“Something to bring up at the next tenants’ meeting,”Willow said, walking over toward the parlor palm she’d rescued from the lobby, where it had been dying a slow and preventable death. “Are you feeling better?” she asked it as she poured water from a pot of rainwater she’d collected.
“Do all the plants talk back?” Iris asked. She dropped the dead bug into a container she carried around in her bag for just that purpose. But, yeah, she was starting to agree with Willow; the bugs and teeth didn’t seem to be working.
The medical devices weren’t doing much either. Though Finn had had a visceral reaction when she’d held up a speculum and spread it while telling him what it did.
She was seriously debating starting the creepy doll collection. She’d only been putting it off because she also found them almost unbearably unnerving.
“Some are chattier than others,” Willow told her. “And it’s always the ones with far too many opinions on me that never shut up. I used to dance in the moonlight with all the willows. Now, I get unsolicited dating advice from a ficus in the dentist’s waiting room.”
“Is that one happy you saved it?”
“It was pretty fond of that guy who lives in 8D. And since he never comes back here, it’s a little salty about its new—much healthier—home. I’ve told you time and time again that I will bring you back into the lobby when the appropriate lights and misters arrive,” she told the plant. “Anyway, how goes the engagement sabotage?”
Yeah, while sheprobablyshouldn’t have told Selene about the plan, she definitely shouldn’t have told someone living in the same building, who was also fond of Finn.
The beauty of Willow, though, was how well-grounded she was. It was in her nature to stay steady and neutral, no matter what chaos erupted around her.
Besides, after the third time she caught Iris looking sick as she collected dead bugs, she almosthadto give the dryad an explanation.
“Finn hasn’t been home much this week,” Iris confessed. She went ahead and ignored the little sloshing sensation in her stomach as she said that. Surely, the thought of Finn simply made her sick to her stomach. Nothing else made any sense. “He and Henry have been holed up researching and practicing.”
“Oh, right. He has that big debate coming up.”
He did.
And he looked unusually stressed about it. She was so used to the man being nearly unflappable that seeing him, well, flapped, was interesting.
It gave her a small glance into the man himself, not the facade.
“Where’s Monty?” Willow asked as she dropped down onto the ground by her tree.
“Oh, well, he is off to brunch with a guy whose girlfriend is cousins with someone who is married to some big-time reality TV producer.”
I am on my way, Iris! On my way, I tell you. I can practically taste the sweet, flaky flavor of success and calculated flattery.
“I, for one, can’t wait to see him get his first coming attractions poster.”
“Right? He will be insufferably smug,” Iris agreed.
“But no one could say he didn’t bust his feathered butt to get to the top.”
That was very true.
As much as he claimed to be both her emotional support pelican and her Head of Surface Affairs, he’d been about as MIA as Finn had been the past week.
To be fair, he always invited her on his little outings. Then lectured her about her preference to stay home to read and swim.
Her old friend was starting to slip away from her, little by little. She took for granted how much she’d had him to herself for most of her life. Her constant, caring companion. She selfishly never stopped to consider that he might have his own dreams and goals, that his connection to her—and her steadfast determination to remain in the sea—had been holding him back. As much as she missed his nearly ever-present figure in her world (especially in this new world), she knew she had to let him go. She had to be happy for him and his new adventures. Even if she felt a pang at his absence.
“I have a yoga class today, if you want to come,” Willow said, unfolding from her spot under her tree. Iris could swear her skin looked more glowing and her hair more green just from being near the tree.
“After falling on my face the last time? No, thank you. Outside of the water, I fully respect gravity and the hold it has on this form,” Iris said, waving down at herself. “I think I’m heading to the bookstore today.”
“Oh, fun. Have a good time.”
She technically still had one book from the first trip to read. She was telling herself that she was being proactive, going to get more before she ran out. But the fact of the matter was, she was almost soul-crushingly lonely.
As vast as the ocean was, she had never been truly alone. There were the other merfolk, sure, but also millions and millions of other creatures.
