Chapter 3
“Maybe it’s not a bad thing,” Enzo said.
I glared at him.
“How is it not a bad thing?” I asked, and it was Enzo’s turn to stare.
“Come on, Cole. What are you? Five? You need Mommy and Daddy around twenty-four-seven? Be for real right now.” He turned to Ella, who was playing with her food on her high chair, and cooed, “Daddy needs to get real, doesn’t he, Ella Bella Arabella?”
“Don’t teach my daughter that crab,” I groaned.
“What crab?”
I narrowed my gaze on him. I hated it when he was playing coy. I mean, yeah, he was my best friend and all, but he didn’t need to call me out at every opportunity.
“Teaching her that her dad is an idiot,” I said.
“Well, I wasn’t, but if the shoe fits…” Enzo bit his lip and handed Ella a bowl of grapes before he turned to me. “Tea?”
I lifted my coffee mug in the air and shook my head.
“I’m good,” I said.
Enzo proceeded to make two cups anyway, like he had the day before, like he had all week when we got an opportunity to catch up—which, one would think, wasn’t that hard, living in the same house and all. But if he wasn’t busy doing my brother, I was working, so…
“Why do you insist on making this shizz for me?” I asked when he put the mug of steaming dishwater in front of me.
Enzo gasped.
“Shizz? Did you just call Lilian’s tea blend shizz? I think you’ve just managed to get yourself cursed, my friend. I’m gonna tell my mama on you.”
I rolled my eyes and looked into the tea mug as if it were going to change its color or flavor.
I really wasn’t a tea person, but if there was a tea to enjoy, or at the very least, drink, that was probably Lilian’s blends; Enzo’s mom who fancied herself a witch and had made it her job.
The Happy Witch Café had been a staple on this island for as long as I’d been alive, even if the poor woman had faced the wrath of the religious zealots of this town—which thankfully weren’t many, but they were persistent.
Me, I couldn’t see why anyone cared. It wasn’t as if her magic was real.
As if eating a luck cake would make someone win the lottery or something.
And if they did… I was sure that was projection.
After all, I’d been eating her magical cakes for years, and I hadn’t become a millionaire or solved all my life’s problems.
“Don’t!” I said. “Fine. I’ll drink it. Just don’t tell Lilian I called it shizz.”
Truth be told, it wasn’t even offensive. But as I found with most teas, it smelled better than it tasted. It was warm and slightly floral with hints of sweetness, which needed a few spoonfuls of sugar to come out. It was the perfect cozy blend for the holiday season. If tea was your thing.
I took a sip under the watchful eye of my best friend and almost choked when it clicked.
“This… this isn’t some kind of spell, is it?” I ask after patting my chest a couple of times to clear my airways.
“No! Why would you think that?” he asked with a hint of sarcasm that I wasn’t sure even he knew he was giving, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Because I know your mom. She’s a sneaky witch like that.”
“Witch. Witch. Witch.” Ella chuckled, and it almost sounded like a chant. Or an incantation even.
“Yes, sweetie. Witch. Well done.” Enzo applauded her, and I huffed.
“Uh-huh. So you admit it. It’s a spell.”
Enzo grimaced.
“I did nothing of the sort. I just confirmed Mom is a witch and congratulated Ella for pronouncing it right. Didn’t I, Ella Bella Arabella?”
I groaned again.
“Will you stop nicknaming my child—”
“My goddaughter, thank you very much,” he interjected.
“I don’t want her thinking her name is actually Ella Bella Arabella. People will think I’m cruel.”
“I think people already do, honey. I heard people think you even give her chocolate.” Enzo gasped, and Ella giggled.
“Be serious for once in your life,” I said.
“And you be fun again. I miss the fun Cole,” he bit back, his snark-o-meter shooting through the roof.
“I am fun,” I grumbled.
“You are? Then somebody needs to tell your face, your voice, your posture, and your personality.”
I growled. Yeah, I did. Like an animal.
Fuck my life. I wasn’t doing myself any favors, was I?
“Ha ha, you’re hilarious.”
“I know.” He brushed nonexistent hair off his shoulder. “Drink up,” he said with a frown.
I picked up the mug, but before I drank, I stared at him.
“Are you sure it’s not a spell or something?”
“Why do you care?” He shrugged. “You don’t believe in that stuff anyway.”
“You didn’t believe in that stuff either until last year.”
Enzo rolled his eyes.
“Of course I did. I grew up with Lilian, remember? I just… I lost my faith in those things. But then…”
“But then you got my brother’s di—p.”
Enzo raised an eyebrow.
“Dip? Really?”
“Do you prefer I say disco-stick?”
Enzo gagged.
“Ew, no, thanks. And I didn’t get your brother’s… dip.” He glanced at Ella and smiled. If it weren’t for her, our language would be more explicit and a tad more normal. Oh the sacrifices we made for our children. “I believed in love again. Which is what you need!”
I stopped and spat the tea back out.
“So this is a spell.”
Enzo groaned.
“What would be the problem if it were?”
I laughed.
Was he seriously asking me that?
“For starters, it’s bull-sushi. Need I remind you this did fudge all?” I pulled the necklace from underneath my shirt and showed him the rose quartz he’d given me last year, and still, no love in my life.
Not that I needed love. I had Ella. I had the memory of Sandra. That was more than enough.
“It wasn’t just for love, you know.”
“Oh yeah. It’s also for peace and balance.”
