Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Thankfully, Mercedes didn’t see Magnus for the rest of the day.
The other house spirits also kept their distance.
Including that one who really didn’t seem to like her.
The thing that was tripping her up about that particular spirit was that she didn’t seem like a run-of-the-mill haunting. Like, she was dead, but also not dead.
And Mercedes had never heard or dealt with such a thing before.
You flunked a lot of dark magic history remember?
The mental reminder made her smile because she hated dark magic. Although right now it would come in handy to figure out the green-eyed spirit, who didn’t seem to remember much.
She wanted to ask Sven why he and Magnus couldn’t see the spirits, but they seemed quite preoccupied and she was just glad to do her work, eat her lunch in peace, and then head back to Hetty’s house where there was a home-cooked dinner waiting for her.
It gave her the warm fuzzies to know that she was going home to somewhere that people actually wanted to see her.
A family kind of home. Something she’d never had.
Her family was all about pure blood and magic for power.
There were no warm, happy moments. No love.
Just cold and competitive situations between her and her siblings.
And she was the pariah of the family. Her magic was a disaster, and it wasn’t easy always being plagued by wandering spirits who always seemed to want help crossing over.
Something she kept secret. Only Mercedes didn’t have to hide that from Hetty because Hetty wouldn’t try to manipulate the spirit world for her own evil machinations, like her mother would.
Hetty was so happy to have her there, and it was nice to feel loved. It was like Mercedes belonged.
Maybe Pearl was right and Harmony Glen was where she belonged after all? Thinking about her bestie made her miss Pearl fiercely.
She walked through town, noticing how freely the monsters and humans in Harmony Glen coexisted. Everyone seemed to love this town. It was refreshing and she let out a sigh of contentment. In spite of Magnus, and his package, she had a great day.
Although his package wasn’t that bad either. She’d been so excited to meet him on their bad one-time date. So hopeful for a happily ever after, or at least a happily for now, because she really had a hard time believing in happy endings.
Even less so now, even though the two of them made sense. They were so similar.
It wouldn’t work. No trust. At least on her part.
Don’t think about him like that. He doesn’t like you. It’s not meant to be.
Now she was in his employ, and there was no way she was messing up this job, so Magnus was off-limits. She didn’t want to ruin her chances of staying in Harmony Glen. And she needed a job to do that.
It was nice to be in a place where everyone just seemed to be at home. Except one. A forlorn looking green gill man caught her eye. He was sitting alone on a park bench on the main street, under a streetlamp. If it were raining, it would be one of those decidedly classic silver screen film moments.
Phineas.
She knew he missed Pearl too, and she also knew how much Pearl was missing him.
“Do one thing for me,” Pearl insisted as she threw her suitcase in the back of her car.
“Anything,” Mercedes agreed.
“Watch out for Phineas.” Pink bloomed in her cheeks. “He’s so special.”
“Why don’t you just tell him how you feel?”
Pearl shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t want to ruin our friendship. Just make sure he’s not lonely.”
“I promise.”
“Phineas, right?” Mercedes asked, stopping next to the bench.
He looked up, his eyes widening. “Oh, hi. You’re Pearl’s friend. I saw you briefly at the going away party before I had to…leave.”
“Mind if I join you?” Mercedes asked gently, not wanting to intrude, but also wanting to help him.
Phineas nodded and slid over, his webbed hand gripping a coffee cup from Cool Beans. “You’re out late.”
“It’s not too late, it’s only five thirty, and I just got off work.”
“Oh, it feels late,” Phineas mumbled. “Then again, it’s fall, I guess. I move a bit slower in the colder months.”
Mercedes smiled. “You seem down.”
“I’m okay.” He smiled, but it didn’t convince her.
“It’s the slow season. I usually peddle my peat moss, but there’s not much demand this fall so far.
Sven hired me to help with some odd jobs to get the bed-and-breakfast ready for the grand opening, and Finn has some work for me to do, but yeah, it must be the change in season. I’ll have to break out my winter coat.”
Mercedes highly doubted that it was the change in season. He was pining. Hardcore. And it was cute, young love. Especially, young unrequited love between two people who were both so nervous and scared to make that first move. But Pearl asked her not to interfere, and so she wouldn’t.
Even if she wanted too.
If Mercedes were her sister, Carmen, she’d whip up a love potion and be done with it, but love potions were not something to play around with, and she was not her sister. She’d most likely cause a weird explosion if she attempted to do that.
