Hidden Fae of the Green

- ONE

Cece

Fuck fuck fuck men.

That was pretty much the running monologue I had going through my head as I carried the last of my boxes out of my, my boyfriend's, my ex-boyfriend's house. Lately, he was better known as The Cheating Bastard Waste Of Three Perfectly Good Years Of My Life.

See, three days before, I finally understood the term 'blindsided.'

Because on our third date, I had already decided he was the love of my life. I hadn't told him that then, of course. I had waited a respectable five months before I shared that revelation.

To my surprise, and utter delight, he said he had felt the same way since we met.

Love of his life, my Aunt Fanny.

I wondered if he said the same thing to Annie, May, and Melody.

And those were just the three I knew about.

The useless, insecure, lying bastard.

I was so done. Not just with him, with them all. Fuck fuck fuck men seven ways to freaking Sunday then three more times for good measure just so they knew just how good and screwed they were.

I pulled my car up out front the mildly dilapidated red brick apartment building with a sigh.

I had found an ad online the night before and called the girl who answered in an airy sing-song voice, asked me a few simple questions, then said I could move in in the morning.

I'd seen enough news stories to know that agreeing to move in with someone you had never even met face-to-face was beyond risky and squarely in the parameters of dumb as hell, but I had very little choice left.

I absolutely refused to stay under the same roof as Corbin and I didn't have enough cash to keep staying at a motel.

And my family was several states away, and my job wasn't. So yeah... I needed something more permanent.

I grabbed two boxes and swung my purse around my neck, kicking closed my door and bleeping the locks before going up to the front door which was broken, unsurprisingly, to find the light above it flickering in a way that threatened an epileptic fit.

I wrinkled my nose at the mix of must, cat pee, and a heavy dose of cumin that was likely coming from chili behind one of the first floor doors.

On a sigh at realizing there was no elevator, though again not surprised, I hefted my boxes a little higher and went up four flights until I rounded the bend to the corner apartment overlooking the small patch of woods behind the building.

I stopped next to 4D and kicked it gently with the tip of my shoe.

I barely had my foot back on the ground when the door opened without the sliding of a lock to reveal, well, was hippie an insult?

I wasn't sure, but that was what she was from her tie-dye maxi skirt to her beige lace bandeau top to her long white-blonde hair that fell almost to her waist and had multi-color ribbons woven into sporadically placed braids to her bare feet with multiple toe rings and tiny jingling bells on her ankle.

She was pretty in an other-worldly kind of way with her sharp, inverted triangle-shaped face, huge heavy-lidded eyes in the brightest shade of blue I had ever seen, a slim body with a swell of breasts that made me momentarily jealous, and I know it was odd to comment on, but the most perfect, delicate, long-boned fingers I had ever seen in my life.

"Celestine!" she cheered as if we were the oldest of friends instead of complete and utter strangers. I felt my lips drop into a grimace at the sound of my name, a name I had hated pretty much since I knew what a name was.

"Cece," I corrected with what I hoped was a friendly smile despite my sour mood. It wasn't her fault Corbin followed his dick everywhere it wanted to go and that his unfaithfulness left me homeless and away from my family.

"Cece," she said with a nod. "I'm Jade, of course. Here," she said, stepping back and sweeping an arm out in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome to your new home!"

It was straight out of a hippie boho vegan wet dream.

Really, there was no other way to put it.

The walls were left years unpainted, making the paint that must of at one time been white take on the look of aged paper in the living space.

It was an open floor plan, so the living melted into the dining nook then into the kitchen that was cut off from the rest of the space by an oversize wooden island that had dried herbs hanging down over it from a rack meant for spare pots and pans.

The kitchen had the unique distinction of having exposed brick walls and big windows with no dressings, but only a few succulents hanging in tiny glass jars from the top molding.

The floors in the whole space were wide-planked and worn.

The living room couch was made of reclaimed shipping pallets and an enormous assortment of colorful cushions and pillows, draped on the back with Afghans.

There was a bookcase toward the side with overflowing tomes and an odd collection of artwork on the walls.

