A Perfect Spell

by Samantha Silver

  “Well,” Xander finally broke the silence. “Good work talk.”

  “Agreed,” I said, my face going pink. “We definitely... work talked.”

  Xander laughed and shook his head, his shoulders relaxing a little. “Sorry, I’ve got to level with you Arti, it’s been a while since I’ve done this.” He gestured between us with an embarrassed smile on his face.

  “This, huh?” I said, feeling a grin spread across my face against my will. It was strange to admit it, but seeing Xander more laid back and almost off his guard was kind of nice. “And what’s this, exactly?”

  “Oh God, which one of us is gonna say it first?” he laughed.

  “You know, I think we’re the only ones who know us who haven’t said it yet,” I said thoughtfully. “We could just keep it that way for now.”

  “Ooh, I like how you think,” he said, narrowing his eyes and nodding, a conspiratorial smile on his handsome face. I found a more natural laugh coming to me, more from the ridiculousness of our situation than anything else.

  “So, why not, if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked, leaning forward and putting my chin on my hand. “Why you don’t get out much, I mean.”

  He raised his eyebrows and gestured vaguely to the outside. “All this. Sometimes I feel like I brought a crime wave with me when I came back to Moonlight Cove. Morgan goes on about how this place used to be so quiet and harmless that I’d go stir-crazy, but it’s been nonstop.”

  “Well, you’re good at your job,” I said. “And even if you and Morgan kind of inherited the job, it’s still a lot to shoulder for just two people.”

  “As if you’re not practically on the force by now,” he said, chuckling. “But thanks, I appreciate that.”

  “That’s the trick, see - if you look good, I look good,” I said, brushing a little imaginary dust off my shoulder with feigned pride.

  “And what about you?” Xander asked, smug to be able to turn the tables.

  “Hey, no fair,” I teased. “I don’t have the excuse of running off to live with humans for a while.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “You’ve got the B&B; you just bring all the interesting people to you without having to leave the house.”

  “I don’t know about that, unless your idea of exotic and vibrant personalities means a bunch of retiree couples. I don’t really get out that much.”

  “Well, you clearly do get out enough to poke around crime scenes,” he pointed out.

  “Yeah, but like, getting out... the way... we’re... out,” I finished, wincing. I groaned. “I’m almost thirty, how am I still this awkward?”

  Xander laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, they didn’t teach us how to be smooth in the military either. Besides, you’re adorable.”

  I wrapped a lock of my hair around my finger and started fiddling with it nervously, waving the compliment off like it was a gnat. “I, uh, have a history of being kind of bad at this sort of thing. It’s like my MO.”

  Don’t tell the story.

  “This one time,” I heard myself saying.

  Don’t do it, idiot!

  “When I was in middle school, I had a huge crush on this guy…”

  What on earth is wrong with you?

  “And so I sat with him at lunch and didn’t say anything the entire time because I couldn’t think of anything to say. So the next day I sat with him again, but this time I just blurted out ‘I have a really good memory.’ And I guess I should have seen it coming, but he just looked me dead in the eye and said ‘prove it.’”

  Xander was listening with rapt attention, but I would have given anything for him to get distracted by a phone call or something. I was at this point using both hands to play with a lock of hair while I told easily the most embarrassing story of my childhood on a first date.

  “And I really did have a good memory, so I just started reciting everything I had ever seen him do or say in the previous few months in really creepy detail, like what he brought for lunch and any time he made a joke in class and how many times he got up to leave class during study hall.”

  Xander was watching me with his mouth hanging open and a smile on his face as the waitress came and set our food down in front of us, but I almost had tunnel vision; I was in way too deep to back out now.

  “I didn’t realize everyone else at the table was listening, but they totally were, and they were all silent for like a minute after I finished, and the guy never talked to me ever again. And that’s the story of my love life, basically.”

  “Amazing,” Xander said, bursting into laughter.

