"Oh," she exclaimed. "A customer!"
It was a woman who looked about fifty. She had a kind face, wore elegant furs, and looked surprised to see the small enclosure of the shop. She scanned over Seros, then Theresa and opened rouge-red lips to speak.
"Oh, hullo, dearies."
Theresa noted her Kyrios accent.
"I heard from a few girls in town that this was the Potter shop. It's supposed to sell the most darling little clothes," the woman smiled.
Theresa stood up, offering to help the customer.
"What are you looking for, Madam?" s
She asked politely. Seros watched the two with mild interest.
The woman said she was browsing, so Theresa helped her look through the shop and make a selection. The woman seemed uneasy at first and then gradually settled down, although she opened her mouth at times as if to say something but then decided against it. Theresa noticed it after a while. The woman finally settled on a violet dress with a sheen sash and plumage that Theresa agreed suited her.
The woman gave Theresa the money at the checkout but looked uneasy. She seemed about to turn around and leave but Seros spoke up before she could turn around.
"Madam, please. You look somehow unsatisfied. Is there something else on your mind?" Seros cocked an eyebrow, looking expectant and calm at the same time. The woman seemed to be shocked.
Finally, the Mrs. spoke. "I know a woman named Selina," she started uncomfortably.
That was enough. Theresa froze. The she felt a reassuring pressure on her hand. She looked down to see Seros's hand over hers, pressing down firmly and offering her support. She swallowed and then looked up with more determination at the woman.
"Please, what do you know about my mother ?" Theresa implored.
"This is the only Potter shop in this town, I assume?" the woman continued. Theresa nodded dumbly.
"I guess you're Theresa Potter." The lady said. Theresa nodded again, still digesting. "Your mother told me about you. She said you were very loyal and quite sensible. Your mother... she looked after me for many years in Kyrios and she asked I take care of you."
The woman smiled graciously. "You will come, won't you? I believe you're a darling girl."
Theresa nodded dumbly again. She felt Seros's presence beside her. He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"You'll get an invitation in the mail soon. I just came in person to tell you for myself. But Theresa, now you will be able to keep the shop forever! Isn't that great news?"
Keep the shop forever.
Forever.
Theresa's head spun.
So, the shop was safe from bankruptcy? That was good news. But recently, business had picked up, because of Seros. Would he leave now that there was no risk of her keeping the shop alive now? And more importantly, what would Theresa do, if the tailor was going to keep running? As much as she wanted this shop to treat this shop as her grand adventure, she wondered if it was just be a pretty lie. Despite her best intentions, her discipline every morning to smile and be cheerful, there was a deeply hidden part of Theresa that wished the shop to go away. As terrified as she was of the idea that she would have nothing to nail her down to this life, she had secretly yearned to be rid of it.
"My brother will be more than happy to keep this place running," Madame enthused. "You can stay and work here your whole life, now! Isn't this wonderful news?"
Theresa couldn't answer. The lump in her throat had grown three sizes.
The Madame continued on blithely. "I say, do you make these clothes yourself, Sophie? They are simply elegant. You have such talent with the needle! Why, working here suits you so! I can see this is your life's work!"
The woman smiled kindly, now sensing something was amiss, but Theresa felt no comfort. Her heart pinched at her own selfishness.
"Well, I simply must go! My carriage is waiting! Goodbye my dear," she leaned down and embraced Theresa like an aunt.
Theresa amelled the hint of spiced lavender, an expensive perfume the shop used in small drops on their most expensive hats. It was a scent her mother had always wanted but couldn't afford to wear on herself, as a mere Potter's wife.
The Madame nodded at Seros kindly, who smiled back, charm on. She looked to Theresa with an approving eye.
Seros and Theresa were left in silence.
"Well," Theresa said carefully. "I never expected that mother met such important people when she lived in Kyrios."
Seros turned to Theresa, and she realized his hand was still on hers. She tugged it away.
"Well, Theresa," Seros remarked, softly. "Fate works its hand in strange ways. We never really know when and where it'll strike next. Who it will work upon. What dilemma there'll be."
Theresa trailed away from him to sit behind the counter again, giving herself time to digest the news in private. For some reason, Seros's presence didn't unnerve her. The memory of Seros's hand felt warm and firm on her own.
She shook her head, either at him or at herself.
"You make it sound like a game, Seros."
He raised his eyebrow. "Isn't it?"
