Seeing that the woman was right, I stood to follow them, leaving our elvish table mates to argue with one another about proper behavior at a wedding.
“That pretentious, weasel-faced prat…” Arek, the goblin man, grumbled when I joined the line behind them.
I nodded in silent agreement.
“Ignore them, dear ones,” his wife said to both of us. “Your dress is beautiful, honey. I love the shimmer,” she told me before she squeaked out an excited, “Oh, Arek, look! They’ve got roast pig puffs!”
I looked down at my dress and quickly realized that, though Alistair had never been around me when I’d worn this outfit, the shimmer she’d complimented was mothman dust. His sparkly scales had so thoroughly coated all of my things that nothing in my life could escape them. I felt a private smile spread across my face at the thought. I long ago stopped caring about the glittery coating that came away on my skin whenever I touched him. Every time I found the iridescent specks in my house or on my jacket, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. They were a private reminder of the adorable, imposing, winged man who left them behind wherever he went.
“Do you like roast pig puffs too?” the goblin woman asked, misinterpreting my smile. She bore a lighter colored skin than her husband, a dusky pink color with the usual brighter pink coloration on her nose and ear tips that most goblins seemed to sport. Her eyes, like my friend Stella’s, were a deep, soft brown. “I just love them with the bitter fern sauce,” she continued. “They always hit the spot at weddings!”
“You’ll have to show me how to eat one,” I responded politely as I picked up my plate, and her eyes positively lit up with curiosity.
“You’ve never had one? Oh, you must try it. And the braised oyster mushrooms too,” she added as she began to load down both of our plates, chattering about the different goblin foods all the while.
“Oh, now you’ve gone and gotten her started,” her husband muttered good-naturedly.
Luckily, Felis was gone from the table when we returned, and neither he nor his wife reappeared while we ate. Arek’s wife—Edis, she told me—talked animatedly all through dinner about the food and the wedding and how she was distantly related to Stella’s family. I sat quietly, stuffing my face and making appropriate noises at appropriate intervals, and was grateful for both her good cheer and the fact that I didn’t really need to contribute much to the conversation. Arek wasn’t much of a talker either, so it seemed that she was used to running the show. I liked her immensely, but by the end of the evening, I was exhausted. It made me grateful for the comfortable silence that often existed between Alistair and me when we sat together while enjoying his rooftop garden. It made me wish—yet again—that he’d been the one I invited to the wedding as my guest. Although, I was glad he hadn’t been exposed to the rude elf’s remarks, and I guessed that he probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the pig puffs as much as I did. I left as soon as was sociallyacceptable, stopping by the wedding party’s table to make my goodbyes.
“Thank you so much for coming, Lilith,” Stella said as I wrapped her in a hug. Her dress was a light pink organza confection that set off her pretty mauve colored complexion. She looked like the world’s most adorable cupcake. “It really means a lot to me to have you here. I’m sorry more of our school friends didn’t attend to keep you company. I hope the seating arrangement wasn’t objectionable.”
“Edis and Arek were wonderful,” I told her, the only true thing I could say about the seating arrangement. “And the food was delicious. Thank you for allowing me to celebrate you and Ryne.”
Since I had a little more time than I’d expected due to leaving the wedding early, I decided to stop by my parent’s house afterwards. This way, my day wouldn’t be so packed tomorrow if Merri still wanted to do something.
“Don’t you worry about that leaky window,” my dad said as we were finishing up our visit. “I’ll make sure to stop by and check that your super has gotten it patched up nice and tight.”
My mom took my empty cup of tea from my hands and went bustling off to the sink with it.
“Mom, I can do that myself,” I called after her. “She doesn’t need to clean up after me like I’m a guest,” I told my dad as I collected my napkin. “It makes me feel like a stranger. And are you sure you have time to do that this week? Downtown is a little bit out of your way.”
He waved me off and patted my shoulder. “I’ll make time. And she’s your mom, you know how she is.”
“Do you want to take some of your plants home with you?” My mom popped back into the room, practically like a jack-in-the-box, carrying one of my leather ferns. “Surely you must miss them. Isn’t your new place just utterly dull without them? Do you want to go through your old bedroom and see if there’sanything you want to take? I can go get your bins. We can go through them right now.”
