“It just was, ok?”Lissa snapped.“Can we let it go?”
“Whatever you say, grumpy pants.”Daria took another gulp of Lissa’s vanilla oat milk latte.“By the way, did you know you have a white squirrel sleeping on your porch railing out back?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen him.I used to have a brown one that hung around a lot.I left him little piles of cashews and nicknamed him Munchy.He disappeared a while ago though.I keep imagining him and the white one had a turf battle and Whitey must have won.”
“Huh,” Daria said, shifting her body to look out the kitchen window at the mystery critter.“I didn’t even know there were white squirrels.”
Lissa shrugged.“I dunno.Maybe he’s albino.I don’t judge.”
“Fair enough.I take it you’re heading into the studio soon?”Daria’s eyes drifted over Lissa’s ripped jean shorts, faded gray tank top, and unlaced black combat boots.
“Yeah,” Lissa replied, pushing herself up to sit on the couch.“The summer tourists are ramping up, and I need to get some pieces blown.I was thinking of doing an artistic serving dish that curls up like a wave at the end.Sort of half functional, half art piece.The vases aren’t selling that well lately.”
Daria stretched her long legs out in front of her and yawned.“That’s just because we haven’t had many customers.Why Briggs thought buying a studio space at the end of the street was a good idea is insane to me.The few people that make it all the way down there have already blown their money on the other souvenir shops they passed.”
“Actually, it kind of fits with all the other piss-poor choices he made,” Lissa grumbled, tying up the laces on her boots and cursing when she realized she missed a loop.“He might have been a great glassblower, but he was worse at business decisions than I am.”
Daria laughed then tossed back the remainder of her pilfered coffee.Setting the empty glass on the coffee table, she climbed to her feet and wandered over to a shelf of knick-knacks.She plucked a photo from among the assortment of tiny glassblown animals, fruit, and odd sculptures.Handing the photo over to Lissa, she said, “I think you should dye your hair blue again.Or maybe try green.”
Lissa took the photo.Tracing her fingers over the image of her and Daria tossing back mojitos on the beach two years ago.She winced at the spiky pale-blue style she thought she could pull off at the time.That particular dye job combined with her lack of tan had made her resemble a walking icicle.
She handed the photo back.“First off, you know I swore I’d never go green.I don’t want to look like I have snot on my head.And second, why do you even care what color my hair is?”
Daria dropped the photo back on the shelf, almost knocking over a glass dolphin in the process.“As much as I love the pink you’re rocking, I was thinking it kind of clashes.”
Lissa glanced around at her pure white interior style.“With what?”
“With Ria’s red hair,” Daria replied, grinning as she crouched down beside Lissa and analyzed her currently vibrant pink strands.
Lissa groaned and playfully shoved Daria, knocking her back on her butt.“Oh.My.God.Are we back on this?You’re like a dog with a bone.”
“While I do love me a good bone,” Daria said, winking suggestively up at Lissa from her position on her back, “this is about you.I saw the way you looked at the Elixir Enchantress.She was enchanting something all right, but I don’t think it was an elixir.”
Lissa rubbed her hands over her face, then glanced at the smartwatch on her wrist.If she was going to get a good chunk of blowing in before her ex showed up at the studio, she needed to get moving.“Would you please just stop?Yes, she was hot.Is that what you want to hear?”
Daria clapped her hands together.“Now we’re making progress.I knew you only called the witch because you were craving a taste of her sweet, sweet elixir.”
Lissa climbed to her feet and trudged into the kitchen to make another coffee for the road.“You’re the worst, you know that?”she called back over her shoulder.
“I’m the best and you do know that,” Daria sang.Skipping into the kitchen a second later like a sugared-up toddler, Lissa’s bestie jumped up on the counter and poked at her.“Seriously, weird witchy woo-woo aside, this chick is smokin’.Why are you not already knuckle deep in her honey pot?”
“I think that might be the crudest thing you’ve ever said,” Lissa replied, sliding a travel mug under the spout of her coffee maker.
“Oof,” Daria replied, clutching at her chest in mock suffering.“I hope not.I’m losing my touch if it is.”
“Funny,” Lissa replied sarcastically, adding a heavy dose of oat milk to the fresh brew.She considered frothing it first, but she didn’t have the time.Her chances of having a delicious latte for breakfast disappeared when Daria walked in the door.
“Always,” Daria chirped.“But you haven’t answered my question,” she pointed out, swiping Lissa’s finished coffee and taking a big slug.
“I have my reasons,” Lissa growled, snatching back her mug and securing it in a vice grip.
“Which are?Come on, Lissa,” she whined, bouncing on the counter.“You tell me everything.”
“Fine,” Lissa relented.“You want to know the truth?I only reached out to Ria because I recognized her as one of the people who worked on Smooth Expression’s failed marketing campaign last winter.I thought I could get some info out of her.”
Daria gaped at Lissa open-mouthed for a minute, her earlier childlike excitement giving way to an impersonation of a shocked gargoyle perched on the countertop.“You did what?”
“See.This is why I didn’t want to tell you.That look on your face.”Keeping one hand on her coffee, Lissa dug through the kitchen drawer for the vanilla extract.It wouldn’t be the same as Mixie’s, but if the milk in her coffee was going to be cold it would at least be flavored, dammit.