Theresa paused. She'd always looked back on the fairy tales with an envious and also warm, contented mood. The girl always got her prince, and they lived happily ever after. The rivals always failed, and the love between hero and heroine prevailed.
Was it all just a game, played out by the most unsuspecting characters? Perhaps the ones who got lucky always won.
These romances were all cheered. She looked up, and her eyes met Seros's. He'd made her forget who she was, even if it was just for a second or two of conversation. A warm feeling burst and bubbled inside of her when she felt his presence and it gave her peace. People did say there were things in life you could only confide to strangers.
"Perhaps life is a game," Theresa sighed. "A game I was destined to lose at."
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
"After all, I'm the eldest. I'm the one who is supposed to make sacrifices. I fail so others can succeed."
'I'm to work here at this shop forever. Alone.' Theresa thought. 'It suits me.'
She was speaking from the bitterest part of my heart. Without realizing it, all this time, she just been jealous.
Seros looked solemn. "Theresa," he chided. "Don't think like that."
Theresa shrank into her chair, disgusted with herself. "I'm dumping my personal life on you again, Seros. I'm sorry. I don't know why, but my patience shrinks by the day. I feel like a horrible person. My sisters Miriam and Sarah were always trying to cheer me up, but it just upsets me, now..."
"But I'll be alright," she finished. "Just give a moment."
Seros's eyes narrowed.
In the silence, Theresa mused out loud. "I should be happy. Father's shop will be okay. It won't..." She paused on the words. "It won't go out of business. I'll have a place here, forever."
Seros looked startled.
"But you don't have to stay, Seros," Theresa mumbled to the floor. "There's no need, any longer. Thanks to you, we've pulled through the hardest period of the shop's history."
She smiled wanly.
It was nearing closing time. Seros shifted closer, to peer into her hollow stare.
"Stop it, Theresa ."
She snapped out of her trance. "Huh? Stop what?"
"Stop always asking me if I want to leave or not. I'll go when the time is ready. When I'm ready."
Theresa winced at the words. She could remember so many people in her life leaving. One by one they left to seek their fortunes, and they didn't come back.
But Seros's voice was insistent.
"And that time isn't now. Yes, you're the eldest, Theresa." He leaned in further, face to face, to get his words to stick. "But you're more clear headed than a lot of other girls out there, woodcutter's third-born daughters or not. You're admirable."
Theresa flinched, suddenly aware of their proximity. Her eyes snapped to her hands.
Seros's charisma seemed to seep out of him, as he sank back into his own chair. His silver eyes darkened for a moment, before he opened his mouth again.
"You asked me what I do for a living." Seros paused, before continuing. "Well, many things. I travel a lot, for one."
Theresa lifted her head inquisitively. Seros's face seemed dark.
"And?" she whispered.
"I offer my services when I'm needed." His voice carried something cautious, replacing the careless charm of before. "Like a trade, really."
Theresa smiled. "There are a lot of trades out there."
Seros pretended to be insulted. "Are you mocking me?"
"I don't know that someone who's done an honest day's work would give such a weird explanation."
"From anyone else, I'd take offense to that," Seros lamented. "But you're the expert on an honest day's work, Theresa. You've caught me."
Her smile grew, gratefully. She was grateful that Seros would talk like this with her. Seros quickly lost the fake indignation and smiled back. The hairs on Sophie's neck prickled at the look in his eyes. Again, something different. Something warm, and deep, and unknowable. Theresa could almost fancy she saw herself in there. A sudden pang of embarrassment caught her, and her cheeks were ablaze once more.
Seros only leaned in as Theresa turned her face from him.
"Theresa?" he asked. His hand brushed her chin, tilting her face back up to meet him, their heads now mere inches apart.
Emotions ricocheted inside the expanse of her head, which now seemed terribly empty as she stared at Seros's face so close to her own. A single coherent thought remained, pressing and insistent.
If Seros noticed, he was not one to hide it. His tugging lips asked her if she was quite alright.
A dull sort of anger bloomed inside her, and promptly, Theresa told him 'no', she was just fine. But Seros only smiled, and leaned in closer. Fear, anxiety, boundless happiness, all contained in a single moment, omnipresent yet elusive.
She realized she wanted to know him, this unknowable man
Theresa felt a splash of wind on her face, on her lips, on her cheeks.
Her eyelids fluttered open again, and there was nothing, no one, in front of her.
A faint bell chime from the door would tickle her memory later that night, or maybe that was just another dream, called up from distant memories of long before.
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