Page 24 of Of Potions and Honey
“Maybe.” Mira scraped at her ice. “So, now that we’ve established that my foray into a new life is as boring as canbe, what’s going on here these days? Is Lewis still an ass about everything?”
“Everything and then some,” Rue groaned. “He wrote me up because someone brought a dog into the store and it chewed up a pair of shoes. I told the lady to leave! She just wouldn’t, and if we kick a customer out-”
“-we get written up, too.” Mira sighed. “So, everything is exactly the same?”
“Not quite.” Rue kicked at the concrete wall. “They transferred a few people away from the store, and you get one guess at whether they replaced them.” She snarled in frustration. “I am so close to throwing in the towel.” She glanced sideways at Mira. “Say, you don’t need someone to man the till at your shop?”
Mira grimaced. “Not yet. If I ever become that successful, you’re the first to get the offer.”
“Please hurry, I don’t think I can take much more of this.”
Gemma reached over and patted her knee. “You know, I could always put in a good word for you.”
Rue’s smile was a little pained. “Thanks, but I don’t think sweeping the floor at a bakery is quite going to pay the bills. Seeing as I’m probably not qualified to do anything else.”
“Eh, we’ll train you up, don’t worry. If Mira can get the hang of potion making, you’ll be baking little heart-shaped cakes in no time.”
Mira nodded with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Poor Rue. It seemed a little unfair, leaving her here while Mira would go back to running her own business. Well, attempting to. Still, she was suddenly acutely aware of the once-in-a-lifetime chance that had been dropped in her lap. If she had this while others didn’t, she couldn’t just fumble this now, could she. No, she’d do all she could, and she would make it work. If only to avoid disappointing the very few people who believed in her.
Being back at home was both familiar and strange all at once. Mira hadn’t realised how much she had gotten used to the peace and quiet of her home in Emberglen until she sat at her parents’ kitchen table, listening to Paul rehearse a presentation in the other room, the neighbours fighting upstairs, and two people having an animated discussion below the open window.
She’d used to sleep like this. How had she been able to sleep like this? She certainly hadn’t the last two nights on the couch, which was only marginally less uncomfortable to lie on than the one in her own living room. At least it didn’t smell like mothballs.
“…aunt Helen is going to need some more help, but of course your cousins are all too busy.”
Her mother, back to Mira, was somehow still finding new gossip even now. Mira had assumed she’d exhausted it all on that first evening, but apparently there was simply too much to talk about to fit it all into one dinner conversation. The second evening, Mira had managed to escape it by virtue of having an entire birthday party’s worth of people to catch up with. She’d spent the morning with Rue and Gemma, but now she was peeling carrots for lunch and thus had no way to escape whatever juicy news her mother thought she needed to know about.
Chatty as she was, Harper hadnothingon Willow Harbour’s coal quarter gossip train.
“Did Willa move out already?”
Her mother huffed. “No, she’s still living with Helen. Very busy with her training though, reading all those books all day long. Says she does her share of chores, but would it hurt her to spend an afternoon with her mother going shopping?”
“If she has classes, she can’t just skip those,” Mira reminded her. Her mother didn’t say anything, but Mira knew she was rolling her eyes.
“So I said-” A dry cough. “Anyway, I said to ask the neighbour’s son, he’s a good lad, he could go with her and carry all those heavy things, not that the boy is likely to be very fond of shopping.” Another cough, and her mother sighed. “Oh, it’s hot in here. Where is my water?”
Mira put down the knife and stood. “I’ll go fill up the jug.”
Her mother waved her off with the spoon she was using to stir the stew pot. “No, no. Go check the pantry, it’s in there.”
“Your… water is in the pantry?” Mira slowly turned to the door next to the ice box. “Did you get a pump installed?”
“What? No! It’s the bottles.”
“Why are you buying bottled water?” Mira went inside the pantry, leaving the door wide open to let in enough light to see. “That’s so expensive.”
Careful not to trip over the sack of potatoes or the box of apples, she searched the shelves until she found what her mother had requested. Half a dozen bottles of water. She grabbed one and took it outside to pour her mother a glass.
“Where did you buy that, anyway? Who is selling bottled water here?”
“Thank you, dear.” Her mother took a deep drink and sighed contentedly. “Ah, this is good.”
She put the glass next to the stove, between the open jar of flour and the tiny metal spice rack Mira had bought her for her last birthday, so she’d have somewhere to put her herbs and the salt pot.
“I got it from the emporium.”
Mira blinked. “What?”
