Edeline

As I got closer to my store, I saw a man standing in front of glass door, stooping slightly to peer inside the dark store.

I raised an eyebrow as I walked closer. Was this man a customer that had arrived early or a robber scouting out a new location? A bemused grin grew on my face as I recognized Aster, the young man that had introduced himself a few weeks ago, but left just a few moments after he had volunteered. What he was doing here now?

His shoulders seemed to slump as he straightened from his position looking inside, turning to go, but freezing as he caught sight of me.

“Oh, ah, hi” he said, eyes wide in embarrassment, but his shoulders had straightened from the slumped posture.

“Hi” I said back, a bit unsure of what to say. Unfortunately while I had plenty of experience talking to women, men were raised a bit differently. But the past few decades had balanced the scales a bit, if not as much as would be wanted. “Is there anything you need…?”

Aster bit his lip, averting his eyes before looking back at me. “I was just wondering how your store was doing, did you manage to set everything up in shop okay?” He asked tentatively, shifting on his feet. “Sorry again,” he rushed out, but I stopped him before he continued, smiling a bit.

“No, don’t worry about it” poor bloke still feeling guilty after two weeks, “My crew and I did fine without ya, I hired them for a reason” I joked, tucking my hands into the pocket of my jacket, hiding the slight trembling in my fingers left from finding the scent of the covens. “And the grand opening did pretty well; all the people that came inside either bought something or seemed pretty happy browsing.”

Books were beautiful things. Reading was a favorite hobby of mine, hence why I choose a bookstore as the façade to my nest.

Aster smiled at my response, “That’s cool, I saw the opening from a distance, but work caught me again before I could go and say hello.” His voice was apologetic again-it was kind of sweet.

“You should stop by and actually get something” I added as he stepped down from the steps in front of the door, “-when I open, though.” I conceded, “I don’t open until noon.”

Aster laughed, “Yeah, I thought I could catch you to talk before that” he admitted, “And I have been meaning to buy something else to amuse me on my down time, all I have is Netflix” his eyes were bright with amusement as he spoke, “And not that Netflix and chill isn’t great, but only so much is really healthy, you know?”

I let out a slight huff of amusement, “Well have fun with that at noon” I replied smiling back.

He gave a surprised laugh, “Yeah, yeah I’ll definitely be there.” Aster shifted on his feet, glancing from the ground back to me as I nodded in assent.

I watched him a few moments in the silence that followed before saying “I have to start setting up shop, so I better head in.” It wasn’t my finest way of excusing me from this conversation, but you know, it would do. I needed to update Grey, and the sooner I did the better.

“Oh, oh yeah, sorry” He gave me a sheepish grin, stepping down and away from the doorway, “My bad, you probably have loads of stuff to do, setting up, I don’t know- how do you keep up with a bookstore?”

“Well I reshelf anything, check over all the shelves and stands to make sure everything is where I want it, I wipe away any dust” Keeping up with the bookstore wasn’t too high maintenance, something relaxing to do.

“Mmmm” he said noncommittally, “So, yeah it was nice talking to you, and-well I suppose I’ll be talking to you later too” he added, a hint of delighted surprise present in his voice.

“Yes, I believe so” I said smiling. He was cute. I nodded at him, and then climbed up the brick stairs, taking out my keys to unlock the door. I could hear his feet shuffling a bit, as if hesitant to leave, and in the quiet I could hear his heart thudding in his chest. There was a quiet intake of breath right as my door clicked open and he rushed out a sentence.

“So right before I go, I was, well I was curious if you wanted to get dinner later, or brunch this weekend. You seem really nice, and you’re really engaging to talk to. I would like to get to know you better if that’s okay with you?”

My eyes widened as I half turned, not quite looking over my shoulder. Oh this was not a good time.

“Um” I started, oh how eloquent, Edeline, you sound ever so cultured. “Well this is a bit of a bad time to ask” I started, “Maybe tonight?” I said slowly, thinking. “But I don’t know. We could talk when you come later?” I offered.

He grinned, “Yeah, that great, um well, see you later” Aster said, eyes bright as he waved, and walked away down the street, giving me a glance over his shoulder as he disappeared into the crowd.

I could feel a small smile curling lips, and I stepped inside the shop. Should I really involve myself with a human? He seemed of decent character, cut from a fine cloth. He could be the first…

I shrugged off the thoughts. Later, I decided, after he’s met me at the shop. Right now, I just needed to call Grey. I walked through the curtain keeping the bookstore from the rest of my home and leaned against one of the kitchen counters, looking down at the phone as I speed-dialed his number.

I put the phone to my ear, hearing it ring a few times before he answered.

“Hello, what do you need, Edeline?” he asked, and usually I would be delighted to hear his distinctly British voice, but in this situation I wished I didn’t have to call.

“Grey there’s a large coven in the undergrounds of Cincinnati”