Page 84 of Emerald Moon
”Having a good day?”Sera asked.
”Yep!Doing great.Just out and about this afternoon.Going to rest for a bit.How about you?Doing anything fun?”
“Not as much as you, I bet.”
Jo felt their cheeks warm.“Eh, I don’t know about that.I’m not doing much today.”
”Sometimes rest is important, too, isn’t it?”She patted Jo on the shoulder and kept walking down the steps.
They thought they were in the clear, but Sera added, “Give Cass our regards, will you?”
Jo sprinted the rest of the way to their room and shut the door behind them, their back against the door.
Wil looked up from her canvas.“Welcome back.”
Dolly hopped off the bed and curled between Jo’s legs.They stooped to give her some pats on the head.“Thanks.It’s been good, but glad to be back, too.You had another artist meetup last night, right?How’d that go?”
Wil set down her paintbrush and turned in her stool to face Jo, features solemn.“I may have had three glasses of wine, and I may have let out sassy Wil.”
“Oh my gosh — what did you do?”
“There’s this merman, right?And I don’t know why he has it out for me, but it’s like he thinks we’re rivals in the Hickorywood art scene or something, except it’s completely one-sided.I don’t even know who he is!He just kept making comments and, after I had my third glass of wine, I said, ‘Who even are you?’Which was the exact wrong thing to say, I guess?”
”Was that all you said?”
Wil laughed.“You know me too well.No, of course it wasn’t.Once sassy Wil was unleashed, it was hard to tuck her back away.I didn’t say anything bad.I just stood my ground.”
“Sounds like you were just fine, then, and this merman is a real piece of work.”
“You can say that again.”
Dolly hopped back up on the bed and circled a few times, finding a good way to sleep.
”So you’re not going to ask me about last night?”Jo asked.
”You’ll tell me if you want to.”
”What do you want to know?”
”If you’re happy.”
”Very.”
”Then that’s all I need to know, but feel free to share whatever you want.”
Jo sat on the edge of their bed, careful not to disturb the cat.“She’s the best.Cass is so fun, and caring, and sweet, and hot.She’s, like I said, way too good for me, but also maybe it’s fine?Maybe it’s not as disparate levels of goodness as I thought?But like, she’s wonderful and took me out on this great date, then we ran as wolves.And she takes such good care of me.It’s like this totally new feeling — you’re really just going to let me go on and on about how Cass is the best?”
”For as long as you like.”
”You’re the best, too.”Jo grinned.
twenty-six
Jowokeupearlierthan usual to steal away a small corner of the bakery kitchen from Emmaline and make a very important batch of macarons — a few batches, actually, of what they considered to be their best flavor combinations.There were classics like vanilla, but also bolder combinations like their milk chocolate and earl grey.It worked with the right balance and they were determined to make these as perfect as they could.
When they were finished, they were tired but satisfied.Mostly.Jo knew what perfection looked like.Perfection was Parisa’s Persian bread or Emmaline’s pear and sage tartlet or Billie’s orange blossom tartlet.These macarons were okay.They were Jo’s best attempt, but it was easy to see which batches were made towards the end when their hand got tired of making perfect piping circles.
A hundred little voices in their head told them to give these to friends and try to talk to Parisa about selling these in the shop another day, but if the past few days had been a lesson in anything, it was that there was never a perfect time.They just had to go for the things they wanted.