“I don’t really want to think about winter,” Mercedes remarked, shivering. “I am not a fan of the cold.”
Phineas smiled in commiseration. “You’re staying at Hetty’s place, right?”
“I am.”
“I’m headed there for dinner. I stopped to get desserts at Dorvak’s.”
Mercedes didn’t know what Dorvak’s was, but she could only assume it was a bakery which sounded like it might be run by an orc, given the name.
“Oh good. Want to walk together?”
Phineas nodded, picked up a white box tied with string that she hadn’t noticed before, then stood up, tossing his empty coffee cup into a garbage can. “I was headed that way. I hope Hetty will like what I picked out.”
“I’m sure she will.”
“It’s nice to have company and they’re like family, even if they’re not… I mean…I’m not related to them.”
“What does that matter?” Mercedes asked, falling into step beside him. “Blood doesn’t make family. I mean, I have a bunch of biological relatives and I would not call them family.”
Phineas glanced at her skeptically. “Really?”
She nodded. “Why do you think I’m here in Harmony Glen? I’m trying to get away from all that.”
“I can respect that. Kind of brave of you, especially with Magnus and that outburst.”
Mercedes groaned. “Oh, please let’s not talk about the revenge date, which I don’t even know what that is.”
Phineas laughed. “I don’t know either, but I haven’t seen Magnus riled up like that in a long time. I mean, he’s usually so laid-back and a bit of a ladies’ man. Well, he tries to be…”
“Is that so?” Mercedes was having a hard time picturing Magnus as the laid-back type of monster. Ladies’ man, yes, she could see, because she kind of fell for his big Viking-type looks, but laid-back? That was hard to picture. He was so intense and seemed uptight about everything.
Maybe he’s only uptight around me?
She seemed to have that effect on a lot of people.
“Why do you insist on being such a failure?” her mother shrieked, staring at the remnants of the potion Mercedes was meant to have been watching, but now all that was left of said potion was the charred circle on the expensive Berber rug after the cauldron exploded.
“I don’t insist, mother,” Mercedes snapped back. “I don’t want to be a witch.”
“You won’t be at this rate!”
Mercedes shook that thought away. She hadn’t seen her mother in years and it was better that way.
For her. Probably for her mother too.
She had a pleasant conversation with Phineas all the way down to Hetty’s little apartment at the back of Monster Catch Bait and Tackle.
Now she had a better understanding of why Pearl adored Phineas so completely.
It was also nice to have a few moments not thinking about Magnus, his naked body, the awkwardness of their encounter, and that she was going to have to work with him.
As she opened the door, she caught the scent of dinner cooking and her stomach growled. Then she saw red hair at the kitchen sink and realized Margaid was there.
“Hi, I found a straggler on my way home from work,” Mercedes announced as Phineas stepped inside with the box of baked goods.
“I brought dessert,” Phineas announced.
Hetty beamed. “Oh, Phineas dear, you didn’t have to do that. You’re so sweet.”
Phineas gave Hetty a peck on the cheek, set the cake box down and gave the same little kiss to Margaid, who giggled.
“Finn is in the living room with Magnus, Phineas,” Margaid stated. “Go harass them while we get dinner on.”
Mercedes stomach knotted.
Magnus? Of course.
Her heart began to race and her ears had that weird, sensitive, thumping thing that always drove her nuts when she became a bit more anxious. The idea of Magnus having dinner with them just amplified that. Mercedes tugged on her ear a bit.
“I’m going to change and freshen up, then I’ll come help you with dinner,” Mercedes said quickly.
“You don’t need to worry about dinner,” Margaid piped up. “Hetty and I have this handled.”
Hetty smiled softly. “We do. I’m showing Margaid some of Finn’s favorite things.”
“Apparently, I can’t cook all that well.” Margaid snorted and rolled her eyes, but they were twinkling with humor.
“Oh, and does Finn cook?” Mercedes asked, grinning.
“Only lasagna or fish, but we can’t eat those for the rest of our lives,” Margaid replied as Hetty chuckled.
“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” Mercedes took a deep breath and pushed open the door from the warm and mirthful kitchen to the open-concept dining room and living room, which she had to cross to get to the bedrooms.
Suddenly, the room felt as vast as the Sahara Desert.
You can do this. Just ignore him.
The theory was good, but the execution of it was another matter. She planned to do that earlier in the day and instead wound up plastered against his hot, wet, naked body. Her body thrummed with excitement as she remembered and she chewed on her bottom lip, trying not to think about it.