Chapter 13

Willow

The morning dawned bright and way too early. I threw my pillow at the window, wishing I'd remembered to close the curtains. Why did I always try to leave windows open for Tess?

I should have kept the pillow to put over my head. Awake and aggravated, I sat up and stretched a bit. It was not even 7 am.

"Coffee. Java. Caffeine. I need it."

"Are you going to make your own?"

I glared at Tess, who flew in looking wide awake from the living room. She was dressed in a long sweater and tights, rocking bright neon colors. She practically glowed as she flew.

"Goodness, you look cheerful. Stop it."

"Ha. Ha. I lost a bet. Okay, let's get ready to go!"

"Let's? Are you going?"

"Of course. I wouldn't miss today for the world. Come on, up, up. You're doing a love spell tonight. You gotta dress the part."

And then I heard my door open. Piper rushed into the bedroom, looking bright eyed and way too chipper for this early in the morning.

"What is wrong with all of you?" I asked. I tried to lie back down and throw the covers over my eyes.

"Oh, no you don't. I brought doughnuts. And one small cup of coffee."

I smelled the aroma, and sat back up. Piper was waving it close to my face. I glared at her. She just smiled and handed it to me.

With a deep drink, I decided I forgave her. "What on Goddess' green earth are you doing here?"

"Big day today. And after the runaway kiss?"

"You named it?"

"Too easy not to. Now, you need to look like you aren't the witch drug in after nearly being burned at the stake. Sip on the coffee, and get in the shower. Go, go, go. I'll work on outfits."

"No, no, you won't. I don't trust you. I have to work today too, you know."

"Yes, yes. Now go."

Piper pulled the covers off the bed, effectively stealing all my heat, and pulled me into the shower. I continued drinking the elixir of life, and glaring at Tess and Piper as they grinned wickedly, pushed me in the bathroom, and shut the door in my face.

I didn't even have clean underwear to change into.

There was no help for it. I grabbed a towel and threw it on the rack by the bathtub. With a few more gulps, I finished the coffee, turned on the fan, and hopped into the shower. The heat did wonderful things for my brain and helped to wake me up.

I was toweling off when the door opened again, and Piper stood there with a light gleaming in her eyes.

"I'm fixing your hair."

"What? No. I'm putting it up like I always do for teaching."

"That tragic bun? Or down? It never lasts, you know. Come on, let me curl it a little and create a nice up do. You'll love it. And you have time before you have to teach, right?"

"Yes." Darn best friends, memorizing your schedule. "Don't you have to be at work?"

"Nope, flexed an hour. Okay, come on, come on. Here is a bra and underwear I grabbed out of your dresser. I'll leave you alone for a minute, and then you can pick your outfit. I have three choices."

Three. Choices.

"It's not even a date!" I yelled towards my bedroom. Mad cackling echoed back to me.

Really, I should have seen this coming. The underwear I was holding was lacy, and I couldn't even remember buying it or the bra. It was sexy looking and did good things for my figure. With the towel wrapped around my hair, I stepped out, half scared of what I would find.

And realizing that my heart was beating a little too fast.

"Okay, so you have three options. You have these nice wide black dress pants that would go lovely with this dark purple sweater. It's nice, but low cut. Professional and sexy. I love it. Took the liberty of finding some matching jewelry."

Tess flew over the second option. "Pick this one! I chose it."

"The second option is this flowing black skirt, with this starry top of yours. Also, low cut. The skirt, as I'm sure you know, fits your bottom quite well."

"I… well. Yes. I don't normally wear it when teaching."

"Everything should hug one"s butt. So what does it matter?"

I glared at her and crossed my arms over my chest. I felt even more exposed.

"Okay, option three is my favorite. It's this dark blue sweater dress, and gold and navy starry tights I found. I think with these black boots, you'll look amazing. It's also comfy looking, and therefore easy to work in."

I stared at the three options, wishing for another coffee.

"It's not a date."

"Nope, of course not. You are still wearing clothes, though, right? I mean, if not, I can look into some other options…"

"Yes! Clothes. I am working first."

