Chapter 22 — Gesticulation

We sat in my favorite booth. It was set in one of the back corners, next to a window which let us see the shops across the road, mine included on the far side of the block. The table also happened to be the furthest from Sarah and Dave’s cash register and office which probably held a computer, and I wanted to stay as far away from it as I could. The kitchens sat even further back and should be safe unless I was actively slinging spells.

“Now you’re a welcome new face,” Sarah said looking at Lana then beaming at me like she was my proud mother, and I’d finally found a worthwhile girl to bring home. I began to slightly regret my decision to come here for breakfast.

I cleared my throat, “Sarah, this is Lana, I met her at Rex’s, and we’ve hit it off since then.” I left off that it had only been a day before. Sarah smiled knowingly and I considered what she must be thinking about us, about being together getting breakfast so early. I felt my cheeks coloring. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed it was just that this was Sarah and what she was assuming was wrong, but nothing I could change.

“I just couldn’t let him go after trouncing him at Rex’s,” Lana said. “I wanted to make sure he was okay, and then I couldn’t stop.”

Sarah quirked her head to the side not getting the joke because Lana didn’t look like she could beat the crap out of anyone, much less me. But she smiled, nonetheless. “That I’ll have to ask Rex about the next time I see him. You should know Cal is sort of the bachelor of the market district. We’ve all tried to find him someone. I’m glad he’s finally getting around to doing it himself.”

“Wait what?” I managed.

Sarah gave me a knowing look and patted my shoulder like I was some lost kitten who had finally begun taking care of itself. “Oh dearie, your cheeks are going flush, is it terribly cold outside?” she asked, looking at me then to the street out the window.

“No, it’s not that bad,” I said, clearing my throat. “Could I get a menu—for Lana?”

The light above us sputtered, then died. My embarrassment caused havoc to my personal aura control. Shit. I felt a little bad, but Sarah had been unknowingly disturbing my calm.

“Again,” Sarah said, looking to the dead bulb. “I swear this building wasn’t wired correctly.”

“Does that happen often?” Lana asked, eyes roving over me, but the question clearly directed at Sarah. “The same thing happened at Cal’s last night.” She finished with a wondering voice.

“It must have been something with the breaker,” I added. “Knocked out everything in my shop.”

“It does,” Sarah said with a concerned look on her face. “But I just put a new bulb in this socket last week. Must have been a lemon.”

“It’s fine, I actually like it better without the light,” I said.

“Well, you’re going to have to like it. We’re out of spares and in thirty minutes it will be too busy in here to change it.” Sarah placed her hands on her hips. “What were we talking about… Ahh, a menu! Let me grab one.”

“So, was that you?” Lana asked once Sarah was a good distance away as she pointed a finger up at the light.

I nodded, “Not on purpose though.”

“Clearly,” she laughed, “But it doesn’t only happen when you use magic?”

“No, it’s my presence, my aura. Especially if I lose focus.”

Her grin quirked up one side of her lips in a way I was finding increasingly enjoyable. “Lost focus huh? A little light banter was all it took to throw you off?”

I gulped unintentionally. My throat being dry made it louder than it otherwise would have been. Lana’s grin turned into a full-fledged smile. She took her hands and began putting her hair back into a ponytail, using the same band on her wrist she’d used at Rex’s.

“It’s been a long time,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Things with my last girlfriend didn’t end well.”

“Long time?”

“Since I had a girlfriend, and others knew and could razz me about it,” I amended. “I’m not used to it and Sarah has sort of appointed herself as my adopted mom around here.”

“How long has it been?” Lana said, eyes curious.

I wanted to kick myself for how stupid it seemed, and my hesitance at sharing, but relationships were built on trust and honesty. Vulnerability. I hated to be vulnerable, my life was literally full of secrets and danger. Normally when I felt vulnerable, I killed whatever creature made me feel that way. That solution wasn’t an option here. The question made me realize how long I’d been pushing others besides Fren away. I generally kept things brief and surface-level.

“Eight years,” I said as it dawned on me. I’d been in high school, hadn’t even jumped into the more intense training and really hadn’t had many other friends at the time given my cloistered life at the ranch.

Her eyes widened slightly, but there was no judgment in them.

“What about you?”

“Two,” she said quickly. “It ended badly as well. Mixed with everything else… I needed a fresh start. It was something I jumped into, and it wasn’t what I needed at the time.”

I nodded, unsure what to say. I was probably another person that she would look back on the same way. I was likely far more than she’s bargaining for, I thought with a pang of regret.

“Well, here’s to a new start for each of us,” I said as Sarah approached with two glasses of ice water.