  “I’ve never really been in a serious relationship before,” I admitted, because apparently my brain was just taking over and spilling my every insecurity for no apparent reason. “Not that he was a serious relationship. Or that this is. I mean-” I trailed off, my brain finally realizing that I really, seriously needed to stop talking.

  “Arti, relax,” Xander chuckled. “You’re redder than your chili. Everyone does embarrassing things in middle school. It would be weirder if you didn’t.” There was something oddly comforting about his deep laugh, even though the words weren’t anything special. I smiled.

  “It doesn’t help that this is such a small town, anything you do around people in your age group kind of sticks with you like a social permanent record.” I leaned forward and started stirring my food around. “I’ve gotta say, I was jealous of you when I heard you left to go live in the human world for that reason. A lot more variety in who you get to see, that kind of thing.”

  Xander took a deep breath, tilting his head back and forth dubiously. “Well, I don’t know about that. It’s alright.” He poked at his food a little like I was with mine before he went on. “It’s still weird being back, honestly. I didn’t expect to be here again, and when I did come back, everything was just different enough that it was unfamiliar. People moved on with their lives, the buildings had changed just a bit, some old friends had gotten married and even started having kids…”

  He trailed off, glancing out the window for a moment, and I entirely forgot about airing my embarrassing baggage. I hadn’t given much thought to the idea that Xander had meant to stay gone when he left Moonlight Cove.

  “Do you miss life out there?” I asked.

  “That’s not the part that bothers me so much,” he said. “This is a nice town. With nice people,” he added, smiling at me. “I just burned my bridges when I left, emotionally. So coming back unexpectedly almost makes me feel like I…”

  The word failed hung in the air between us, but neither of us wanted to voice it. I looked at him sympathetically as he gave his head a little shake, then smiled at me. “How’s the chili?”

  On that note, I dug into my food, and Xander did the same with his. The chili was good enough - hearty and filling, and the freshly-baked bread that came with it was a nice touch. We made a little light talk about how things had changed in the town since Xander had left, but the fact that we started things off by venting some of our biggest insecurities put a pall over things.

  It was strange; I’d always enjoyed guessing at what was behind the air of mystery around the town’s towering police officer. I never guessed what I’d find would be so relatable.

  Nor was I prepared for someone almost as awkward as me.

  We finished dinner in a hurry, and once it was over, Xander put cash on the table to cover dinner with a very generous tip.

  “Well,” he said with a forced smile, hands on his hips. “This has been fun, but I’ve got to run by the station one last time tonight to pick up something I forgot.”

  “That’s fine,” I said quickly, standing up with him and walking outside to our brooms. “I’ve got to check in with the guest and make sure everything’s cool and good.”

  “Great!” he said.

  “Great,” I said, and we stood there, shifting uncomfortably in front of each other, neither one of us sure what to do.

  “Well, see you tomorrow,” he said with a sm
ile before mounting his broom and taking off.

  I waved after him, then wiped my face with my hand before swinging my leg over my broom.

  Moon help me, I was going to die a spinster, wasn’t I?

  Chapter 13

  As I rode my broomstick across town back to the B&B, I couldn’t help but feel a pile of mixed emotions. On the one hand, that definitely could have gone worse. Neither one of us said anything too overly embarrassing, and we somehow managed to keep the awkward pauses to a minimum during our conversation. But on the other hand, it had ended without so much as a hug. And it wasn’t like Xander and I had not crossed that boundary in the past. I could still clearly recall the time he put an arm around me, how warm he was, how pleasing I found his scent of mingled cologne and faint manly musk. His thick, powerful muscles folding me in, holding me close, making me feel like I was something precious…

  “My moon. I’ve really got it bad, don’t I?” I groaned to myself.

