“Happy Halloween, Ryan.”
Epilogue
“Congratulations!” Faith burst through the door again with a fresh box of empty jars.
I took them from her hands gratefully, finding a safe place for them in the immediate chaos around me. I shook my head. “You need to stop.”
“Why? If you stop doing wildly amazing things, then I’ll stop congratulating you for them.”
I’d believe that when I saw it.
Two weeks since graduation, and Faith was still in an oddly celebratory mood, even after I informed her this meant that neither I nor Ryan would be in the Barnett library anymore to help her with her last-minute research and or archival projects. That had dimmed her spirit for about five minutes.
Ryan had convinced me to go to graduation, and I had worn my oversize poncho of a bright-green gown along with a few hundred other graduates. After walking across the stage to the most obnoxious of cheers from a certain blonde ex-football player and future teacher who somehow managed to pull off any shade of green, I looked down at the degree in my hand and took a deep breath at the words on it.
Luella Pierce had been granted a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in graphic design and botany.
Even the career counselors we all had to meet with at the end of the year appeared shocked that I managed to get the final credits in before the end of the year.
I might have even surprised myself as Ryan reached back into my row to run my tassel from one side to the other, and I, his. He scrunched his nose, beaming his bright smile at me as they announced us as the newest graduating class of Barnett University and sent us off into the world.
Though our world was a lot closer than most.
During my final semester, it had helped that for my business capstone, I’d already had a business plan in mind. I wanted to open my own. Ever since I had stumbled upon the old building just off Main Street that had been empty for years, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. The sage-green paint on the facade was chipping off in hunks, and the windows were covered with strips of old newspaper, but they were huge. When I’d peeked inside, past the layer of dust, I could see the shelves appearing in my head immediately, perfect for setting jars of tea leaves and tables for rows of soaps, oils, and small spells I planned on selling with user guides from my redesigned book of shadows, meant for anyone who wanted to find magic, like I had.
Now, it was all coming together with a little help from Gertie, the coven, as well as my mom, who had left me a bit of extra money I’d never cared to look at previously. The note, along with the account, had said that it should go toward doing something worth dreaming about. It was like a bright, shining sign. Because this shop certainly was all of that even if there was still a lot of work to be done.
The only thing that we had managed to do was scrape the windows and replace the one above the door with a stained glass mosaic of a crescent moon, like the one back at the house. The moon kept me company now day and night while I sweated profusely from the lack of air conditioning.
Earth tones splattered all over me and the floor from where I’d been painting.
“Do you need any other help or …” Faith looked around the place in her clean, colorful dress and kitten heels.
“Not with you dressed so nice, no,” I said. “Could you go and get me another paint roller out from the back office though?” I wanted to start on the cream shelves for the wall behind the counter later.
“That, I can do,” Faith sang as she headed into the back room. Her heels clacked in the empty space to the melody of the radio playing the Top 100 hits.
I’d just gotten to painting again when I saw another shadow pass through the door I’d left wide open, hoping a semblance of a breeze would float in.
Instead of a brisk wind to cool me off, Ryan stepped inside. He was still dressed in his crisp button-down and dress pants I had seen him off in from the house this morning.
His face dropped as he looked between his feet and me. He took a deep breath. My own stopped in my lungs.
I set down the paintbrush I had been using on the edge of the can as I moved toward him, trying to curve my head to see his face. “What happened? Didn’t the meeting go well? I thought since they asked you back again, that was a good sign.”
“I just … I don’t know how to tell you this, but … guess who is teaching at Barnett Elementary this fall,” Ryan said. His sad face transformed into one of elation.
“You little—” Relief spread through me.
He’d really had me worried there. We’d talked about what we’d do if he didn’t manage to get a job right in town. We’d make it work, especially since our housing situation was taken care of for the rest of our lives, but it still wouldn’t have been ideal. Especially as the rest of our world slowly began to come into focus.
“They liked my enthusiasm,” he said.
“Don’t we all?”
“I was, and I quote, ‘the only candidate we actively considered for the position.’”
“Now, you’re just getting a big head.”
