Page 27 of Of Potions and Honey
“Mum didn’t buy this, did she?”
“Personal stash.” He clinked his glass to hers. “I figured it was a good occasion.” He took a deep drink. “Ahh, that’s the stuff.” His attempt at stretching out his legs was thwarted by the railing, so he settled for shoving his knees up against the wood. “So you’re not pouting. You looked a little pouty though.”
Mira sighed. “Not pouty. Just… annoyed. They could’ve just said ‘good luck’, you know. I know the risk, it’s not like I’m going into this blind.”
“Oh, I know. So do they, I think. They’re just… being parents, I suppose.” He grinned. “Remember what they were like when I started my accounting classes?”
“I do. It wasn’t very nice then, either.”
“Listen, they knew my grades, they were right to be like that.” He nudged her shoulder. “Not saying they’re right this time, either, but I think this is just what parents do. Maybe we’ll be like this one day, too.”
Mira shuddered dramatically. “I would prefer not to.”
She stared out at the street below, which wasn’t much of a view. Town houses squeezed so close that there was barely any room for alleyways between them, and no greenery to speak of besides the occasional droopy geraniums decorating someone’s window. It had never bothered her before. Now, she wondered if a tree here or there and some patches of grass were really too much to ask for. As it was, it took a forty-minute tram ride to get anywhere that could even remotely be called a forest.
“You’re gonna be fine, you know.” Paul nodded like it was a certainty. “You were always better at figuring stuff out.”
“You seem to have figured everything out just fine.” She flicked a curl out of his face. “You even got a professional haircut.”
“Fancy, right?” He blew upwards, which did precisely nothing, now that his hair was as neat as it had never been before. “I thought I should make a good first impression. And I did!”Excitement entered his voice. “I got hired, did I tell you that? Where I helped out during summer last year.”
“You did not tell me that,” Mira said, feigning reproach. “NowI’m pouting.”
“Ah, come on, I didn’t mean to. Besides, I only got the news a few days before you came, so I thought I’d tell you in person and then-”
“The usual happened and you forgot.”
“Heh. Pretty much.”
“As long as you’ve got things under control at work. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, allowing Mira the time and space to realise that she had missed this most of all. Her father worked a lot, her mother was… who she was,and Leah had moved to the other side of the city years ago. But Paul… He was her little brother. And she had sorely missed her little brother.
“You should come visit some time,” she said. “When the store is open and I have a proper guest bed and everything, I mean. I don’t know how much you remember about Emberglen, but I think you’d like it.”
“I remember the berry bushes,” he said. “And the forest. There were ghosts in there, weren’t there?”
“Wood sprites,” Mira replied. “Not these days,” she added wistfully. “They haven’t been around in a while, I don’t think. That’s what Cassia told me, anyway. Their habitat’s deeper in the woods now, near the foothills.”
“Aww, bummer. Is Cassia a friend of yours?”
“Sort of. Maybe some day.”
Mira found herself somewhat hesitant to call it a friendship just yet. Someday, perhaps, but Cassia was just the kind of person to be friendly with most people. Still, it was nice to thinkabout it in this way. Like it was a done deal that she’d make a home in Emberglen. Like she didn’t have the biggest hurdle yet to take.
“Sounds like you’re settling in pretty nicely.” Paul shuffled a little more comfortably into his seat. “Sure, I’ll visit. Can’t miss checking out my sister’s extremely successful shop, can I?”
Mira chuckled and followed suit. “Fingers crossed you’re right about that.”
Twelve
Muchlikeonthatfirst day, Mira arrived in Emberglen late under a cloudy sky. And like that first day, she knew her ice box would be nearly empty. She’d been gone for four days, and all that she’d left in there were a handful of apples and some hard cheese because she’d run out of bread before she’d finished it all. So when she found every store understandably closed on a Sunday evening, she grabbed her bag and headed over to thePeckish Pelicanin the hopes of getting a good dinner that would keep her going until Harper opened the store the next morning.
“…ah. Should’ve thought of that.”
The weekends were the busiest time for Emilia and Matteo, and consequently the inn was full to bursting, with even extra chairs shoved against tables, making the passages behind so tight that Emilia and the teenager helping out tonight had to squeeze past sideways. And from the looks of it, nobody was about to vacate a table. Crap.