  I wanted that again. That hug. I wanted to find out what it felt like to be that close to him more often, to be able to hold his hand or take his arm. I wanted to be the one he turned to when he was feeling down and the first one he called when something good happened. Normally, I had tended to look at Xander like he was invincible. In all the time I had known him, he had seemed so competent, so put-together. So stable. Like there was nothing troubling going on behind those blue eyes. Just hard work and excellence. And that was the vibe he put out into the world: a tough but smooth police officer who wasn’t afraid of anything, who didn’t shy away from getting his hands dirty. He was an overachiever and kind of a workaholic, too dedicated to the job to really put much effort into the other aspects of his life.

  But the more I got to know him, the more I realized that there was much more going on in that handsome head of his. Xander was not one-hundred-percent the simple guy I had thought he was when we first started working together. He was a complicated man with a mysterious background, a past he was clearly trying to leave behind. I wondered what had happened out there in the wild blue yonder. What had drawn him away from Moonlight Cove in the first place? Why had he wanted to leave here so badly? And if he did, in fact, want to stay gone, what could have possibly gone down out there to make him come back now?

  I wondered what - or who - he was running from. Suddenly, my mind flashed back to George Frigga, for some reason. George had run away from his past, too, and returned to the one place he seemed to think was safe: Moonlight Cove. I supposed it was easy enough to understand why one might think that way. After all, up until recently, our sleepy little seaside town had been one of the safest places in the country. Isolated, but not in a dangerous way. Living in Moonlight Cove felt similar to how I felt as a little girl when I used to hide under the bed sheets in the middle of the night, staying up later than I was allowed to, reading countless books by the light of my finger. It was that kind of cozy: comfortable, safe, warm.

  Although right now, this place was anything but warm. The snow was starting to harden slightly; this was definitely a snowier year than normal. Usually, being on the coast, we got maybe a few days of snow, and it was almost always melted by lunchtime. The fact that it was sticking for a few days was definitely out of the ordinary. And it wasn’t just the weather that was making the place feel colder than usual. It was everything. The atmosphere, the crime, the quarantine. What on earth had happened here to change everything so quickly? Perhaps Xander had brought back a little bit of the outside world with him when he returned home. The thought made me want to shudder. As boring as it could be here sometimes, with the dependable monotony and pattern of daily life, I would not have dreamed of trading in the reliable dullness for big-city excitement.

  I even felt a little twang of guilt for going out on a date tonight with Xander. There was a mystery to be solved, and here we were chatting and eating diner food instead of working on solving little Tina’s case. However, I quickly reminded myself that I was not a real detective. I had a day job. I had friends, family, a guest, a familiar - a social and professional life that I couldn’t just completely sideline in order to keep working tirelessly on the case. No matter how desperately I wanted to solve the mystery and rescue Tina Frost before any real harm could come to her, I also needed to remember that I was a human being, and I needed time to do my own thing.

  I took a deep breath and instantly started yawning halfway through. I was exhausted. It had been a long day, and I was more than ready to fall into my bed and conk out for as long as my body and my duties would allow. As I pulled up to the house and hopped off my broom to walk up the steps to the front door, I smiled. I was eager to curl up in bed with Luna and let the moonlight stream in through the window, watching over me and recharging me while I slept.Opening the door, I stepped inside, instantly confused at the darkness and the strange fragrance in the air. As I shut the door behind me I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. It was evening, of course, but it still seemed a little early for Lara and Daphne to have turned all the lights off like this. Then, as I hung up my jacket and walked out of the foyer into the living room, I noticed that the reason the air smelled so nice was because there were a ton of little aromatic tea candles lit all over the place. The place looked like a weird constellation of bright flickering lights in the darkness. I looked around in confusion. Where did all these candles come from?

  “What is going on in here?” I called out, turning in a slow circle as I looked for signs of life in my house. “Who lit all these candles? Lara? Daphne? Luna?”

  I heard an exaggerated sigh and soft, quick footsteps. A figure came stalking out of the kitchen and my heart thumped like crazy, my eyes going wide. The silhouette didn’t match Lara or Daphne. There was an intruder in my house. I hastily pointed my finger in front of me, poised to attack if necessary. But my moon, I hoped it would not be necessary.

