Page 8 of For My Finale
“No, not a mugger. I’m in a damn field. Why would a mugger be in a field?”
“You started it,” pointed out Margot. “Who’s following you, then?”
“Not who,what.”
Margot sighed. “Oh god, is it a goose? I told you, birds are out to get you. Birds are evil. Geese are evil. Swans too, for that matter. They can break your arm, you know.”
“It’s not a goose,” Lilah said. There was another rustle. She turned slowly. A dark shape was moving behind the hedge. A very large dark shape. It was absolutely, definitely, not a rabbit.
“Then what is it?” asked Margot, starting to sound bored.
The creature lumbered around to the gap in the hedge and at last Lilah saw what it was. Her mouth dried up and her legs started to shake and there was a very, very real chance that she was about to wet herself.
“A bull, Margot,” she said, far more calmly than she would have imagined. “A very large bull.”
Margot was silent for a moment. “Are you sure?” she asked, eventually. “I mean, is it not a dog? A very big dog? That seems more likely?”
“A dog the size of a bull is more likely in a field than an actual bull?”
“Mmm. Fair point,” said Margot. “You’re probably right, it’s probably a bull.”
The bull snorted, and a long trail of saliva dripped from its mouth.
“It has horns,” Lilah squeaked.
The bull, which had indeed been casually ambling along behind her, took an oddly dainty step toward her.
And Lilah did the only reasonable thing she possibly could. She ran.
???
“The problem is,” Ives was saying. “You live in a small town. There aren’t exactly a ton of possibilities, you know. And if you won’t go on the apps, well…”
“I’m not joining a dating app,” Blossom said. “It just… doesn’t feel right. It’s not romantic.”
“Fine. But in the meantime, you’re sitting around waiting for the right woman to just show up at your door. You need to be proactive.”
Blossom groaned. She’d heard all this before.
???
The rain began as Lilah scrambled over a gate. There were no warning droplets, just an immediate deluge, until her designer coat was plastered to her body, her hair was plastered to her head, and her shoes, which were already heavy with mud, began to leak.
The bull sauntered over to the hedge next to the gate and began to lean on it, his bulk slowly starting to move the branches. Lilah felt fear tight in her stomach. She looked around desperately and saw one solitary building.
It was an odd building. It looked like it might be abandoned, it was crooked, and the roof looked like it was sliding off. The two halves of it somehow looked different, like two children had collaborated on the same picture.
But it had a door and walls and Lilah would give her entire fortune to be behind both just at the moment. The bull snorted, branches started to break, and Lilah, whimpering, began to runfor the cottage.
???
“I don’t expect Ms. Right to just knock on my door,” Blossom was saying. She was getting slightly tired of this conversation. And becoming more worried about Billy now that the rain had finally come.
“Yeah, right,” said Ives.
Which was when the knocking on her front door started. No, not knocking, pounding.
“Oops, that’ll be the woman of my dreams,” said Blossom. “Talk to you later.”