There were so many things I needed to tell Lana. Things that would probably make her run for the hills. For starters, I was going to live for a long, long time. If I managed to survive. Also dating me did have certain considerations. Many she was already thinking about. I couldn’t simply go to the movies or share most electronic media couples talked about or spent time together consuming. As a wizard, my very presence was threatening. She would be a target if she was close to me. Hell, the pixies had attacked her simply because it was a fortified position with the doors open. Or… they hadn’t, and I was more of a target than I knew?

I thought back on the events of the past few days. Phillis had been killed soon after I left after having had that dream, then the attack at my home. Were the events too much of a coincidence? Either the creature that was killing people in the mountains had suddenly changed tactics to attack someone indoors, or it had come looking for me? Maybe to frame me or warn me off hunting it if it was a being of some sort? If so, it was a far better predator than I was, and it was intelligent. I still had no idea what it even was other than being supernatural in some sense given what I’d felt from the attack site I’d found while hiking.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

What if the creature had some connection to the pixies? I didn’t like that train of thought. It meant the creature was a thinking and reasoning being from the fae. Something with influence and tied to the queen of darkness. That could put Lana in a lot of danger.

“Where did you just go?” Lana said, holding the menu. I hadn’t even realized Sarah had dropped it off.

“Uh, yeah. I was just thinking,” I said. “About all of this.”

“Yeah, that was clear. What did you arrive at?”

“There is so much you don’t know. Things you deserve to know if we’re going to be in any sort of relationship.” I could feel my hesitance building at telling her what she deserved to know. It was a coward’s feeling and I smothered it. Lana deserved to know everything.

Lana’s brow furrowed.

“Things you need to know to even consider a relationship with me.”

She nodded, eyes widening slightly. She looked afraid.

“It has nothing to do with you. You’re incredible in like every way I could conceive. Great even... But you may not want to stick around me once you know it all.” Her posture relaxed a little but before she could say something trite like it didn’t matter, or that she could overlook things before she actually knew what I meant, I continued. “And I was thinking about—” I looked around to make sure I hadn’t missed anyone else coming in and sitting near us or Sarah doing something nearby, “The possible connections between the disappearances and attacks in the woods, the creature I’ve been hunting, and the pixies last night.”

“What about them?”

“What if they aren’t all separate events? What if I’m being hunted now and that’s why it attacked Phillis at the inn yesterday.”

Lana’s eyes never left mine.

“You may want to stay clear of me for a while, until I figure it out. It could be dangerous. Last night you were stopping by to say ‘hi’ not to get dragged into this. It will always be dangerous around me, but I’m afraid it might be even more so right now.”

We paused for a moment as Sarah approached across the shop to take our orders and to drop off two coffees. My heart was racing as I waited to hear Lana’s response. I knew the smart choice would be for her to take off.

What I wasn’t ready for was the fierceness of her answer once Sarah left, “First of all. I didn’t get dragged into anything. I liked you at Rex’s. You're are handsome, clearly active, and… well I have a good feeling about you. I trust my intuition. You literally said this morning that I have a gift with that sort of thing.” She said the last like a threat and that I shouldn’t argue with her. “I don’t show up at any guy’s places at night because I was bored or clueless. I knew where things might lead, and I was willing to see what happened, but I also wanted to not set up any sort of expectation.”

I gulped again, really wishing the night had gone differently.

“I also have reasons that I need to learn what you know. I’m not ready to discuss them now, much less here,” she said, looking over the shop. One of her eyes grew rimed with a tear. “But I know you can help me. I felt the safest I have felt in years at your store last night, part of that is what you can do, the other part, is you.”

I sat in silence. Reflecting on her words. We had a lot more to discuss, but the elation I felt was something I had yearned for.

“And Fren... Actually, it’s probably mostly Fren,” she said with a sarcastic smile as I took too long to answer.

I grinned too, knowing there was actual truth to her last statement. I felt the same. Lana had something in her past dealing with my side of the street. I didn’t know what it was. But if she needed help, I would wade through monsters, blood, and gore to give it to her. She was strong enough something simple wouldn’t scare her away and fear was the impression I got. She was frightened by something from the past that she didn’t understand.

“Okay,” I said. “But I want to give you all the information. I’m an open book, and you need to hear it before you… or well we consider anything more. We’ll still be friends, and I can help you with whatever you need. Don’t feel like… well, like this all has to work out to get it.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “But only if you stop thinking you’re the only one with baggage and that I’ll run away. You might run from me.”