It was nine o’clock at night. “No, not right now, Mom,” I said with a groan. She’d been caring for my plants—which I appreciated—having moved them in among the dozens of her own plants. “I have plants, don’t worry.” The pothos that Alistair had given me was happy and thriving in my living room, and my apple tree was living its best life on his rooftop. I stood up to hug her. “And I don’t want the bins. Please, just throw them out. Or donate them. Or I’ll throw them away next time I come.” I’d tried to get rid of it all before, but she was horrified at the thought of disposing of my childhood macaroni art and yellowed trophies or the old, mangled toys that I didn’t even remember playing with. So now, every time I came over, she tried to get me to take them home with me. Going through the old bins was the last thing I wanted to do on a quick trip home to visit.
“No! That’s your stuff! I can’t toss out your stuff. What if your kids want it someday? I’ll just keep it in your old closet until you want it.”
I had never really wanted kids of my own, but for some reason, the first image that popped into my mind was of me trying to cram a caterbaby into one of my old jumpers with not enough armholes. I shook off the old thought and sighed before kissing her on the forehead. We would have this conversation for the rest of my life, I was sure. “I love you, Mom,” I said as I gripped her tightly. “Thank you for taking care of my plants.”
I was just so tired.
My stop by Blossomand Bonsai the next morning was quiet and uneventful. Melantha was doing a great job filling in for me, and I brought her a cup of her favorite coffee as thanks. Thestock boys were all new hires I didn’t know, and it was weird not having a grumpy dryad drifting to-and-fro among the plants. My uncle was always pleased to see me, of course, but they were all busy getting the store ready to open and I didn’t want to be a distraction. I air-kissed them both, checked to make sure the current financial records were satisfactory—they were—and headed back home to check in with Merri.
Once I was home, I pulled the locket containing the strand of Merri’s hair from the string of leather that I kept them on and used it with a calling stone to summon a spectral messenger. The little spirits needed some kind of anchor—a little piece of the person you were sending them to—to be able to find their destination. Because of this, we couldn’t call for just anyone; it had to be someone we were close enough to for them to gift you a piece of their person. It occurred to me that if Alistair had been capable of using the calling stones, I had enough of his ‘glitter’ in my clothes to be able to send him a message, with or without him purposefully giving me a piece of his fluff. Unfortunately, the older forest dwelling races, like mothmen and dryads, didn’t have the type of magic used to power the little stones. I felt a little glum that I couldn’t send him a quick message to ask if he’d gone to yoga without me or what the mushrooms were up to.
“Hello, Merri, I just wanted to see how your little one was doing and if you still wanted to try to get together before I leave tomorrow morning,” I told the dancing wisps of light that spun in front of me as the little spectral collected my message for her.
Merri’s response was immediate. “Hi, Lilith! Bartleby’s doing great. So much better this morning. I hope the wedding went well.I wanted to see if you care to join us at The King’s Ace for dinner this evening at seven!”
“Oh, uh.” I stumbled over my response because I’d expected her to want to know more about the wedding since she hadn’t been able to go, but I recovered quickly. “Sure, of course. I loveKing’s Ace.” But something about her wording was unexpected. “Who is ‘us’? Is Chadwick coming?”
“Oh, no, he’s going to be playing a game of paddle ball with his friends,” she responded dismissively. “My upline told me to get some of my friends together this weekend to talk about a business opportunity with you, and she’s going to be explaining how it all works to everyone. And I think you are justso amazing.Iimmediatelythought of you when she asked and how you would be perfect for joining my business with me. How would you like to pick your own hours and work from home selling the hottest new weight loss shakes?”
I completely deflated. Here I’d thought I was getting together with an old friend to catch up with her about her moving back home to her old city and her new little family and recent marriage, but she was really just trying to rope me into some kind of multi-level marketing scheme. “Merri, do you even know what I do for a living?” I asked, my confusion and disappointment coloring my words, as it was rapidly becoming clear to me that she had no idea who I was these days and didn’t actually care.
“Well, no.” Her bravado faltered before she found it again, continuing with a false brightness. “But everyone is open to change. You could even do this in your spare time and keep your day job if you wanted!”