There were what seemed to be framed dried plants on one wall, pictures of what I could only describe as goddesses on another, and a giant framed poster of gemstones.

It was... eclectic, a little shabby, a little less modern than what I was accustomed to, but somehow... so much more homey than any other place I had ever seen. Every inch of the place had Jade's personal touch stamped on it.

"Here," Jade's soft voice said as I felt one of the boxes I was holding be lifted. "Your room is right this way," she said, leading me to the right and pushing a door open with her shoe.

It was small. I genuinely could not have fit anything bigger in it than the twin sized wooden bed it already had and the small nightstand.

There was, thankfully, a closet to the opposite of the bed where I figured I would have to store just about everything I owned seeing as the space left very little floor room to move around let alone keep anything.

But I wasn't complaining. It was cheap. It was clean.

It even had a window with a fire escape.

For three-hundred bucks a month, I really couldn't complain.

It would cost me over three times that amount to get a studio by myself anywhere else.

Really, it was a steal even in the crummy neighborhood it was in.

"I am going to go make some tea. Is herbal alright with you?" she asked, then rushed on before waiting for an answer. "And I have honey and fresh stevia, but no milk. I, um, I don't do milk. Or meat. Or..."

"Butter or eggs," I supplied with a small smile. "You're vegan," I went on. "Me too actually."

It wasn't exactly by choice. The fact of the matter was, I had never been able to keep down any kind of animal product.

My body just rejected it any time my parents pushed it on me as a kid, leaving me to run to the bathroom to throw it all back up until, around age ten, with no concrete answer from doctors, they just stopped trying and let me eat all the plant-based foods I could handle.

"I had a feeling we would get along," Jade said with a sweet smile as she turned out of the room and I heard her running water and clicking on the stove as I pulled open my closet and put my boxes on the floor.

I sat down on the bare mattress that was a bit too soft, but again, clean, and took a deep breath.

It was the first in almost a week. I could breathe again.

I was out of Corbin's place. I would never have to hear another lie out of his mouth again.

I wasn't living out of my suitcase at a motel.

I had a roof and a room, and it wouldn't break my budget.

I had a roommate who was, albeit a bit kooky, very sweet. Things were going to be okay.

I stood up, catching the motion in a mirror nailed to the inside of the closet door.

I moved closer, taking a long look at my reflection and reaching up to run a hand through my wind-blown long brown hair.

Corbin liked long hair. It had been cut short to frame my somewhat delicate face when we met.

He had encouraged me to grow it out, claiming it would draw less attention to my a bit too-plump (his opinion) lower lip and draw it up to my honey-brown eyes and fine-boned, slightly turned-up nose instead.

And, being foolishly (with an emphasis on foolish) in love, I had grown out my hair.

Below the neck, well, it wasn't anything to write home about.

I was long and lean thanks to a diet that had very little fat or artificial sugar, and almost boyish in my lack of boobs, hips, or ass.

But it was what it was. I didn't give too much thought to it.

"Chamomile or peppermint?" Jade's voice carried across the small space, not having to raise it at all. "Peppermint is good for your belly, but chamomile can be calming. Moving can be so stressful..."

I looked back at my face, taking in the lines between my brows and the tightness of my lips and forcing them to relax. "Chamomile sounds good," I called back, exhaling hard, and closing the closet door.

So then we had tea, and Jade prattled on about the farmer's market down the street every Sunday and the yoga classes in the park a few blocks down, and the old medicine woman who lived across the street.

I mostly listened and smiled while inwardly thinking that maybe Jade was a tad bit too new-age for my particular taste, but deciding it didn't matter.

She was kind and welcoming and asking a pittance in rent.

Soon, maybe not super soon, but soon, I wouldn't even notice the constantly burning incense or the fact that Jade seemed to think coconut oil and tea tree oil cured pretty much every ailment from dry hair to tooth decay.

It would be a new kind of normal. Hell, if I could learn to live with Corbin's snoring and his absolute freaking inability to make his clothes find the hamper instead of the floor in front of the hamper, then I could certainly learn to overlook Jade's own particular brand of peculiar.