The witch sighed. “Do you need me to call you a ride?”
Jahla snorted and rolled her eyes when the lady’s mouth pressed into a tight, stubborn line.
The tensionin Ollie’s shoulders seemed to bleed away as the rideshare vehicle pulled out of the parking lot, taking the annoyance with it.
“You are too damn nice. I can’t believe you paid for her ride,” Jahla mused from behind him.
“Well, it got rid of her quickly, didn’t it?!” he huffed. “Did you really want to wait for her to call whoever dropped her off here?”
His friend chuckled. “You have a point.”
“Thought so—oh, Noble’s back!” He smiled brightly when he spotted the man’s black truck pulling into the lot. “Perfect timing, too. Red happened to give me a store name and location where we can buy what I need for that potion, just before that woman showed up.”
Jahla eyed him curiously for a moment, and then slowly asked, “The potion for the cluster ghost that you mentioned yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“The store… It’s run by a witch, right?”
“As far as I know it is. Want to go with us?”
She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Why not? I already put a sign up to check out at the youth librarian’s desk,” just as Noble reached them.
Noble eyed them, his brow raising slightly. “Why are you two outside? Something going on?”
“Oh, it was just some annoying, holier-than-thou woman with backwards opinions. No big deal. But you came at the perfect time, as we have a witch store to go to!”
Noble winced. “Uh—actually, I was just stopping by to, uh, drop something off, as I have more things to do.”
Ollie frowned. “Oh…I suppose I could wait for you to get back again?”
“No. No, you don’t need to do that. Go ahead and go without me, as I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
He supposed it made sense. No doubt Noble had fallen behind on doing normal things at home. Where they were going certainly had nothing to do with him not attending, he was sure. Why would it? Noble was a perfectly normal human who had no reason to avoid witches other than him… Yep…
“Ah, sorry, I have been kind of taking up all your time, haven’t I?”
Noble kissed him on the forehead. “I like when you take up my time. I just need to catch up on a few things.”
“What exactly are you dropping off?” Jahla asked pointedly.
The man blinked, looking down at his empty hand before glancing back up. “Ah, I forgot it in my truck. You go ahead and get going. I’m sure you're excited to meet another witch.”
Ollie giggled. “Ah, I hadn’t even thought about that. Oh, maybe I could ask questions and actually get answers!”
“You should. Have fun, Baby. See you after.” With that, Noble turned around and left.
Looking at Jahla, he asked, “You still coming?”
“I’m coming. Your car or mine?”
“Mine, because it’s cuter.”
She snorted. “Debatable.”
He gasped in fake outrage. “You take that back! My bug is so much cuter and you know it.”
Jahla smirked and cheekily drawled, “Depends on what you call cute.”