"Ooh, but maybe later no clothes? Nice distinction. I chose your undergarments with that in mind."

By this point, my head was in my hands, and I was hoping the rest of the day would be less chaotic. Of course, I knew what my day held, so that was likely not the case.

"I like option one. Those pants are comfy. Could I not wear the star top with it?"

Tess flew back and forth and then nodded. So I grabbed those and tried them on. The pants were wide legged, but hugged my body. They were also soft, and I liked to wear them often because professional meets comfy is always a win. Though, usually I'd choose a more casual top.

"You could go to a funeral in that." Piper said, looking at my mostly all black ensemble.

"I wear all black all the time. And this shirt has a lot of gold on it."

"Sure, sure. Okay, let's get your hair fixed, shall we? Oh and jewelry. Hmm, let's still go with these."

She held out my gold dangling moon and star earrings, and my gold star necklace.

"Not too on point?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

"I've seen you wear this together at least ten times. It's pretty. And I pulled the gold moon clip for your hair. Come on."

Impatient as ever, Piper pulled me in front of the mirror and grabbed a chair for me to sit on. Then somehow a bag appeared, from which she pulled a curling iron, a straightener, and three or four bottles of who knows what.

"I have some of these things you know," I said, gesturing to the tools.

"Mine are better. Okay, so tell me how you're going to handle seeing him after avoiding him so well."

I winced as Piper blew my hair dry. I hoped it didn't frizz up, but then noticed she was also massaging some kind of liquid into it. It felt amazing. We should have spa days more often.

"I was going to go in for coffee, say hi, and um, ask if we were still doing the thing tonight, and ask to talk?"

"Very adulty."

I could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"What, should I walk up and ask to talk about how I ran from the room after he kissed me?"

She snorted. Tess laughed.

"Oh, or maybe I should just run up to him, jump on him, and kiss him?"

"Now, I like that option." Tess said, laughing.

I couldn't move my head, or I'd glare in her direction.

"It's not a bad idea. I mean, he kissed you once." Piper added in.

"It'll be in the café in the morning. Way busy. Nope, not happening."

"So people are the only thing keeping you from kissing him again?"

"Look, I'm not saying I don't want to kiss him. I just think there is a lot we need to discuss before we go down that road again."

"Go in for coffee, apologize, make plans for this evening. Call me immediately and tell me all of it. Go to work, do the boring stuff, and then head to the café. Text me when you are on your way. And then, do the spell and the talking. Immediately call me the second you are on your way home."

"Okay, okay, okay. I will let you know how it goes."

"If I don't hear from you, I'll know that you are just having a great chat."

I could see Piper in the mirror in front of me, gleefully smiling.

I groaned.

"Or she could call you and leave it on speakerphone? Or maybe I'll hide somewhere and watch."

"Tess, you absolutely will not. I will leave you here today if you can't behave."

I felt fidgety and just wanted to get up and walk in circles. But Piper was dutifully curling my hair and setting it down so carefully.

"I can't believe I let you do this."

"You'll thank me when you aren't wearing a tired t-shirt bra later."

Twenty minutes later, I was fully in makeup, my hair done in some braids, and curls, and dressed to the nines. I put on my nice jacket, with a sherpa hood, and Tess curled up inside it.

"You are all insane."

"Go, go," Piper said, following me out of the house. She took off towards her car, and after hefting my backpack up on my shoulders, I headed towards the café.

"Could just skip the coffee." I muttered under my breath.

Tess' voice piped up from my hood, "Don't you even dare think about it!"

"Okay, okay," I grumbled.

Before long, the café and all its gentle noises appeared. I rounded the corner and paused. I could do this. I was a grown woman. It was just a kiss. This would be easy. Right?

The voice in my head was trying so very hard to convince me otherwise.

Shrugging my shoulders, I went to the door and paused again. It felt as if my shoes were stuck on the sidewalk. Then the door opened, and I nearly got clocked by it.

"Sorry!" the person said as they hurried off, worriedly clutching their coffee. At least I wasn't wearing it.

All right, that's it. I grabbed the door before it swung shut and entered. The smell of coffee and bread was more entrancing than it should have been. I breathed deeply and let it bolster me.

