Page 30 of Magic Blooms
I could hardly expect him to spend all of his money on me. “What’s a date?” I could comprehend the actual meaning of the word. A specific day. But I couldn’t understand what it meant in this context. I was grateful for the magic that allowed me to understand and speak any language, but there were definitely some flaws in the system. I only knew enough to get by on my travels, not to assimilate to the culture here.
For the first time since I’d know him, crimson rose to Joshua’s cheeks. “Date… you know. When a couple sees if they’re, uh, romantically compatible, before they do anything they can’t take back.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Date. Testing out a relationship. The concept seemed to make so much sense, and yet it was entirely alien to me. The plan had always been for me to marry the person my family picked for me. After all, they were far wiser than I and also had my best interests at heart.
“Date, hmm. Do you date?” I asked, taking a small sip from the heavily modified coffee. Better.
Joshua snorted and rolled his eyes. “Who am I gonna ask out in this tiny place? Besides, the girls here are either crazy or succubi.” He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment. “And sometimes both.”
“What’s a?—?”
“Don’t ask. There’s only so much I can teach you in one day. I think introducing you to both whiskey and coffee, all in the course of a couple hours, is more than enough.”
I winced at both unpleasant memories yet again. How could the water here taste so good while everything else was terrible? So far I’d loved the food. There had to be better tasting drinks out there somewhere. Right?
Well, at least with the additives the coffee was now bearable. Hopefully it would do its job and keep me awake, too.
“How much of the white stuff do you add to your coffee?”
“I drink it black.” Before I could ask, he clarified, “I don’t add anything. I like the caffeine as concentrated as possible.”
“So if I didn’t add anything, I’d stay awake longer?”
“Nah. I’m just tricking myself into thinking that. I’d practically worked a full day already before any of this murder stuff began. It’s going to take a lot to keep me awake tonight.”
“Maybe I can entertain you?” I suggested innocently and then flushed at how such a suggestion might have come across. We’d just been talking about dates and testing relationships. I didn’t want Joshua to think I was offering myself in that way.
He seemed to take it all in stride, though. “Yeah? Like telling me what portal you came through?”
The heat drained from my face. “Maybe we should stop talking and focus more on our stakeout.”
Joshua grunted and took a slow swig of his black coffee. “Fine by me.”
I don’t know what he was complaining about. I’d offered to come clean if he told me what he was, and he was the one who’d shut me down.
Yeesh. What a hard-to-please man.
We sat in tense silence for a long while, so long that the sun set and a smattering of twinkling stars appeared overhead. My eyelids grew heavy, but I forced them to stay open. I hadn’t yet fallen asleep. I wouldn’t be, either.
For some reason, I felt an overwhelming need to prove myself around Joshua. To prove I was strong enough to help. Capable enough. I knew his opinion didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things and yet… it did to me.
Every once in a while, one of us would check in on the other, making sure we were both still awake. But for the most part, nothing happened. As much as I enjoyed the calming stillness of the night, I couldn’t help but grow bored as the hours stretched indeterminably into the future.
Despite the stakeout being his idea, Joshua seemed to be having more trouble with it than simple boredom. Every few minutes, he adjusted himself on the seat bench and groaned.
“Are you okay?” I asked, not sure whether I was more irritated or worried by it.
“I’m fine,” he said sharply. Then he took a deep breath and added, “I get antsy when I spend too long away from home.”
Huh. Maybe we had more in common than I thought. “I feel that way all the time since coming to Fox’s End.”
“I thought you liked it there.”
“Oh, I do love it. But it’s not home, you know?”
I glanced over to Joshua and saw him staring at me with so much intensity. I couldn’t read his face at all. Had I upset him? Had I said something wrong? But then he just gave a little nod of affirmation. “Polly, if you ever?—”
I shot up in my seat and pointed at the windshield. “There’s movement!”
