Page 28 of Brews and Banishments
“Why?”
“Everytime I go into Ronald’s,” Tessa explained, “Marigold is in there justravingabout you and Gary. It boils my blood everytime.”
Daisy sighed. “They were together long before Gary and I.”
“Doesn’t make it normal for her to try and crash your wedding!”
“Listen, empath-in-training,” Daisy teased, “Marigold had her heart broken more times than most people. Sure, she showed up at the wedding, but Gary turned her down and the entire town saw! Last I heard, her recent engagement went down the tube after she kept bringing up Gary.”
Tessa shrugged. “More reasons why I don’t like her.”
“Just write her name down,” Daisy said with a laugh. “Suspect number one.”
“You know,” Tessa mused while scribbling down the name, “I went into Drusilla Ashford’s store a few weeks ago.”
Daisy glowered. “I haven’t been to Ashford Grocery in months. Not since her daughter got that full-ride scholarship out of state.”
“Good,” Tessa blurted. “Youdon’twant to go.”
“Why?”
Tessa sighed. “You know Drusilla. If anyone can hold a grudge, it’s that woman.”
Leaning back in her seat, Daisy ruminated over Drusilla Ashford’s predicament. In the latter years of high school, Drusilla surprised the entire town by getting accepted into a prestigious school across the country. While expensive, the school provided a scholarship that would’ve pushed Drusilla through her entire academic career.
That is, until Daisy realized that Drusilla stole her entrance essay.
Daisy, perhaps, wouldn’t have bothered telling the truth about the stolen work if its subject wasn’t such a personal topic. Daisy wrote the paper about her struggle growing up without a father, her upbringing done solely by her mother and grandmother. The essay glorified the women in her life while imagining what it would’ve been like to have had her father there all along. Daisy couldn’t let Drusilla take that away from her and use it for ill tidings.
“Needless to say,” Daisy mused, “I think we should write her name down next.”
“Really?”
Daisy pressed her lips together. “She is a woman scorned. You said it yourself - she can hold a grudge.”
Tessa sighed before adding the name onto the short list. “Anyone else?”
“There is one,” Daisy mumbled. “But I don’t want to think about him for one minute.”
“Who?”
Daisy leaned against her hand. The words came out muffled, barely heard in the already cramped room. “Sebastian Crowe.”
“Don’t tell me he’s been bothering you again.”
“Not any more than before,” Daisy replied. A chill crept down her spine as she thought about him. “I-I don’t even want to get into it.”
“That’s okay,” Tessa reassured her, already writing his name now. “We know the guy is a creep and a jerk who can’t understand boundaries. For now,” she paused, reaching up to grab a hold of Daisy’s hand and give it a tight squeeze, “that is more than enough.”
Daisy’s eyes scanned over the three names written on the sheet of paper. Everything happening to her over the past few days was because of one of them, and there were, perhaps, more ill tidings to come. So far, nothing drastically dangerous had happened, but there was no telling what would happen tomorrow or the day after that. Now that her date with Ethan was steadily approaching that evening, the last thing Daisy wanted was to realize that his interest in her was from the potion, or worse. She shook her head. It was still morning, and there was plenty of time to worry before the date.
“This is good,” Tessa suddenly said.
“What is?”
Tessa waved the paper in between them. “We have suspects to question! Isn’t that better than just guessing?” Rising to her feet, she reached onto Daisy and yanked her off the chair next. “Now that we have some names, we’ll question them till we figure out where that potion came from. But the real question is this: do you want to be the good cop or the bad cop?”
Daisy burst out in laughter.