Winston stood there, staring at me. His gorgeous eyes seemed to drink me in, and I could see a hurt there that wasn't before.

I'd done that to him. I'd been too scared to see him, and I'd hurt us both.

Charlotte was standing at the counter, and she waved at my face.

"Earth to Willow. You're next!"

Connection broken, Winston turned back to the coffee machine. She had already rung up my coffee.

"Pastry today? There are some new chocolate muffins with peppermint chips."

"What?"

I looked down into the case to see magnificently huge chocolate muffins with little red and white chips in them. Looking up, I saw Winston smiling at me.

"Yeah, I'll take one."

"On the house," Winston said to Charlotte. I paid for my coffee and took it and the muffin.

"Hey, um, can we talk really quick?"

I said it so quietly, I wasn't sure he'd heard me. He nodded, though, and motioned to the kitchen door.

"You okay for a minute, Charlotte?"

"More than, boss."

Her smile was huge, and she winked at me.

What on earth?

I followed Winston, not having time to investigate it. He went into the kitchen and stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.

I was holding a muffin I desperately wanted to take a bite out of, and my coffee. I took a sip as the door swung shut behind me.

He just waited, looking at me. Yeah, I deserved that.

"I'm sorry," I blurted out, right as he started to say the same.

I waved my muffin at him. "No, don't talk. Look, there were things I wanted to discuss with you, and even then, I shouldn't have just run off and avoided you because you kissed me. We are both adults. I assume we could have handled it. I should have… I should have just talked to you."

"You were avoiding me then." He said, sad.

"I haven't had a great track record in the relationship world. And like I said, I wanted to talk about some things. So. Tonight? Are we on for the potion? And then we can talk?"

There was a pause as Winston looked at me. I took a giant bite out of the muffin.

It was absolutely delicious, though, and Winston choked back a laugh.

"Do you like it?" he asked, the spark returning to his eyes.

I managed just to nod, as I had to keep chewing.

"It was inspired by you."

I felt my eyes open wide, thinking of what that meant. He'd been thinking about me. So much so that he had baked something just for me.

"And yes. I already prepped for the potion. It has to be done under the moon though, so I think we can meet and talk beforehand. Maybe dinner?"

I nodded, swallowing my bite of muffin.

"That sounds great. I'll be here around 3? Or is that too early?"

"Should be fine. Lyzzie's set for tonight. I'll see you then."

I nodded and went out the back door.

"You were uncharacteristically quiet," I said to Tess. I pinched off a bit of my muffin and handed it to her.

"I thought it'd be unfair for him to know he had an audience."

I laughed a little and nodded. "Might have made it worse. All right, let's get to campus, and I'll message Piper."

Piper's resounding reply was to scream text "He made muffins for you" at me with about a hundred exclamation points. After that, all sense was gone. I got to work, grading and teaching. Fridays were lighter usually, and I didn't have any meetings.

When 3 pm rolled around, I had to convince myself to leave campus. I could have gone home first, but Piper had already put so much effort into my outfit and hair. No sense in changing now.

I looked up at what time the moon would rise. Around 8 pm, which meant we'd be together for 5 hours before we began performing the spell—though I wasn't sure how long it would take to make the potion.

Still, even that late… that was hours together. What if the conversation went horribly? What if he decided he wanted nothing to do with me? What if the fact that I might not produce magical children would make him regret his choice?

Tess joined me as I headed towards the café. It'd warmed up, but she still huddled in my hood.

"Do you want to go home?"

"Not really. I'm curious about tonight. I can be there in case neither of you remembers what happens."

"I don't think that's likely."

"Ah, still. I'll hang out in the café for the rest of it if you want me to."

"I'd prefer that, yeah."

I heard her mumble, but knew she'd listen. The walk to the café wasn't far, and I stood outside for a few minutes once again, waiting to see if I would panic. Charlotte waved to me on her way out, and I waved back. I remembered that grin from earlier and almost asked her about it, but chickened out.

