Chapter 42
Jahla helped Ollie stash the items they bought behind the circulation desk, before sitting down in her chair.
“Okay, I’m off to catch the three o’clock reading circle. If Noble comes back before I’ve finished, could you have him take everything upstairs?”
“Will do. Go, go, you have like two minutes.”
“Later!” Ollie chimed before running off.
Jahla sat there for a moment before snagging the ‘away from desk’ sign off her desk and tossing it into the drawer it belonged in.
Maybe…if she ignored the weird things going on, they would eventually stop happening?
Jahla rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that had worked out so well for Ollie…”
When she spotted Noble coming up the front stairs, she waited for the man to reach her. “You didn’t actually have anything to do, did you?”
The tall man stared for a moment, his face giving nothing away, before he admitted, “No.”
Jahla sighed. “You won’t be able to keep it hidden for too much longer.”
“I can try.”
“You are just lucky he is so good at gaslighting himself.”
Now, Noble was the one to sigh. “While it benefits me, it also makes me worry more about him.”
She snorted. “Welcome to the club.” Bending down and peeking inside the bread bags, she placed the one that belonged to Ollie on the boxed burner, along with the rest of his stuff, before picking up the box—with everything stacked on top—off the floor and placing it on her desk.
“Ollie wants you to take this stuff upstairs.”
“Can do.”
Ollie smiled on finding Noble sitting in his kitchen, appearing to be reading his witchery notebook that he still had yet to get around to rewriting and reorganizing into a loose-leaf binder.
His newly acquired fresh bread—two of which he planned to freeze—sat on the counter near the fridge.
On the table, the burner sat unboxed, with the cauldron on top.
Next to it was what he assumed was the bag of ingredients, along with a new mortar and pestle and three empty corked glass bottles.
There was also a small cutting board and knife he’d never seen before, which he could only assume had also been in the bag.
“Are you finished with whatever you needed to do?” he asked hopefully.
“I am,” Noble said with a smile. “I was just reading over your notes on the potion, as I figured you’d want to make it as soon as you had some free time.”
“You are correct!”
“You have gloves, right? There is a warning beside a few of the ingredients to not touch them with your bare hands because they’re poisonous.”
“I saw that, and I do.” He moved to the sink, opened the cabinet below, and pulled out a pair of small disposable gloves for himself and an X-Large pair for Noble. Thankfully, he had multiple sizes, after accidentally buying a multipack.
After handing over the X-Large pair, he pulled his own on as Noble did the same.
Carefully dumping out the medium-sized paper bag, three small vials of liquids tumbled out, along with eight sealed wax bags, all of them marked.
He had to say…he was both surprised and not that the supposed ghost ‘essence’ was a clear liquid.
If this had been like two or three months ago, he’d be screaming scam, but as it wasn’t…
he was just going to trust that he hadn’t been ripped off.
“Can you read the steps to me?” Ollie asked.
“Sure can. ‘Step one: fill the cauldron three-quarters full with water, turn the burner on to 250 degrees, and set the pot on top.’”
Red had mentioned changing some things in the instructions, and he could only assume adding an actual temperature was one of them, as it hadn’t been that specific in the book.
Grabbing the pot and the two-eye burner, he set the latter on the counter and plugged it in, turning the heat dial for one side on, before quickly filling the pot and setting it on top. “Okay, next.”
“‘Step two: make sure your gloves are on, then grab the bleeding heart blossoms, manchineel leaves, chamaelirium luteum root, and areca nuts. Chop them up and grind them all together into a fine paste using the mortar and pestle, before setting aside.’”
“I see why Tabitha included a knife and cutting board. I would be hesitant to use my own for actual food after this. I should have thought about that when I first read and wrote down the instructions.”
“I’m glad at least someone thought about it. Accidentally poisoning yourself would be a bad end to your first potion.”
Ollie giggled. “It really would.”
Carefully unsealing the four bags, he chopped each one up as finely as he could before dumping them into the mortar.
The grinding took a bit of time. He wasn’t sure if that was just how long it took, or if he was lacking arm and hand strength, but he did eventually manage to form a paste.
By the time he was done, the water in the cauldron was already boiling.
“I am volunteering you to grind the next potion I make,” Ollie said with a tired huff, as he set the mortar aside on the counter near the burner, and stretched and rubbed at his arms.
Having switched back and forth each time the arm he’d been using got tired, they now both hurt. Rowden forcing him to be ambidextrous may sometimes come in handy, but it didn’t feel like it at the moment. Then again, two slightly sore arms were better than one very sore arm.
Noble chuckled. “Tired, Baby?”
“My arms are. Next step.”
“Final step, for now: ‘when the water is boiling, carefully dump the powders and liquids into the cauldron, stir for three minutes, before scraping in the paste, and stirring for five more. Then let it boil.’ It says it needs to boil for twelve hours.”
“Ah, well, it's not like I really had time to use it today anyway. I have an appointment later. Luckily, if I saw correctly, the burner has a twelve-hour automatic shut-off timer.”
“An appointment?”
“Yes, for an appraisal,” he said, as he gathered the powders and liquids and brought them over to the counter.
