"Remember when I dated that guy in college who told me he loved me one month after casually dating?"
The memory pulled a groan from Ursula's full mouth and she swallowed. "Yeah, and when you said you weren't there yet he was flabbergasted. Like, how dare you not be in love with him yet?"
"And he promptly broke up with me, saying that he didn't want to waste his time," she said with a smirk.
"And he called you, what, a week later asking to come over?"
She nodded. "Yep. So, like the hopeful nineteen-year-old that I was, I agreed. He came over, drunk, and told me he could wait for me to fall in love with him, because he just knew that I was the one for him. Pawed at me, and when I wouldn't, you know,"and they did, "he yelled at me and left."
"Oh my god. What is wrong with guys?" Bess exclaimed with disgust, that pitch of voice teenagers harness so well. Sulphur raised her head at the tone from where she was lying in the kitchen windowsill. She stretched, then hopped down and jumped gracefully into Bess's lap.
"And you're telling me it doesn't get better for a decade?" Her wide eyes of disbelief were comical but they knew better than to give into the laughter. For her, this wasn't a laughing matter. She was still at the beginning of learning all of this.
It takes quite a while for women to be able to make light of how deeply some men's insecurities affect them. One day, usually with the help of another feminine heart and a cupcake or two, they realize it has nothing to do with them. And that is where boundaries are born.
"Ah, a decade or two. Maybe longer?" Eloise looked to Ursula in question.
A slightly panicked look crossed Ursula's face before she shrugged. "I found your uncle. Finally," she said encouragingly.
Bess pressed her face into Sulphur's black neck and mumbled, "Why is dating the worst?"
"Babe, if we knew that, I think we'd come as close as possible to a love spell," Eloise replied with a laugh.
"Oh the heartbreak we could have saved ourselves!" Ursula said twirling her fork in the air. "I do want to tell you I'm proud of you for not giving into pressure," she told Bess with what Eloise thought was a beautiful motherly look of love for the teenager.
One thing that Eloise had enjoyed watching over the last few months here at The Lost Souls House was her best friend taking to Bess so naturally. She encouraged her, spent time with her, was protective.
She and her friend had shared a desire to never have children, something that had been considered odd to some over the years.
It had been a relief to be in the company of someone that required no explanation. Ursula was the friend with which Eloise could unload her baggage at the front door with a heavy sigh and drag herself inside to sit next to her friend without the need to unpack.
But here was Ursula, so naturally and without pause, stepping into the role as if by divine prophecy. While she didn't want children of her own, there would be an intentional use of her ability to love without hesitation and without bounds. It was, Eloise believed, another piece of Ursula healing from a previous decade of her gift of loving being used and taken for granted.
"I have an idea," Eloise announced gaining two pair of eager eyes. "Let's clean up dinner then eat the blackberry walnut tarts I made this afternoon while we play cards in the greenhouse and listen to the rain."
They smiled at such a romantic plan for a rainy, spring evening and they each took on a different task until they were playing hand and foot on a potting table dotted with green and ivory candles, which flickered from time to time from the hand of a playful soul, brushing soil from their hands and letting their laughter soak into the potted plants which took in their easy camaraderie helping the cafe au lait dahlias and the apricot beauty tulips grow two inches that night.
9. Magical Coffee
"You want to know something super creepy?" Eloise turned to where Bess was stacking paper cups before their morning rush began.
"Probably not," she answered to which Bess proceeded without pause.
"It's believed that the last sense to like, turn off, when you die is your hearing. So, if you become a ghost your last memory could be whatever words or noise there is when you die."
"Ghosts aren't real," Tess said with a scoff, her blonde bob was wavy today lending a cute, unkempt look to her that was charming. Which unfortunately didn't match her personality.
Bess made a snorting sound. "Wrong audience, Tess." Tess frowned at her and Bess pointed to where Eloise was closing the till. "Lost Souls House," she said then pointed to herself. "Believer in ghosts."
Tess rolled her eyes. "I know you live in The Lost Souls House, or whatever," she said with a dismissive air. "But like, the idea of ghosts or an afterlife is just a way for people to control how good or bad we are in this life."
Bess was mimicking her silently on the other side of the bar with hand puppets that Eloise wanted to laugh at but instead gave her a sharp look.
"What? What she said, given the current company, is offensive." Bess crossed her arms over her chest, the look of an offended teenager perfectly painted on her face.
"Why should Tess's beliefs offend us? She isn't required to believe what we do. As long as she isn't unkind when talking about it, I don't see a problem." She gave Tess a questioning look putting the conversation in her court, but the young woman looked flummoxed.
"I...right," she finally said, a look like she was trying to work something out on her face.
