Chapter Eighteen Nora
Chapter Eighteen
Nora
A witch needs a coven.
—Rules for Witches
Nora felt like she had a storm cloud hanging over her head when she walked into the apothecary fifteen minutes late, but still before opening.
She immediately saw Daisy, who was sitting in front of the computer and was glowing.
“Oh my God!” Nora shouted across the empty store. “You slept with him.”
Soraya’s head popped out of the coffee bar area. “Excuse me?”
“Daisy slept with Zach!”
“Are you psychic?” Daisy asked, her whole face going red.
“No. But remember, I saw you after you lost your virginity to . . . he who shall not be named, and you had a very similar look about you. Except you also looked kind of guilty.”
Daisy frowned. “Do I not look guilty now?”
“No. You don’t.”
“I don’t understand.” Soraya looked shell-shocked. Poor blossom. “What happened after you left?”
“Zach was waiting for her.” Nora practically exploded with glee. “It was quite romantic.”
“I don’t know if romantic is the right word,” Daisy mumbled.
“But I need to know,” Nora said. “Because he is a hot teen idol from my youth. Was it everything my girlish heart needs it to be?”
“It was amazing,” Daisy whispered. “But you’re going to have to keep it down, because Aggie is going to be back in a few minutes, and she has a new employee coming in today, and I’m trying to keep this . . . quiet.”
“You don’t want to talk about your sex life? You’re the only one of us with a sex life.” Nora did her very best not to sound petulant.
“No, I don’t want to talk about my sex life here. Later, though . . .”
“Excellent.” Nora rubbed her hands together.
“Aren’t you going to tell me that I did the wrong thing?” Daisy looked over at Soraya.
Soraya shook her head. “No. Not at all. I’m giving up judgment.”
“Are you really?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, realistically no. But I don’t feel judgmental about this.”
“You know,” Nora considered, “this would make a good article.”
“An article?”
“Yes. ‘My Husband Cheated on Me, and I Got Back at Him and Back in Touch with My Sexuality.’ It’s the kind of thing that gets a lot of clicks.” She hadn’t thought of anything to write for weeks, but she needed to get back on it.
“Oh,” Daisy said.
“If you’re interested in spilling the details, I could write it on your behalf, and we could get a little bit of money for it. Keeping your name out of it, of course. I don’t want to let all of my writing go just because I’m working here.”
“You could write about your own experience,” Daisy pointed out.
Nora waved her hand. “I don’t know. I feel like writing about myself is boring.”
“You don’t write about yourself?”
“Sometimes. But not . . . in depth. I prefer to write about other people’s experiences.”
“Why?”
Nora was about to answer, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say, when the front door opened, jingling merrily, and Aggie walked in, followed by a young woman who had half of her head shaved and tattoos up both arms.
It was Alexandra’s daughter, Madison, whom she had narrowly missed seeing at the hospital because she had been on a vape break.
“Good morning.” Aggie was merry in spite of the early hour, which Nora was certain had to be witchcraft. “This is Madison. She’s going to be the barista for the bakery area.”
“Hi,” Madison said. “I think . . .”
“We know your mom,” Nora supplied. “I actually live across the street from . . . your parents’ house.”
“Oh.” Madison nodded. “I thought you looked familiar.”
“Yeah. How is your mom?”
“The same. The longer she stays out, the less chance they think she has of waking up. But . . . I don’t know. She’s a strong woman. I think she might make it.”
“I think she might too.” Nora wasn’t sure she really believed it, but she wanted to, considering she related to Alexandra more and more.
“That’s why I took the job. I used to work at Mix, but I quit when my parents got divorced because my mom needed so much extra help, but right now I can’t . . . I can’t keep sitting in the hospital while he comes in and out with his girlfriend.”
“Your dad?” Daisy asked.
“Yes. He’s such a dick.”
Nora laughed. “Well. No argument.”
Madison was herded to the coffee-bar area, and soon Aggie was doing her readings while Daisy continued to pore over the grimoire, Nora manned the counter, Madison and Soraya worked on setting out baked goods, and Madison showed Soraya how to make drinks.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to memorize all this,” Soraya said.
“That’s silly,” Nora called. “It’s just a recipe. You’re great at recipes.”
