But the very serious woman who probably wasn't as judgemental as her facial features would have you believe shook her head without answering and went back to whatever was on her laptop.
Alright. Her facial features did not lie.
"Alright, Bess told me to tell you that she skipped no steps, even measured out the beans, and made it super fast," Taylor said appearing at her side again. He was holding a new pinkish-coral colored to-go cup with the black cat logo on it, which looked adorable in his large hand. "Though when I thanked her I'm pretty sure she growled at me. This is safe, right?" He held the cup looking at it in concern.
"She knows not to poison the customers unless I tell her to," Eloise replied.
The very serious woman across from her was watching them and he nodded toward her. "Afternoon, Carol. How's the paper?"
"Detective," she said in greeting. "It's going well. Always something here to report on," she said with a smile that couldn't be defined as friendly.
"Excellent," he said and nodded his head behind him which Eloise took to meanlet's get out of here.
"Great meeting you, Carol," she said getting another thin-lipped tight smile from her before going back to her peck-peck-pecking the keyboard.
As they walked away, putting enough safe distance between them and the patio, Eloise said softly, "Please tell me that pointy-face Carol does not work for a journalistic medium."
"Pointy-face? And she does. She was the one who wrote the article about Kyle Sandman forThe Salem Settler."
"Dammit," she exclaimed under her breath.
"She's mostly harmless."
"Really?"
"No. She's nosy as hell and kind of a pain in the ass especially when it comes to anything remotely considered unusual here."
"Which would apply to me because I live in The Lost Souls House. Man, and I told her I saw Ursula naked."
He gave her an amused look mixed with shock. "What? How did that even come up in such a short time because Bess made this really fast." He held up the cup inspecting it. "And why did she measure the beans? Is that an actual thing?"
She sighed. "Just try it," she said with a wave of her hand, frustrated that she had sat with a journalist who clearly didn't have the best intentions where she or her friends were concerned, but glad she didn't have more time to ruin their reputation further.
She heard him curse softly. "That's good. Why is this so good?" His voice was cautious and she smelled suspicion mixed with warm milk and espresso.
She gave him a serious wide-eyed look and said, "Magic."
They both paused walking. He gave her a narrow-eyed look of doubt and then she smirked making them both laugh. They were laughing and the air was that perfect spring mixture thatwas cool with a hint of warm sunshine, when out of nowhere a whooshing sound brought a splash of that cool air into her face and a heavy weight pressed down her left shoulder and she froze wide-eyed. When she looked at Taylor, he was also staring at whatever was on her shoulder with a look of pure shock and awe.
"Okay, do not move," he said calmly.
She could read his face as it went into police mode trying to solve a problem, and the smell of old books, ancient magic, and a hint of grass rubbed between fingers filled her senses. She slowly moved her head to see a pair of black eyes rimmed in sunflower yellow staring into her. What she became immediately worried about was the black, hooked beak that looked like it could tear into her without effort.
"There's a large bird on my shoulder," she said, trying not to move, even pushing the words out of her still mouth like a ventriloquist.
"There is a Cooper's Hawk sitting on your shoulder," he agreed, his voice calm.
"I am so glad you identified exactly whatkindof large bird, but ornithology is not my main concern right now," she said, the words squeezed through too tight a space.
She saw him out of the corner of her eye pull out his phone slowly, his eyes not moving from her or the bird. "I am impressed you found the word 'ornithology' while in this odd, and frankly terrifying situation," he remarked and her peripheral vision saw his fingers lightly move over his phone.
"What are you doing?" she asked in a whisper. The bird tilted his or her head, keeping its laser eyes on hers. The feet, which she knew would have talons for hunting were thankfully not digging into her, but she dared not move.
"I'm looking up what to do," he whispered back.
"Good, yeah. I'm sure there is a plethora of information for this situation," she said sarcastically.
"What do you suggest I do?"
