14. Juniper

Juniper

I did not, in fact, dominate on the slopes. I was able to make it past the bunny hill onto one of the green slopes, but I did fall there. Ellery, for his part, was gracious, and only laughed a little, but I laughed too.

After we were done, we grabbed lunch in the lodge before settling into the room. We had planned for a quiet evening in. I had just gotten out of the shower and was brushing my wet hair by the vanity when someone knocked on the door. Ellery answered and it was Arthur. He had that typical aloof expression he always did.

“What’s up?” Ellery asked, letting Arthur in.

“I wanted to see if you two wanted to go out to dinner?” he asked.

“With you?” Ellery asked with a quirked brow.

Arthur rolled his eyes. “No. Together. Tiffany had planned to go to Selina’s like we do every year, but Tiffany isn’t feeling up to it, and we don’t want to waste the reservation. I was going to ask Sam and Rachel if they wanted it, because Sam always talked about going. But when I went to their door… well…” he trailed off, his face pinking. “Let’s just say there’s some things you don’t want to hear from your brother.”

Ellery shivered, but I had to cover my laugh with my hand. “Are you sure?” Ellery asked. “I know you need to make those like a year out.”

My eyes widened. “A year?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, she’s not up for it. If you could bring back some of the bread that would be great.”

“Sure, we can go, right?” Ellery asked me.

“Sounds great, if you need to wait a year for a reservation.”

“It is,” Arthur said, sounding a bit wistful. “Anyway, it’s under my name, and I’ll let them know you’re coming. Reservation is at seven.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded then left.

Ellery flopped down on the bed, checking his phone.

“Can I use the bathroom?” I asked.

“Go ahead.”

I grabbed my makeup bag, a dress, and a little something else rolled up into it, then headed to the bathroom.

I paused as I realized he was still sitting there. “Ellery,” I said.

He looked up at me.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but will you have time to get ready? If it’s nice you probably want to dress nice and do your hair. Which will take you at least twenty minutes. And the drive down will take another twenty. Meaning we only have thirty minutes to get ready before leaving.”

He blinked at me, as if doing his own math. “Then I can just sit for ten then will get up.”

I chewed on my lip. “Why not get ready first? Then you know you’ll be ready and can relax after.”

He stood, walking towards me. I was pressed to the bathroom door, with his large frame looming over me. “Are you trying to keep me on time?” he asked.

It was a slightly sensual way he asked, but also there was something so genuine about it.

“Just trying to help,” I said. “Everyone in my family was chronically late until I broke things down for them like that. It’s part of the reason we added such intensive project management into the app, to really understand the time things will take and put it in a realistic timeline.”

I was rambling now, but it was all true. It seemed like Ellery wasn’t intentionally late to things, but like many others, he just didn’t realize how much time things could take.

“I appreciate it,” he said. “I’ll get ready now while you’re in the bathroom.”

I nodded and slid behind the door, clicking it shut behind me.

There was no way I would have time to dry my hair and do a full face.

I was sure the door was locked before calling to my magic, whipping a strong wind around the room to help dry my hair faster. As it moved, I made up my face, deciding on a full face for a night like this, since my hair was practically drying itself.

I unrolled my dress and looked down at what was in the middle. It was that royal purple set of lingerie. It was a purple bra with extra lace on the bottom and straps running across the cleavage, and a matching lacy thong.

I didn’t know why I grabbed it. This wasn’t a date. We weren’t going to hook up just because we were going to a nice dinner. And I certainly didn’t need to wear something I knew was his favorite color for it. But here I was, putting it on anyway.

As I pulled on my dress when I heard the door jangle and suddenly open. I spoke the words and the wind stopped.

I saw a small draft fly through Ellery’s hair, but he didn’t seem to say anything. “Hey, sorry I called you and you weren’t answering and I was getting worried. Are you almost ready?”

I was holding the front of my dress up, trying to calm myself. He didn’t see. He couldn’t have. If he did, he would be freaking out.

The only time I’d been caught using magic was in high school. A guy I was dating walked in while I was using my magic, and he lost it. Calling me a witch in a derogatory way and a lot of other things my mother has since forced me to deal with in therapy.

She managed to remove his memory of it ever happening, so we didn’t need to move. My mother was a much more powerful witch than I, because both of her parents were magic users.

Since then, I’d been very careful, but I’d gotten comfortable around Ellery, which was something I couldn’t afford to do.

“Sorry,” I said. “The hair dryer was loud.”

He nodded, not questioning me about it. “Okay, sorry. Do you need help with your dress?”

“Please.”

I turned and felt more than heard him approach. For some reason, I seemed to always be aware of him. He touched the small of my back, grabbing the bottom to hold it taut then pulling the zipper up to the top.

He released me and I turned back to him. “What do you think?”

I’d gone with a simple black dress. It clung to my body with a gather on my right hip and a slit that ran all the way up to mid thigh. I had the earrings on along with the bracelet. It really was a beautiful set.

“You look… perfect,” he said.

Something about that warmed me deeply. “Thanks. You look pretty perfect yourself,” I said.

He was wearing a crisp, black suit with a black undershirt, and black tie. All black could look cheesy, but he looked clean cut and put together as he always did.

“We should go,” he said.

“Right.” I grabbed my purse, then followed him to the car.

I gasped as we looked at the city at night. It was completely lit up with Christmas lights. One house looked like a candy cane lane, with red and white stripes everywhere. The florist had glittering flowers all over their storefront. Another had moving rainbows everywhere. It was truly beautiful.

“I thought you would like it,” Ellery said. “I meant to bring you down earlier, but it seems this was the perfect night.”