Enzo sighed.
“It’s not the crystal’s fault if you infected it with your negativity. I mean a crystal can only do so much.”
“I-E nothing.”
Enzo turned his attention to my daughter and shook his head.
“What am I going to do about your boneheaded daddy? Huh?”
“Bone’ead daddy,” Ella repeated, and my friend chuckled.
“I see you’ve been practicing your British accent, darling. Top notch, goddaughter,” he said in a terrible British accent while patting Ella’s head.
I huffed and sipped the tea, added more sugar, then sipped some more, if for nothing else than to prove to my stubborn friend that this stuff was bullshit, and no tea or cake could change someone’s fate. Or personality.
“Maybe it’s for the best, you know. Colin and Lydia leaving,” he said.
“Oh, now you’re on a first name basis with Mom and Dad?”
“Is there anything that doesn’t annoy you?” He huffed.
“Yes. Ella.” I pointed to my girl, and she cheered, giggling her sweet joyful laugh.
“Oh really? So why are you working yourself to the ground and spending even less time with her?”
“I’m not—”
Enzo glared at me and pouted as if daring me to complete my sentence. I didn’t, but not because he was right, which… well, he was.
“Hm. That’s what I thought. You need to spend more time with your daughter. The restaurant is doing better than ever. You could quit the firefighting—”
“No!” I shouted.
I didn’t mean to, but… I didn’t want to give up my one dream for the future. I’d always wanted to be a firefighter, ever since the Grill caught on fire, and I saw those brave men walk in and put it out like it was nothing.
Okay, maybe I also had a crush on those muscular hunks, but it was more than that. It was a calling.
“Well, you can quit the restaurant then. Thank god you stopped the trash collecting job, but it’s like you gave one job and put more hours in another.”
Which was true. Had it not been for Ella’s sudden rash and allergies, I’d still be working in waste management. It was a dirty job, but it paid better than most menial jobs around.
“I’m starting to think you and my parents are in cahoots,” I said.
“We’re not. We just have eyes and see what you’re doing is too much and a brain to know you’re just using work as an excuse to deal with—”
I put my hand up. I didn’t want to talk about this. Not right now. Not again. Not in front of Ella.
“Enough. Enough. If you’re all so obsessed with me taking time off, I’ll do it.”
I reached for my phone and dialed up my most recent contact, staring at Enzo the whole time, who waited with a narrowed gaze.
“Yeah?” Carson picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, bro,” I said. “I can’t come into work today. Soz.”
“What’s up? Are you okay? Is Ella?”
“Everyone is fine,” I reassured him. “But since you’re all so obsessed with me taking it easy, I thought I’d ditch work today and spend time with my daughter.
You know, before she grows old, and she forgets who I am.
” I made a point of stressing my words for Enzo’s benefit, but he just rolled his eyes.
“Oh. Okay. That’s fine. Take the day off. Actually, take all the days off. You’re not welcome here anymore,” he said, but he didn’t sound angry. If anything, he sounded amused.
Why was everyone so keen on entertaining themselves with the shambles that was my life?
“Um… that’s not what I said.”
“Well, it’s what I said,” Carson answered. “You’re banned. Don’t come back.”
I grimaced.
“Well, I’m still a co-owner, so kindly, fudge off. I will come in if I want to.”
Carson chuckled and muttered an “I’d love to see you try” before he hung up.
“Fudge off!” Ella said, and I all but banged my head on the table.
“There? Happy now?” I mumbled.
“Ecstatic. So what should we do today?” Enzo asked.
“I thought you had music to record.” I slowly brought myself up again and drank my tea.
“Well, that can wait. I get to spend a day with my best friend, and that’s far more important.” He beamed, and I felt a pang of guilt flare in my stomach.
I had been a terrible friend. I’d made such little effort to spend time with him since he came back from Boston last year that we’d barely hang out other than the bare minimum when living under the same roof.
So, I couldn’t help but smile back—internally, mostly—that my friend was still happy to call me a best friend.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m the workaholic. You give me ideas.”
“Hmm… well, we should definitely stop by Bubble Bubble for bubble tea.”
I groaned. Again with the tea.
“And maybe check out if any store has play time for little ones?” Enzo offered, and for the first time, I was actually excited to not have shit to do. “Right. Let’s go.”
Enzo got up and took Ella’s anti-mess bib off before picking her up.
“What? Now?” I asked.
“There’s no time like the present, Cole. No time like the present,” he said and walked away, leaving me to rush a gulp of tea before following him. “I thought you hated tea,” he said when I caught up.
“I do. But we can’t let a good spell go to waste, now, can we?” I said, dripping with sarcasm.
The truth was, I was starting to be into this particular blend. It just needed a lot of sugar, which I was sure wasn’t great for my health, but oh well. It was probably better than energy drinks anyway, which was all I consumed during shifts at the station.
“No. No, we can’t,” Enzo confirmed.
“Huh! So you admit it. That tea is some sort of love spell.”
Enzo shrugged.
“Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.” He bit his lip.
I rolled my eyes and patted his shoulder.
“Then I can’t wait to meet the love of my life,” I screamed with fake-enthusiasm before I put my shoes on, and we made our way outside.
Fat chance of that happening though.
For starters, I already had, and she’d died.
And secondly…
Who would ever want to go out with a grumpy, depressed, single dad?
Be for real, Cole. Be so for real, right now.