“But I don’t know how to do a job.” Soraya chewed the edge of her perfect nail, which Nora was almost sure she’d never done before.
“You seem to be doing a job okay,” Daisy commented.
“You never had a job before?” Madison looked incredulous. “Are you rich?”
“She was a tradwife.” Nora smirked.
For a second, she felt a little bit guilty, but then Soraya caught her gaze and laughed. “Yes. I was.”
“Oh. I didn’t think you guys existed off the internet.”
“Well, I don’t really exist as one anymore. Because my husband left me, and you know what happens after that—you have to get a job.”
“Wow. Shit. It’s a lot like my mom, but they had a lot more money, and she did all the committees and boards and all that. But . . . I get it.”
“How many jobs have you had?” Soraya asked.
Madison laughed. “Oh. I lost track. I have historically not been a great employee. Which I know isn’t cool.
But I don’t know. I get distracted, I start looking for something new.
I did, like, two years as an art major, and then I decided to check out science.
I didn’t last very long at that, and I dropped out.
Then I worked at the quilting store, but I don’t know how to quilt.
Then I worked at the yarn store. Then I got a job at Mix, but then I quit to help my mom out after she found out about Dad’s affair—not that I helped her much. ”
“And now you’re here.”
“Yeah.”
Nora couldn’t imagine choosing to have a life that was that haphazard.
She had one she hadn’t chosen, but she supposed that was what life could be like when you had financial stability for the entirety of it.
You took for granted that you would land on your feet.
But then, she supposed for Madison, life hadn’t exactly been that stable.
Her dad had turned out to be kind of terrible.
“Was your dad always a dick?” Nora asked.
Everybody looked at Madison. Maybe because it was the question they were all grappling with. Were there always signs, and did the people closest to the cheating men miss them? Did other people see it?
“I don’t know. He was busy with work, but I can’t say I’m surprised he cheated on my mom.
I’m more surprised about the way he handled it.
Because when she found out, he wasn’t sorry.
He didn’t even act like he owed her an apology.
He acted like she did the wrong thing for catching him. That surprised me.”
“That’s kind of how my husband has been,” Daisy said softly. “He’s acting like I did something wrong because I’m upset. It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Well, the problem is, all these men get told that they’re good,” Soraya said, speaking for the first time in a while.
“At least, that’s what I’ve seen. Like my husband, for example.
Everybody thinks he’s such a great guy, literally just because he goes to church all the time, so they assume he shares their values.
But he doesn’t. But he has this credit that’s been given to him that he hasn’t even earned, and it’s like they think they’re untouchable.
No wonder billionaires and world leaders end up so corrupt.
Our husbands are just mildly successful men in small-town America who haven’t been told no enough, and look at how out of control they are. ”
“A good point,” Nora said.
“They need to be taken down a peg or two.” Madison spoke while taking inventory in the little kitchen area.
“We put spells on them.” Nora could still feel all the rage, all the heartache, and all the triumph from that moment.
“Really? Like real witchcraft?” Madison asked.
“No,” said Soraya at the same time Nora said, “Yes.”
“Did it work?”
Nora thought about her failed love spell. About poor Soraya getting kicked out of her house. About Daisy having great sex.
“The jury is out,” Nora said.
“I know I feel more powerful than when I started.” Soraya studied her chewed nail. “That has to count for something.”
Suddenly, Madison’s eyes glistened with emotion. “You know, I came in the store the other day, and it just seemed right. But I’ve been so lonely since my mom . . . I have my partner, and my other partner, but I don’t know. I’ve been missing something.”
“Community,” Nora said.
“Yes,” Madison agreed. “Community.”
Nora spent part of the day working on a sandwich board to go outside, harnessing some of her latent artistic talent to advertise tarot readings and their new café items. Madison was delightful, if terribly young, and Nora enjoyed watching her scandalize Soraya with commentary on her many polyamorous relationships and her casual approach to sex in general.
The day went by quickly, and when they closed up shop, Nora felt like lingering.
Going back to her empty house felt . . .
like a mess. She still hadn’t dealt with Ben, and she was beginning to feel like a coward.
But he wasn’t here, which added a layer to all this that made it challenging.
She was angry. A phone call or a text wouldn’t adequately satisfy that.
If she couldn’t look him in the face when she was talking to him about . . .