After adding them all into the bubbling cauldron, he set a three-minute timer on his phone and began stirring it with a large, slightly bent metal spoon he’d originally intended to throw away. It would now be his potion-making spoon.
“Can I go with you?” Noble asked, as he pushed up from the table and gathered the things that needed washing, taking them to the sink and starting to do just that.
“Is this about you trying to be my bodyguard?” he asked, just as the first timer went off.
After carefully scraping the paste into the cauldron, he placed the dirty mortar into the sink, and set a new five-minute timer before beginning to stir again.
Noble remained silent for a long moment, as he continued to wash, before clucking his tongue and finally saying, “Yes…? Maybe? Who exactly are you meeting?”
Ollie smiled sheepishly at the man, as he admitted, “Raymond Deluca.”
Noble’s hands stilled in the water, and he slowly looked over at him with narrowed eyes, before growling, “Ollie, you can’t be serious?! Do you—”
“I know! But like, I’ve worked with him before, and he’s not…
well, I wouldn’t say he’s a good guy, but he’s always been nice to me.
I will say it’s best not to lie to him, as he is really good at knowing when you are, and will point it out.
Though, the lying thing may just be a me problem, since I’m so bad at it. ”
“Ollie…” The man closed his eyes briefly, sighing heavily before opening them again and asking, “What time is the appointment?”
“Um, six o’clock?” he stated as his second timer went off. After quickly setting the shut-off timer on the burner to twelve hours, he put his dirty spoon in the sink.
Grabbing a Ziplock bag from a drawer, he moved to the table and quickly gathered up the now-empty bags and vials that had held the herbs, powders, and liquids, before tossing them into the baggie and throwing them away. Tugging off his gloves, he tossed them as well.
Noble shut off the water once he had finished washing his spoon, setting it with the rest of the things on the drying rack, before turning to him as he tugged a disinfecting wipe from the container sitting on the counter and went to wipe down the table. “Why so late?”
Ollie washed his hands to rid them of the powdery feeling the gloves left behind before answering. “He prefers late appointments. Speaking of, I should probably call to let him know I won’t be alone.”
“Yeah, it probably would be a good idea for me to not just show up unannounced to a meeting with the mafia,” Noble drawled sarcastically, as he finished cleaning the table and tossed the disinfecting wipe, along with his gloves, into the trash under the sink.
“It’s not a meeting with the mafia. I’m just meeting one person who happens to be in, or rather, is the head of a mafia-type organization,” Ollie huffed while pulling his phone from his pocket.
The man’s irritating comment aside, he had to say it was nice being with someone who saw something that needed to be done and just did it, instead of needing to be asked.
Quickly calling Raymond, he stood there quietly as he waited for the man to pick up.
“Need something, Ollie? Or are you calling to reschedule?” Raymond asked as soon as the call connected.
“No, no, we are still good for tonight. I’m actually calling because my bodyguard—or rather, my boyfriend who happens to be a bodyguard—wants to come with me. And I figured it would be best to give you a heads up.”
“Full name?”
“Um, Noble Vincent.”
“Hold for a moment, please.”
“Okay,” Ollie said, sending Noble a hesitant smile as the line went silent. “I’m on hold.”
“I heard. He is probably looking into me.”
“I’m sure he’s not—okay, he probably is, but I’m sure it’s a harmless…background check?”
Noble snorted. “I’m sure.”
He would have responded to that, but Raymond came back. “Ollie, you still there?”
“I’m here.”
“He can come, but my men will not allow him to be armed in my presence. I hope you understand?”
As far as he knew, Noble generally didn’t go around armed, but he still eyed the man in question, as he already knew his boyfriend could hear the call well enough. When Noble shrugged, he said, “That’s fine. See you soon.”
“Tonight, my Little Librarian.”
Raymond hung up, and his brow rose as he pocketed his phone when he noticed Noble’s pinched expression. “What’s wrong?”
“Does he always call you that?”
Ollie blinked. “Sometimes. But, I mean, he’s not hitting on me or anything. He’s just usually super sweet to me. Also, I’m pretty sure I’m the same age as his oldest son, so that’s probably why.”
“I see… Should you really have told him about us dating?”
“Oh, Raymond’s bi, and if I’m remembering correctly, I’m pretty sure one of his current partners is a man.”
He knew the mafia boss had at least two, because he’d mentioned both a woman and a man to him in romantic contexts before, so...he was assuming they were in some sort of polyamorous relationship.
Noble sighed. “The mob is a lot more open than I thought.”
“I don’t know about that. It may just be him and his group. Though, he isn’t the only person I’ve worked for. I can only assume those he introduced me to for work are people he’s made sure are safe for me to be around.”
Relatively safe. The ones Raymond bought from were definitely not always on the safe side of things in any aspect, but he trusted the man enough to keep him safe during and in the aftermath. And so far, he had.
“How safe can working for the mafia really be?” Noble drawled.
“I mean, I don’t do anything illegal!” he huffed.
And he didn’t! The paperwork they provided was always legit.
He wasn’t sure how far back things were legit, but that wasn’t really his problem.
He never appraised goods that were questionable in their current holding.
Usually, the only thing questionable was the person actually holding them.
Really, the main issues usually came about when the people in question either didn’t like his evaluation, or the items turned out to be forgeries.