Elise, Evermore chapter!



beautiful.

Elise worked through the latest spell she was creating.  True love spells were tricky.  She had to be very careful for whom she performed them. Once she had all but completed a love spell for a besotted woman when she realized why the picture she had provided Elise looked so familiar. The infatuated woman had zeroed in on Englishman Tom Hiddleston—the actor who played Loki in Thor—as the object of her affection.  Luckily for Tom, Elise had stopped the spell before its completion; else a very befuddled Tom would have been on a plane to the United States without having a clue as to why he felt it so important to hop a red eye to Chicago.

Since that time, Elise had watched the movie Thor and could see the young woman’s attraction, as the actor certainly had a certain je ne sais quoi. And a girlfriend.

Her latest client, a young woman, had asked Elise for help in her love life; specifically, that a certain man who came into the coffee shop and sat near her almost every day would finally notice her and perhaps even ask her out.

Elise made it her business to wander into the coffee shop when the hopeful woman had said she would be there. Elise had ordered a latte and sat almost unseen in a corner, opened book in front of her, watching the goings on of the café, her client, and her client’s crush.

All was not lost.  The nice looking man her client was interested in showed up several different days when Elise was there. He had laptop and books in hand and sat suspiciously close to her client, throwing her longing glances when she wasn’t looking.

This wasn’t going to be hard at all. Elise smothered a grin.  Both of them were halfway there.  The looks—the timing of their supposed “random” encounters…might as well give them both the push they needed, even if it was just a tiny one.  She did a little research at home and came up with a suitable spell.

Two days later, she was in the café again, enjoying a coffee and a muffin when her client walked in, followed shortly thereafter by the man of her dreams.

This is as good a time as any. From her corner booth, she held her cell phone up to her ear to make it appear as if she were on the phone and spoke under her breath:

Stars and suns and moon above

Flying like a pure white dove

One thing in this room is clear

For both of them, true love is here.

She wiggled her fingers subtly at the two, gratified to see both of them flinch at approximately the same time.  Message received.  She pretended to be absorbed in the newspaper in front of her, while actually watching the cute young almost couple and the actions they were about to take.

This, she thought.  This is almost my very favorite thing to watch; that small period of time where it seemed everyone knew two people were attracted to each other except for the two in question.  Then, awareness dawns on them, sparks rev up, and finally the kindling bursts into flame as each of them open their hearts enough to allow the new feelings to come shining through.

The good looking young man, Grant, reminded Elise very much of the nerdy Clark Kent, and he was about as self-assured.  He got up from the table he had been sitting at, jostling his laptop and knocking his coffee cup over because he was unable to take his eyes off of Karen, her client.  Elise almost expected him to say, “Sorry, Lois.” Some of the coffee spattered on her client’s shoe, barely enough to matter, but he knelt down gallantly with a napkin to daub the moisture off of it.

Elise tuned them out then, only picking up bits and pieces of their connection.  “Awfully sorry.” “Are those the new cross fit shoes?” And her favorite, “buy you dinner?”

She picked up her empty coffee cup and brought it up to the counter. She gestured to the friendly woman washing up dishes.  “Here’s another one for you, Bev. It was delicious. ”

The woman smiled as she dried her hands on a towel and came forward and chat.  “Another satisfied customer, I see.” Bev, the woman who owned the shop and a good friend of Elise’s, nodded toward the couple.  “I better not find out you even charged her for that spell.  My granddaughter could have enchanted those two, and she’s five.  They only needed the smallest of suggestions. ”

Elise surreptitiously glanced at the two, now seated at the same table, dark heads bent together.

“Barely even that. And oh, don’t worry. I plan on charging her just enough to cover the divine cup of coffee and that absolutely wonderful lemon poppy seed muffin I just had. ”

“I sent her to the right person, then.  You are really the best with love spells, Elise. ” Accepting the compliment with pleasure, Elise huffed on her fingernails and shined them on her shirt. “Well, you know.  So hard being me.”

“Modesty becomes you.  Hey, on a different note, were you able to “worm” any additional information out of your house guest?”

“Oh, not really.  I sent him on his way.  Poor guy thinks he’s an unemployed worm farmer.  I also gave him a little suggestion that if he should ever even think of harming another person, plant, or thing, his penis is going to fall off. ”

Bev laughed then.  “Well, that will keep him out of all kinds of trouble, won’t it?”