Chapter 21 #3
They found a row of seats open and kept their faces and body language pleasantly unbothered by the whispers weaving around them.
Unkindness undeserved had a stickiness about it, sandburs that cling to clothing hoping to be carried around before being dealt with at the end of a long day with a sigh of frustration.
But these women, together, could hold each other accountable to not accepting anyone's unkindness that tried to catch an unpaid ride. So, they sat in their ladder back seats, offering smiles in return for glares and silence for whispers.
Bess had stayed behind, still not ready to face more of the town than necessary.
When Eloise asked if they could talk later, Bess paused in a way that lent to weighing anger and hurt.
Finally, she agreed but said she had promised to spend time with her uncle and asked if she could spend the night the next evening.
Eloise and Ursula readily agreed and promised a 90's movie night with maple blondies and popcorn.
"Here to support the Fabulous Salem Coven," a voice said drawing six pair of eyes up to a friendly face.
"Jessica!"
She smiled and gave hugs and hand squeezes down the row taking a seat next to Ursula on the end.
"Not afraid to be seen with the witchy outcasts?" Jen leaned forward asking Jessica.
Jessica snorted, the unladylike sound beautiful. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. "I happen to have a penchant for outcasts. They're far more interesting company than the ones doing the outcasting."
Cora Acosta, town mayor, took a seat behind the podium and winked at Jen who winked back.
The chief was next to her, and his stoic eyes clocked all of them before turning to someone who sat next to him.
The man he was talking with was someone Eloise didn't recognize but when Jen leaned forward and made a 'pssss' sound, Eloise looked at her.
"That's Graham," she whispered, her hand cupping her mouth in a secret while the other pointed to the man next to the chief.
She looked back at the front. He was handsome, in casual business attire and talking easily with the chief.
Then her heart lurched when a familiar figure joined them, taking the last seat behind the podium.
Taylor shook hands with a few people, talked easily, his body language at ease.
When he settled into his seat his eyes found hers, like they could feel each other, and she gave him a small smile with an equally small wave.
He nodded raising his hand the slightest. Her eyes shifted to Graham again and she pulled her lips between her teeth.
She looked back at Jen and jokingly asked, "Think Graham would be up for a date redo now that I've been outed as a full-blown witch?"
Jen grinned.
"Alright! Let's get started. Kristen will be taking our minutes tonight as Jolene is out with a sore throat and no voice.
" The woman speaking was Carman Jones. She came into the coffee shop every morning exactly at seven for a white mocha with an extra shot.
Her eyes found their row pointedly with accusation, and Eloise felt it personally.
"Who is Jolene?" Eloise whispered to Ursula who shrugged. She rolled her eyes. "Every cough and sniffle will be blamed on us until this is cleared up," she groused.
"I move to ban The Lost Soul Witches!" someone stood up in the second row, their voice clear and carrying over the room. The number of eyes that landed on them were so many that it was heavy.
"Wow, that was fast," Tilly commented.
"Right?" Eloise asked. "I'm almost flattered."
Jen waved at everyone around them with a sweet and wide smile. Crystal looked serene and unbothered.
Chief Landry had a look of calculation on his stern face and Taylor looked as though he was holding himself back. Though his eyes he could not hide, and they were angry.
"Everyone, we will get through our scheduled order of meeting points and then take open mic at the end," Carman said.
The person sat down but then someone else stood up and demanded they talk about them now. Then a second person stood and a third.
Carman sighed and looked to Cora who stood to take over. She was the visual of strength in her dark green blouse and black pencil skirt with matching green heels.
"You all know my stance here," she started. "We can't legally push out members of our town, especially without proper evidence of wrongdoing. And we certainly won't do it for subjective ethical reasons." Her eyes connected with various people around the room with her strong declaration.
"You're saying that because one of them is your friend," someone called and Cora held up a hand with a firmness that was felt.
"Now, I have created a space for us all in Salem to speak freely.
I have created a space for us all to be who we feel the most free being.