  “Stop! Who’s there?” I hissed, trembling slightly.

  The figure stopped short and put their hands up. Recognition started to twinkle back into my mind as the figure spoke exasperatedly. “Artemis Mani, you put that finger down right now!”

  “Mom?!” I exclaimed as I let my arms fall slack at my sides.

  She stepped out of the darkness, holding a candle to light up her face just enough for me to make out her familiar features. Annoyance and disappointment were written all over them.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked incredulously. “What’s all this?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, I thought I was doing you a favor, but I guess not.”

  I blinked at her in awe. “What? What do you mean? What favor?”

  She gestured broadly, then held up her candle for emphasis. “The candles! I made them.”

  “Oh. Um, okay? But why? I mean, they’re lovely, mom. But why are they all lit? Inside my house?” I inquired. I was starting to wonder if some of the craziness that was sparking this sudden crime spree in town was also infecting my mother’s brain or something.

  “I was trying to set the mood,” mom replied, as though it were obvious.

  I squinted at her dubiously. “What mood? Why?”

  “Arti, you can be so dense sometimes. I know you went out on a date with that handsome police chief tonight,” she said in an almost singsong voice. I could feel my cheeks blushing bright pink, and found myself actually grateful for the dim lighting right now.

  “Okay, Mom. First of all, why is everyone in this town so fixated on my love life or lack thereof? Second of all, why would you ‘set a mood’ here in the living room? What did you think was going to happen? Xander isn’t even with me right now,” I said.

  “Well, yes, I can see that now,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “What happened? Did it go badly? Why didn’t he come back here with you?”

  I groaned. “Because it was a first date, okay? It’s nothing serious. It may never be something serious. What did you think was going to happen tonight?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just assume
d, since you two have been working so closely together, there might be some… oh, don’t make me say it.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her and crossed my arms. “No. Say it.”

  “I just thought maybe you two were experiencing some, you know, sexual tension!” Mom burst out, nearly dropping the candle in her hands.

  My eyes went wide and my jaw fell open. “Mom.”

  “What? You can’t possibly blame me for thinking that. I mean, how much longer are you and Xander going to do this silly little dance before you make it official? I’m not getting any younger and since Diana is so wrapped up in her job at the Academy, I just figured you are currently my best shot at getting a grandchild.”

  “Mom!” I gasped, shaking my head. “Well. It’s finally happened.”

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “You have finally, truly, completely lost your mind,” I said flatly.

  She pouted. “Oh, please. Don’t be such a prude. It’s not like I’m the only one waiting around for you and the chief to finally get together. The whole town knows.”

  I closed my eyes and face-palmed. “Great. Awesome. Thanks for reminding me. You know, it’s not easy trying to take it slow and do things right when you have an entire audience watching it all happen. Talk about stage fright. Come on, did you and Dad have a bunch of nosy people watching you on your first date? Huh?”

  She looked sheepish at that point. “Alright. I get it. You want me to back off,” she admitted sadly.

  I gave her a charitable smile and walked over to kiss her on the cheek. “I do appreciate the candles. I’m sure they smell really nice individually but altogether it’s a little much, don’t you think?”

  She chuckled, nodding. “You got me there. I thought that since they’re all floral scents, it would just smell like a bouquet if I put them all together. But instead it just kind of smells like you’re being assaulted by a group of sentient flowers.”

  I burst out laughing, feeling relieved to have broken the tension. “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate. Look, mom, I’m trying to juggle a lot of stuff right now. If I can find time to date, I will. And if this thing with Xander does develop into something serious, that’s great. But if not, that’s okay, too. But I need some space to breathe and make those decisions for myself, alright? I’m a grown up and I’ll get a boyfriend when I’m good and ready,” I explained to her gently.