“Too little, too late,” Ria grumbled, her eyes tracking an ant moving through what must be monstrous stalks of grass to him.Everything really was all about perspective.She just couldn’t bring herself to see things from Lissa’s point of view.
“Well, if you want to lay in the yard and wallow, that’s your choice, but I thought you should know there’s someone here to see you.”
A spark of something—not hope but maybe in the same family—shot through Ria, and she bolted upright.“Who?”she demanded, knowing she planned to meet her coven sisters later, so it couldn’t be them.Was it Lissa?What would she even say if it was?
Scrambling to her feet, Ria evaluated her outfit.Grass-stained khaki shorts.Dammit.Wrinkled pink blouse.Double dammit.And Hecate only knew what her hair was doing.Did she have time to slip into her bedroom and clean up first?
“Relax, sweetie.It’s not Lissa,” her mom said, interrupting Ria’s freak out.
“I wasn’t…” she started to protest, hating how obvious she had been.
Her mom gave her a knowing smile.“Yes, you were.And maybe that tells you more than you realize.”Standing, her mom gave her a quick hug.“Just don’t close your heart all the way off, okay?I know you haven’t exactly been lucky in love, but it’s the trials that make the triumphs even sweeter.”With that last pearl of wisdom, she wandered off toward Ria’s shed.
“Don’t touch my plants,” Ria called after her.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, my sweet Sangria.”
Yeah, right, Ria thought before making her way through the back door into the house.Pausing in the kitchen, she eyed the woman rooting through the cabinets.
“We don’t have any coffee if that’s what you’re looking for,” she told Daria, who froze at the sound of Ria’s voice.
Turning around slowly, she gave Ria a sheepish grin.“You caught me.I’m a caffeine addict.I’d say I’m trying to get help, but that would imply I want to get better.I’m willing to own it.”
“Fair enough,” Ria replied, leaning against the counter.“It’s important to own things.”A trace of bitterness laced her words, and judging by Daria’s wince, the double meaning did not go unnoticed.
“Okay, so jumping right in, are we?I can respect that.No need to make small talk.”Daria tossed her black hair behind her shoulder and folded her arms.“Since we’re skipping right to the point, I’ll just come right out and say it.You need to forgive Lissa.”
Ria scoffed and pushed off the counter.Yanking open the cabinet beside Daria’s head, she pulled out a mug.“Of course you would say that.She’s your best friend.”Setting the cup down, Ria flipped the knob to heat up the kettle of water that permanently lived on their stovetop.
“I’m not just saying it because she’s my friend,” Daria argued.“I’m saying it because you don’t know the whole story.”
“Oh, Lissa told me everything,” Ria shot back.“And I’m betting you knew the whole time and didn’t stop her.”Reaching into another cabinet, she pulled out a tin of loose-leaf Darjeeling tea.
“Yeah, I knew,” Daria confessed, appearing only mildly embarrassed at being called out.“And I did try to get her to come clean with you, but at the same time I understand why she did it.”
“Yeah, to save her business,” Ria grumbled, scooping a spoonful of tea into her manatee-shaped infuser.
“It’s not that simple,” Daria protested.“This is what I meant when I said you don’t know everything.You think she was being selfish, yeah?She didn’t want to lose her cushy job?”
Ria hesitated, then nodded.Tucking the tea tin away and hooking the manatee onto the edge of the mug by his rubber flippers, she muttered, “Something like that.”
“Well, here’s what you don’t know.Lissa wasn’t doing it just for her.Yes, she loves her job and yes, she loves living here.That’s part of why she did it.If the job goes, she has to go too.There’s no other option for her to work as a glassblower in Seacliff.But that also goes for the rest of us.”
Ria stared at the kettle, wishing it would hurry up and boil so she could distract herself from this conversation.She didn’t want to imagine Lissa having altruistic intentions behind her lies.
“If Smooth Expressions goes under,” Daria continued, “then every single artist there will lose their livelihood.The only other studio in town despises us, and the owner, Marge, would die before hiring anyone from Smooth Expressions.”Daria sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.“Lissa didn’t ask for any of this.She’s not a manager by any definition of the word, but she had the responsibility dumped in her lap.She panicked, okay?She didn’t want to let everyone down, so she lied.She wasn’t trying to hurt you.She just didn’t see any alternative.”
“She could have asked me!”Ria exploded, the anger boiling out of her at the same time the kettle started to whistle.“I would have helped if she talked to me.”
“She knows that now,” Daria replied, holding her hands up in a placating gesture.“But you were an unknown entity at first.Would you gamble eight people’s jobs on the kindness of a stranger?”
“I…” Ria almost blurted out she absolutely would, but… Would she really if their situations were reversed?Her internal debate was either unnoticed or ignored by Daria, who continued her impassioned plea.
“And once you guys spent more time together, you told her the campaign was seasonal.If she didn’t care about you, she would have left at that point, but she didn’t leave because she loves your witchy ass.”Daria paused, then grinned.“Well, not only your ass, though I’m sure it’s fabulous.”
Ria’s lips didn’t so much as twitch at the lame joke, and Daria’s teasing grin dropped away.
“In all honesty, I’ve never seen Lissa hurting like this before.It’s killing her that she fucked up the chance to be with you by lying.”