“It really is.” The air was crisp enough for a coat, but not too cold that it was uncomfortable.

We pulled up to the restaurant right afterward. While they didn’t have any crazy lights—sticking with a more traditional spiral of white up the two pillars at the entrance. It was a white building with a simple ‘Selina’s’ in a black, cursive font on the top.

My door opened and I hadn’t realized Ellery had already come around to help me out of the car. I took his hand and stepped out. He held it, leading us inside.

The interior wasn’t what I expected either. It was classy for sure, but it was small and intimate, with every table full.

“Welcome, Mr. Scott,” the host said. “Your brother said you were coming.”

Ellery nodded. “Yeah, they had to cancel last minute, but I promised them bread.”

The host smiled. “We will be sure to provide.”

I was confused when we were led out the side of the restaurant, but gasped when I saw where we were. It was a large, clear igloo with a single two person table in between. Soft fairy lights covered the top, bathing the entire space in a light glow. Poinsettias were arranged in the middle of the table, along with a tall flickering candle.

We sat and he handed us our menus. “Your waiter will be here soon,” he said before retreating back inside.

“You see why they need to make this reservation a year out?” Ellery asked.

I nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

“It is. I don’t understand why they come here, though.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Their marriage sort of started as a way to join businesses, and they don’t seem like they actually like each other.”

I tried to think back to the few times I’d seen them together. Though they weren’t as outwardly loving as Samuel and Rachel, they seemed aware of each other. And when he looked at her, there was certainly care there.

“I’m not sure. I don’t know them, but I can see it being serious.”

Ellery shrugged. “I just know I don’t want to get married like that.”

“That’s fair. But sometimes those things just work out.”

“That’s true,” he said, though he didn’t seem like he agreed.

The waiter came and Ellery ordered a bottle of white he thought I might like. I perused the menu, trying to decide what I wanted. It all looked good. It was an Italian place with what seemed like every pasta on the menu.

I ordered the tagliatelle and Ellery the gnocchi. We chatted for a while about what felt like nothing, and everything at the same time. We shared a favorite childhood cartoon, favorite pizza place in the city, and our strangely similar interest in puzzle cubes.

“I have a whole collection at home,” he said as we dug into our food. “It’s not something I talk about a lot. Being able to do one cube quickly is cool to most people, but having a whole collection can weird people out.”

“I think that’s so cool,” I said. “I don’t have a collection, but I do have a few back at my mom’s. I got so good, I could do it blindfolded. Something about lining all the colors up made my brain happy.”

“I like the fidgeting,” he said. “And the clicky plastic sound.”

“No one ever appreciates the clicky sound!” I exclaimed.

We ate and drank and laughed. All thoughts of how fake this truly was went out the window. Here, we were just two people getting to know each other the way real people did. Though we did it a bit backwards, it was still magical.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” Ellery commented when the waiter came to collect the bill.

“I am too,” I said. I never thought in a million years Ellery and I would find so much common ground.

His hand reached across the table and grasped mine. His thumb grazed my knuckles, sending goosebumps over my arms. “Would you like some dessert after this?” he asked.

“That sounds amazing.”

His card came back—along with the bag of bread—and we left. He told me we could walk to a nice bakery a few blocks down, so we dawned our hats, coats, and mittens, and braved the outside. The lights were even prettier while walking. The entire town really seemed to be aglow with lights.

The Over Bake was a small bakery with lights lining their doors and garland strewn across the pastry cases. Everything looked amazing, I wasn’t sure what to choose.

“We can get more than one if you want,” he said, almost reading my mind. “I can’t just choose one either.”

We got one of those cookie dough croissants I’d seen online, as well as a few cake pops and a set of apple butter macaroons.

We started with the macaroons, eating them as we walked the town. We held hands, the bags sitting between our hands so we could eat the treats with the other.

“God these are good,” I said.

“That place is the best,” he agreed as he popped another one in his mouth.

We dropped the rest of the treats and bread off to the car and decided to continue our stroll. It was such a perfect night for it, it would be a waste just to go back.

Ellery led us down a hill to what looked to be a small park. It wasn’t much, and it was mostly covered in snow, but I noticed a pretty gazebo in the center, also strung with lights.

He cleared off the snow covered bench and we sat down. It was so cold, but I barely noticed, too focused on the electricity between us.

His hand still stayed in mine, our gloves almost clinging together with their felt-like texture.

“Do you ever think things happen for a reason?” he asked.

“What kind of things?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Anything.”

I considered my answer. Witches generally believed everything had an equilibrium. Nature liked symmetry and did everything in its power to maintain it. It was why magic wasn’t endless or all capable.

“Maybe. I think everything requires balance.”

He turned to me then. “Do you think we ended up here for a reason?” he asked.

It felt like a silly question, but he looked serious.

“The reason being a hookup that got caught on camera?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. Like… we were meant to meet.”

“I couldn’t tell you,” I said.

He pointed above us. I followed his gaze to the mistletoe above us, hanging from the center of the gazebo.

Ellery was even closer now, only inches away. “Do you think we were meant to end up here? Like this?” he asked.

There were layers to that question I couldn’t separate right now. I didn’t want to separate them right now. I wanted to believe him.

“Maybe,” I said, my voice shaking slightly.

He leaned in even closer. His warmth invading my space. Rich cologne filled my lungs.

“If you don’t think so, tell me.”

I knew what he was really saying. If I wanted him to back away, he would.

“I think so,” I said finally.

I wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but when our lips touched it was like the world stopped spinning. Everything was as frozen as the icicles dangling around us.