Page 44 of Enchanting the Elf
“Should we make a toast?” Adelbert asks me.
Where is he going with this?
“Sure,” I say hesitantly and raise my glass.
Adelbert raises his glass too and then sets it on the table again as his shoulders slump.
“Why don’t you hum anymore?” The question is just above a whisper, the words thick and without accusation.
I blink in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You were always humming. You used to sound like you were filled with joy wherever you were. But you haven’t hummed lately. Am I the cause of that?” The words are pulled from Adelbert like a pained confession, as if I’m drawing them out of him instead of him offering up his own observations.
“I wasn’t aware that you were keeping track of my humming,” I say cautiously.
“It’s not… I’m not…” Adelbert sighs deeply and leans forward, bracing his hands on the table. “I do not wish to be the reason for your unhappiness.” Pure earnestness etches into his face, the silver of his eyes bright with concern.
“Oh.” I’m not quite sure how to respond to that, so I just bring my hair over my shoulder and braid it to give my hands something to do.
“How do I—” Adelbert looks up at the sky and flexes his fingers before looking back at me. “I mean, what will it take to get you humming again? Happy again?”
“It’s not that I’munhappy,” I start, uncertain about how much I’m willing to reveal to him.
Adelbert raises his eyebrows and motions for me to continue. I take a sip of my wine to buy time so that I can choose my words carefully.
“I didn’t make a conscious decision to stop humming. I honestly wasn’t even aware I was doing it that often. I guess…” Despite my best efforts, my eyes get watery and I try to blinkthe emotions away. Sir Purrington appears out of nowhere and rubs himself against my legs, providing a little bit of the comfort I crave. I reach down to pet him and offer an apologetic smile to Adelbert before Sir Purrington saunters off again.
“Please take your time and continue when you are comfortable,” Adelbert says with more compassion than I have ever heard from him.
“I guess… I just miss people? Especially my sister.”
“Would you like to go visit her?”
“In a perfect world, yes. But I know that’s not possible with the bond and everything you have going on.”
“I have heard that she is opening her store soon. Perhaps we could travel there for the opening?”
“You’d do that?” I ask in utter disbelief. “Don’t you have that presentation coming up soon?”
“I do. But your melancholy is bothering me too much to concentrate,” Adelbert says with a completely straight face.
My head rears back.
“I am sorry my loneliness is hard for you,” I say with a bit of a bite in my words.
Adelbert leans back in his chair and one side of his mouth tugs up.
“You’ve got some fire in you. It’s better than that cloud of sadness you’ve been carrying around.”
“If anyone has a cloud of something, it’s totally you,” I say and point a playfully accusatory finger at him.
“Oh, most definitely. I’m the cloud and you’re the sunshine,” Adelbert states with a solemn nod, like it’s an actual fact the world should be aware of.
I pause and quirk my head at him, my brow furrowing as I ask, “You think I’m sunshine?”
Adelbert’s mouth turns down.
“You used to be,” he says sadly. “How can I fix it? What will it take to get you back to your perpetual state of happiness?”
