Page 9 of Love At First Fright
“Oh, for sure. I’ve already started working on an idea about a parasite cuckoo alien species that takes over a woman’s body and mimics pregnancy, I’ll send you my draft when it’s done.”
“Fucking creepy, I love it,” Rosemary replied, plonking herself down on a stool and tucking into a muffin. The blue juice from the berries had seeped into the sponge, just the way she liked it. Eating it, she felt her head clear, the jet lag from the early-morning flight fading away. She was pepped up, wide-awake.
“A magical anti-jet-lag muffin? Dina, you’re a genius,” she said, laughing as the witch tossed back her hair.
“I actually have something for you, which I must give you before we start gossiping like a bunch of old women, otherwise I know I’ll forget it.” Dina popped into her pantry, rummaging around for a moment, then placed a pale cream pillar candle in front of Rosemary. Rosemary leant forwards, inhaling the candle’s scent.
“Lavender and basil?” she asked.
“You have a good nose,” Dina replied. “I was just thinking about you in that old manor house the other day, and it got me worrying. What if there are some weird ghosts or remnants you don’t want attention from? It’ll be hard to avoid them if you’re sleeping there. So, I looked in my spell book, and I found this recipe for a protection candle. If you light it in the room where you sleep, it will keep out any unwanted spirits.”
“What about unwanted actors?” Rosemary joked.
“Already on your mind, is he?” Dina said, at the same time that Immy added, “If he’s in your room then he’s very muchwanted,isn’t he?”
She should have known better than to mention Ellis Finch around these two, they were plotting something.
“How do I know this isn’t some kind of matchmaking candle that is going to have all the single men and women running to my location like a sexy GPS?”
“You’ll just have to trust me…though a sexy candle is a good idea, I need to write that down.”
And just like that, the three of them fell into easy habits, laughing over hot chocolate and muffins, Immy showing them photos of their adorably chubby godchildren Sidney and Ellen, named after two of the greatest Final Girls in horror history, and Dina getting their thoughts on flower arrangements, though the big day wasn’t for another ten months. She was having a late-August wedding.
Rosemary had almost forgotten how much better it was to be with her best friends in person, instead of seeing their faces in the glare of her phone screen. She wished there was a way she could see them more, but she couldn’t just up and move to England, could she? After all, she was currently a nomad without an apartment, and she could work from any place she could plug in her laptop. She would enjoy it while it lasted.
“You’re never going to believe who was in here the other day,” Dina said.
“Who?”
“Noah.”
Rosemary groaned.
“He asked after you.” Dina smirked. Rosemary groaned louder.
“Who is Noah again?” Immy asked. “My sleep-addled brain doesn’t remember.”
“Ah, that’s because we never used to say his name, only his nickname.”
Immy looked puzzled for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “Oh my fucking god. The dungeon master.”
Noah, aka the dungeon master, was the man who showed Rosemary the proverbial kink ropes, back when she was living briefly in England for her semester abroad. He hadn’t called himself the dungeon master, but when Immy and Dina found out about his penchant for playing RPGs on the side, the nickname had stuck. They hadn’t beentogethertogether—they just had an arrangement, and it worked for both of them, or so Rosemary had thought at the time.
“How did he seem?” Rosemary finally gathered the courage to ask.
“Good, I think. It took him a moment to place me, I reckon, and then he seemed a little shy.”
“Well, you know what they say, it’s always the shy ones.” Immy laughed. “What happened between you two again? I don’t remember him being a bad guy.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Rosemary said. “He had the whole sweet and gentle but dominant in bed vibe that you know I’m a fan of, and we had that trust between us that was so important to have, and I learned so much about what I want from our time together…” She trailed off.
“But…?” Immy asked.
“But I think in the end he thought that trust was something more than it was.”
Dina squeezed her hand. “Our little commitment-phobe.”
“I just need the right person. Maybe you should do another one of your tea leaf readings for my love life and see what it says.”
