I graduated from high school on Love Day. I was voted most popular and given the distinction of valedictorian.
The grandmas were all very emotional about the final graduation. Mona Lisa barely held herself together. Daddy was at work and couldn't make it, but that's okay. I'm ready to start my adulthood.
I fall silent a lot at family meals, when the topic is lost love, and how close they are to reclaiming it. I feel somehow left out. I know my mother feels somewhat left out too, though she has no lack in her life of love.
Granny gave permission (after catching Grandma Allegra looting the urn box) to bring out each spouse (
Spouses only, Eden, Granny said.) for one visit prior to The End. This was greeted with extreme enthusiasm, though only two visits have happened so far. It seemed to encourage Mom to spend as much time as possible out with Daddy.
And I've locked myself in with my nectar makers.
I did consider meeting a man online, but there was no one appealing there. No one at all.
There is ... someone. It's wholly irrational.
He's the witch I sell my nectar to at the elixir shop. His name is Braden.
After my third trip, I finally got up the nerve to formally introduce myself. He seemed taken enough with me. I'm not a master seductress like my mother, but I do get a good feeling. Or I did.
He is familiar with my family, even though he's only just moved here. He asked how my requirements were coming, which is a funny question from someone other than the grandmothers.
And how my mother's are going.
It was a sweet thing to ask. Very sweet. Though of course certain things that go on in our home mustn't be shared with the outside public.
Anyway, I fell in love with him over our little chats between nectar transactions. Then one day, innocently enough, I was fantasizing about running away with him, when the bomb dropped. "When I moved here with Lynne ..." he says. "Lynne." A girlfriend. So softly I die. I won't be like my mother after all. Tragically unmarried but so very in love.
Or like the others. Waiting patiently for incorporeal visits from their soul mates.
Then again, I've never lost anyone. Not really. Never a father. Or a mother.
Or a grandparent. At least not one I knew.
So there's that. I can always sell my nectar elsewhere. To a vampiress who loves to gouge me on prices.
That lasted two days. I can't afford to sell to her, no matter how painful my crush is. So I went back to the alchemy store. I confided to Braden that my YA piece was done and sneaked him a photo of it.
And just like that, everything was back to normal. He told me I looked radiant. It's no mystery why I thought he was single.
So, I mulled this over. I thought about my parents. About my mother's tenacity in pursuing my father, even though they were just teens. About Mona Lisa's near miss marrying the wrong man.
So I just told him the truth. I was in love with him.
He took me in his arms in a moment of passion, and then just short of the kiss ...
He touched my cheek gently and said, "I can't. I'm with someone. I ... can't."
So I smiled sadly and left him there with a crate of perfect quality watermelon and lime nectar at his feet.
We haven't spoken much since. I come in, I drop off my nectar, I take my money, rinse, and repeat. Then, recently, this happened.
I don't know what this means. Has his girlfriend passed away? Or dumped him? And do I really want to be someone's second choice?
Maybe I should ask one of the ghosts.