What that doesn't mean is feeling free to point fingers at people, again without evidence," she paused, looking around the room again making eye contact in a powerful move of letting her words settle.
"Tonight we have an agenda to get through.
After that, if you have a valid concern, please bring it forward.
And by valid, I do mean unbiased and intentional. "
Cora's eyes connected with the row of ostracized women. It was a moment of power, a moment of connection, a moment of women standing together.
The message was received around the room.
Eloise watched the chief carefully, looking for any sign that he may take up the town's pitchforks, but the man was a lesson in masking.
After the meeting, most mingled, though they kept away from the six women who stayed and talked and laughed, leaving behind their imprint in this place where others tried to uninvite them.
Cora, the Chief and Taylor were taken hostage by multiple people wanting their ears for issues they didn't have time getting to during the meeting.
"Hey, Eloise?"
Eloise turned toward the voice and smiled up at the man who was supposed to have been her first date here in Salem. He had thick brown hair, a nice smile that was kind and brown eyes that made her think of cattails swaying in the summer breeze.
"Graham Bledsoe, right?" she asked, smiling and holding out her hand.
He shook it laughing. "Yeah, I have been told by some that my family emergency was an absolute asshole move."
"Is the 'some' an intense woman named Jen?"
His smile widened and his laugh was warm. "You would be correct. But in all fairness, my grandmother truly did have an emergency and we only just got her into an assisted living after her fall."
Eloise raised a hand to her chest. "Oh no, I'm so sorry. That's terrible. Is she alright?"
"Oh, don't worry about her. She's living it up in a place nicer than my house and taking advantage of everyone there in poker. She just tried to slide me a one-hundred dollar bill when I dropped off her favorite croissants."
Eloise threw her head back laughing. "I feel like I would like her."
He took her in and nodded. "Yeah, I get the feeling that you would. Even though I don't know you very well. Yet," he added and it felt like a promise. The way he was looking at her was thoughtful and curious, but something prickled along her skin and a wash of a familiar scent hit her nose.
When she shifted her eyes she found a blue gaze on her so intense that her breath caught.
There was nothing friendly about the way that Taylor White was looking at her from where he stood ignoring Carman Jones talking animatedly.
She was gesturing adamantly, with a loud voice needing his attention but he was looking at Eloise.
"Eloise?"
Graham's voice pulled her back to him and he was looking at her with a question in his brown eyes.
"Sorry?"
"I wanted to know if you would possibly give me another chance, even though Jen called me a red flag for abandoning you," he smiled, the ghost of being appropriately admonished in his eyes.
"Sounds like it was a fair abandonment and I call no foul," she told him.
"And I would love to." When the words left her mouth there was a pinch in her chest. But she pushed it aside as they made plans.
She needed to move on. She felt a moment of relief at this small, yet monumental decision.
But it was short lived when a familiar warmth spread over her.
"Graham," a deep voice interrupted and that pinch she had felt turned to a flutter and she had to tell her heart to ignore it.
"Hey Taylor, how's it going?" he asked shaking the detective's hand.
"Great, great. How's your grandmother?"
"Great. A vixen, like usual," Graham smiled widely. "I was just talking about her with Eloise and she magnanimously has agreed to give me another chance, which I am grateful for," he finished looking back at Eloise who was trying to regulate everything going on inside of her.
"Oh yeah? That is magnanimous of her," Taylor said turning his blue eyes to where she stood between them.
It was uncomfortable and she wondered how any woman in the middle of the love triangle trope didn't burst from anxiety.
This was two minutes into one and she had the urge to call off dating for good.
Not that this was a love triangle.
Why was her mind racing, her thoughts tripping over themselves?
"You ready to go?" Graham asked her. Neither men were aware of her inner turmoil and the wildness of her heart.
"You're going on a date now? How spontaneous," Taylor said with a wide smile and eyes that didn't match.
"Yeah, figured I finally got to meet the enchanting Eloise Willow, and why not? We're going to a movie."
"And when a man calls me enchanting it's hard to pass up," she joked.