laughs, “There’s nothing waiting for me in that world, nothing I want anyway. I want this, I want you, I want Chewie and whatever other fucking crazy plants you decide to give souls to.” She unzips the duffle bag, wads of cash peeking out through the zipper, “I also stole a bunch of money from my dad’s safe so we should probably haul ass.

“Won’t he come looking for you?” I ask her.

“Not with the campaign so close, there’s too many eyes on him and he doesn’t need the spectacle or negative attention from a runaway daughter. If anything, this might be my only chance to disappear. He’ll probably say I’m doing research in some tropical jungle once I’ve hid myself away. My existence is more of a burden than my absence, catch my drift?” She explains with a goofy grin that tries to distract from the pain in her eyes.

“Your existence is everything, Meri. Do you understand me?” I pull her closer to me, waiting for her confirmation as I scan her face, taking in every aspect of her features into my memory, and sealing her there forever. “We’re each other’s now, okay?”

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