Mr. & Mrs. Witch by Gwenda Bond

Author:Gwenda Bond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Nine Months Ago

16

The Goddess and the Professor

Savvy alights on the sidewalk of a quiet block nearish the square in Decatur. Her pocket broom shrinks down to a spray of twigs and she stashes it in her skirt. Making sure no one is around to see her, she drops the spell that hides her from view and then fidget-smooths her casual black-and-white dress. Obviously, it has pockets—witches must have pockets. Where else does an everyday pocket broom go?

She decided not to go full-on dressed up, because then someone might ask what the occasion is and …

Griffin might not come. She probably shouldn’t be here either.

She isn’t used to being nervous in her own city. Honestly, she’s not used to being nervous, period. She knows who she is. She likes her life. If that missing-something feeling thrums inside her, a chord plucked on strings, well, that’s fine. She has what she needs: her community and her job. Her mother would lose it if she knew what Savvy was up to or that her idle daydreams in the past month have been about a certain sexy professor with black hair and glasses. And this night.

So if Griffin doesn’t show, which she is training herself to expect, then it’s no big deal. Him not coming means he will never be aware that she did show up. She can live with that. Because of course she can.

She’s only spent time with the man twice. This evening can’t be as important as its looming silhouette in her mind indicates. He’d probably just turn out to be another boring jerk once they tried to have an actual relationship. It’ll be a good thing if he stands her up.

Right.

Savvy shakes her head and walks toward the store. As she gets closer, there’s more sidewalk traffic, people out enjoying a mild winter evening. There’s just enough noise that she almost misses the small, curious “Meow.” She catches it, though, and turns to look for the source. Second nature.

She barely catches the shape in the shadow of the alley, but then the rail-thin black cat moves a fraction and the streetlight reflects on green eyes. She steps a little closer to get a better look.

The cat, young but not quite a kitten, stares up at her. “Meow,” the cat says again, as if talking straight to Savvy.

Savvy hesitates. She’s timed her arrival to be just at seven o’clock. Not early, not late. A stray cat being out here isn’t that unusual. This could even be somebody’s house cat that wandered too far.

She can give a nudge to send the cat home, if that’s the case. When she moves closer and crouches so she’s on the cat’s level, it scampers back a bit.

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispers, and the cat continues to look at her, tilting its head a fraction. “Go away home now. Go on. Find your way home.”

There. At least she’s done a good deed for the night, no matter how the rest of it goes.

She stands and walks back out to the sidewalk and the rest of the way to Little Shop’s door.

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