We had a lovely breakfast. As other diners came in, we turned to more normal discussion topics. Cats or dogs, Jobs we would like to do, places we’d been. Lana was surprisingly well traveled, and I could tell she missed her father a great deal. It seemed he had been the impetus for many of her hobbies, trips, and life goals. She’d been close to and relied on him deeply. I found out more about her job in Arizona with the forest service. She’d been working there until just before moving here. It explained her tan skin, even this time of year. She’d only had a few orientation days at the new place and started in truth on Monday morning. It was part time, three days a week, but she hadn’t wanted or needed anything more and with her inheritance from her grandmother it would be enough to cover her expenses.

Sarah was busy taking orders for the kitchens when we got up to leave. Dave, her husband, would likely be in the kitchens or the office doing the behind-the-scenes work. I left a tip like always, even though Sarah had expressly told me more than once that as a regular I didn’t need to. I always did, despite how tight funds had been in the past, I wasn’t a beggar and I felt responsible for the power problems they had due to me, so I tried to be as generous as I could manage.

Another waiter was waiting the tables at the far side of the small store. She was a wonderful woman named Arleen who had moved here from Virginia. She was an immigrant from Haiti who had moved to Boise when her son got a scholarship at Boise State playing football. I waved on the way out and told her to let Sarah know the food was amazing as always.

“Well, what is this?” A gruff voice I knew all too well said as we stepped out of the shop.

“Good morning, Rex,” I said turning to see the man looking us over carefully. We were standing close, and he definitely recognized the shirt Lana was wearing.

“Very good morning it seems,” he said, clearly meaning the words for me. “You took my encouragement to really embrace the new students to heart?”

“Shut up Rex,” I said with a grin. “It’s too early for your jokes.”

Lana laughed.

Rex gave me a more than awkward wink and I wished for the first time that I didn’t know so many of the other shop owners around here. They were all much more concerned about my love life than I had imagined they could ever be. Hell, were they having late night chats about who too hook me up with? A few more than awkward encounters came to mind of people coming into my shop having ‘heard’ about me by their aunt, or friend, or someone else… and it dawned on me. They had all been trying to hook me up, likely trying to arrange things behind my back as a group. It was thoughtful but also incredibly annoying. I’d been so blind.

The stoplight on the street corner let out a loud buzzzzzt then died, the lights going blank.

I reigned in my emotions again, normally I was much better at it.

We all looked upward at the light.

“Well, ain't that the darndest thing,” Rex said, taking a sip of his coffee before turning back to us. “Hey—I heard something went down at your shop last night?” He barely kept himself from an improper joke at realizing his own words, “­—Police and everything, or so I heard.”

Lana nudged her hip into mine with a questioning look at the light.

“Yes. Attempted burglary,” I stammered, answering both of them. Lana grinning as I did so. She seemed to really like me screwing with electronics.

“And you let them get away? Have I trained you at all?” Rex nearly spilled his coffee even though he had a lid with the jerk his arms made at the thought of burglars getting away.

“They had a gun,” I said, trying to remember the details of our cover story.

“He was very brave,” Lana said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “And we’re simply glad everyone was safe.”

I thanked her nonverbally for not joining in, or frankly not running off with how annoying all my local friends were being.

“Safety is paramount…” Rex said, stroking his chin, “But I worry about the next people they might run into. I did hear you tussled with one of them, hopefully, gave them what for?”

“He did. Well, enough I didn’t even need to jump in and help.”

Rex grinned, “Man, I wish I could have seen it. See, you really need to install some security cameras in your shop, even with your proclivities,” he said, gesturing a finger at my chest. “They can deter that sort of thing.”

“Probably wouldn’t work long given the power issues around here,” Lana said with a secretive smile.

“You’re observant,” Rex said, gesturing to the light. “Place is plagued with that sort of thing. We should all go in on it and hire an electrician to fix it all. I have lights burning out like crazy,” Rex shook his head. “I’ll call this in,” he said, gesturing to the traffic light. “Before someone gets in an accident. I better see you both in an hour for class.”

“I might have to miss today,” I said, definitely not wanting more of Rex this early in whatever our relationship was at this point. “I’ve got to get my shop back into working order.”

“Me too,” Lana said. “I’m helping.”

Rex gave us both a flat, knowing stare. “Well. Next time then. Have fun,” he pulled out his phone and began a call as I quickly led us away before I did his phone in as well.

I glanced back and got a huge thumbs-up while Rex mouthed, “You’ve got stones man.”

I turned back to our walk, trying to get the gesticulation he had made after the words with his hand out of my mind forever. I might need to pick up bleach for my eyes after getting Fren his coke. I also needed to find a new gym because Rex was going to be more than annoying the next few weeks. The only problem was, he would literally hunt me down if I went anywhere else.

We made our way back to the shop to gather Lana’s purse and her shirt upstairs. As I led the way in through the front door of the shop, we found Kate.