Inside, the café was warm, and smelled great as usual. Tess left and flew off to do whatever she had planned. I waved to Lyzzie, who was also grinning, and went into the back kitchen. Winston was nowhere to be seen, so I went upstairs and knocked on his apartment door.

He opened it, apologizing. "Sorry, sorry. Lost track of time working on this. Come in, come in."

The table was strewn with papers and coloring implements. I dropped my bag on the couch.

"What are you doing?"

"I had quite a few pieces of this second one worked out, but I'm still missing most of the spell and details to say what it"s for. I was working on it, waiting for you to get here."

"Oh! That"s great. I should copy what you have."

"We can do that. Or you can take a picture. I don't have a scanner."

"That'll work."

"I'm fixing to make dinner. I didn't want to start too early, but I wasn't 100% sold on what I wanted to cook either. I was thinking of soup in bread bowls? Or chicken?"

"Either would be fine, though I love bread."

"Soup and bread bowls, it is. Broccoli cheddar soup okay?"

"Yep."

I got lost looking at what he had colored in on the spell page. It was detailed, and easily something I would buy as art to hang on my wall. Getting past the drawn items, though, I read the list itself. Some of the ingredients I hadn't heard of before.

"This is beautiful. You do amazing work."

"Thanks. It's relaxing, honestly. I'm glad to have been working on it."

"Oh, did any of my students drop by who I recommended?"

"Yep. Hired three of them. They start next week. Thanks."

"That's amazing!"

I snapped a picture, realizing that my hands were clammy, and started to sit down on the chair, but my bulky jacket was in the way.

"Oh, here, let me get your coat and scarf. We can hang them up here."

I took them off and turned to hand them to him. His eyes landed on my shirt and traveled down the rest of me, lingering in certain areas. I'd like to say I was insulted, but really I felt a thrill run through me.

"You look amazing. I love the stars."

"Thanks. It felt nice."

No way I was telling Piper and Tess made me do all this for our "date".

I sat down and placed my hands on my knees. I was trying to decide whether I was just going to bring it up. Winston moved and sat in the only other chair that was at the dining room table. He looked amazing, wearing a dark gray t-shirt, and blue jeans.

"So. We should talk." I finally said.

"You said you had something you wanted to bring up before. What is it?"

"I'm not a witch." I blurted out.

Winston cocked his head to the side. "I know?"

"And you said you wanted to go on a date. And then you kissed me."

"I… also know that?" Winston smiled, but was clearly confused.

"I'm messing all this up. Just…"

I blew out a deep breath and squared my shoulders. "I realize this is probably a far off matter, if ever, but I like to know what I'm getting into. I have a much smaller chance of giving you future witches if we were to marry and have kids. Doesn't that matter to you?"

He slumped back into his chair.

"Ah. That."

"Yeah. That."

I wrung my hands together. He leaned forward, reached out a hand and placed it on mine. It was so warm.

"Listen. I've known this all my life. When your mother is on the council, witch details, growth rates, and other issues are common dinner talk. Hell, my mother was trying to get me into an arranged marriage a month ago. I would prefer to marry for love than for anything else. And whatever and whoever my children are, is in the future. And it'll be okay if they aren't witches. I knew what I was doing when I asked you on a date. Mostly."

"Mostly?" my voice squeaked.

"Well, I had meant to wait until after the whole deadline or favor thing. I just got a bit ahead of myself."

"Oh, yeah. That's why I didn't say yes."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Mostly."

"To be truthful, the only thing I might regret is my mother." Winston shrugged his shoulders and winced.

"Your mother?"

"She's going to be a pain, most likely, and I'll just apologize up front for it. My mother is strongly opinionated and wants what is best for us… but sometimes loses sight of what that should mean."

"Great. I can't wait to meet her." I took his hands in mine.. "You sure? This seems like an enormous thing to decide."

"Willow. I've only known you for like a week. And I think about you constantly. I created food for you. I remember your schedule. I'm entranced. And no woman has ever done that to me before, witch or not. I want to explore this relationship."

I glanced up and saw Winston intently watching me.

"Okay." Feeling awkward, I changed the subject to the first thing I thought of, "So how about dinner?"