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Melinda settled back into Minneapolis nicely, all things considered. Henry and the cats kept her on her toes and she kept Clifford on his toes in turn. Nothing too serious, she didn’t want to make anyone worried about their livelihoods or fix something that wasn’t broken, but it was fun to tease the man every once in a while. She hadn’t done that in her previous lifetime, ‘Tracy’ had been a little too serious for that. Clifford had the perfect personality for it though- he could more than take a little ribbing, he enjoyed it.
The only thing Melinda was really serious about was the name of the bookstore; the local community simply referred to it as The Emporium anyways. Discussing an update to the title was no different than discussing an update to the store’s layout in the sorcerer’s mind, but Clifford was a bit more hesitant about it, worried the change wouldn’t be taken well. Melinda was fine with that, really. She wanted a discussion, not to railroad.
Part of it was thinking about the marketing, but part of it was just that being her tactic for trying to get the employees to trust her again. Clifford knew the store had weathered a change of generations on both Melinda and the Bridge’s sides many times, but the rest didn’t have that same level of confidence in the change-over in leadership. Melinda didn’t want that. She may not interact much with people but she didn’t want to be the kind of owner that was feared.
Taking their lead on something like the store’s name (plus the raises) would hopefully go a long way to fixing that. In the mean time, she was more or less just vibing. When she was awake Melinda re-familiarized herself with the local charities to make donations to or refreshed her memory on the notes and certain texts she kept in the library. In due time she’d start researching how to break her curse again, she just didn’t want to show up and immediately start using the store to source the same kinds of old texts that Tracy had. She was taking some liberties, sure, but she was trying to be at least somewhat subtle.
She’d ‘inherited’ her own wealth, as she always did when the cycle repeated itself. With centuries; worth of interest built up on the original sum she’d left her family’s estate with it was nothing to sneeze at, but even living off the interest was still too much for her. So Melinda fell back to regular raises and charities. She was physically unable to die; if she didn’t do what she could to make the world a better place for herself and everyone else in it, what the hell was the point of anything?
She kept the nocturnal lifestyle for longer than she’d intended.
Once Melinda had the house set up, she’d intended on pulling whatever version of an ‘all nighter’ would have her staying awake until six pm at the earliest. At that point she’d crash, probably sleep through the night, and wake up at a more ‘standard’ time.
Instead, Melinda found herself enjoying her ‘so late it was early’ reading sessions too much. She could tell from the kids that peeked at her every morning if she stayed out late enough that she was starting to make an impression; it was always fun to convince them she was secretly a witch, a fairy, a dragon, whatever story they got into their heads. (Her favorite was the little pig-tailed girl on the east coast who’d convinced herself she was the Flatwoods Monster somehow.)
She was mature enough to admit, to her at least, that a small part of it was curiosity over the blonde neighbor who insisted on waving or saying hi every morning. Melinda responded out of politeness, but she was waiting to see how long it lasted before the woman eventually tired of the game. It was something that happened every so often- there were genuinely nice people out there, people who enjoyed connecting with their communities. It wasn’t their fault Melinda could only risk connecting so much, but it was nice until they got the hint.
And then she came darting out of her apartment building in the middle of one of the worst polar vortexes the cities had seen, dressed like it was October. Even Melinda had called it for the few days this was supposed to last and was reading by the living room window instead of the porch. It gave her the perfect opportunity to see the woman dart a few feet past the edge of the apartment building (much closer to the side walk than Melinda’s house, which was set further back), droop in disappointment that Melinda was gone, spot her in the window, give the biggest full armed wave the sorcerer had seen from yet followed by a thumbs up, and then head back into the apartment building after the apparently successfully accomplished mission.
The ancient’s first thought was that the woman was a lunatic (clearly the caffeine wasn’t doing it’s job anymore) being out there in those temperatures dressed like that. The wind chill was near negative fifty the last time Melinda checked. Then her ability to think kicked back into gear and she realized it was likely the exact same charm that let her do her daily reading every morning. She wasn’t convinced the other was a sorcerer outright, but she clearly knew what she was doing.
Well. Now Melinda’s curiosity was piqued.
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Melinda didn’t realize how much she’d gotten used to his morning wave, but as February continued to carry on around them she started looking forward to it. At one point she almost missed it, so caught up in a new release about an an assassin and a royal from a local author that she almost didn’t make it to her outside reading in time. She did, with about three minutes to spare, but that was the day she made an alarm in her phone so she wouldn’t have to worry about getting distracted again.
Melinda didn’t think about it much at the time. Small entertainments like that were worth their weight in gold when you were her age.
The first day of March- and almost ironically Friday, the last day of the week they did their little ritual- the blonde called her normal cheery ‘Good morning!’ and Melinda repeated it back at him along with her customary raised cup.
Rose wasn’t expecting it, nor was she expecting how much he was taken aback by the low, sleep-gravelly-deep voice. She was kind of glad the neighbor almost immediately turned her attention back to her book, because Rose wouldn’t have been able to stop the wide smile that spread across her face if she tried. It almost felt ridiculous how much it raised her spirits for the rest of the day, but it did.
“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Sam had a sixth sense when it came to potential Tea, so she didn’t hesitate to set up impromptu lunch plans with her favorite baby professor and Ned. Ned, previously focused on his chicken salad (gotta optimize the time escaped from the cramped IT basement), glanced up when Rose didn’t answer right away.
“She does look oddly smiley, doesn’t she?” He asked, undaunted by the glare Rose sent his way. “Did you commit arson without me? Because that’s just rude.”
“If I ever need to commit arson you’re already on speed dial.” Rose rolled her eyes. She thought about trying to change the subject, but those two were like sharks when they sniffed blood in the water. Her survival instinct kicked in, forcing her to give up the fight with a sigh. She was never going to hear the end of this. “If you must know, my neighbor said ‘good morning’ this morning.”
“I’m sorry? What?”
“Oh honey.” Ned and Sam, respectively, reacted at the same time. Ned was half aghast/half impressed that this was still about the neighbor- he was joking about the crush thing; just trying to get under his best friend’s skin. Now Rose was that excited about a simple good morning. Jesus Christ. Sam was delighted and barely holding back laughter.
“Yeah, yeah, get your jokes in while you can.” Rose leaned back in her chair, coffee in hand. “You’re lucky you’re both cute.”
“I’m about as cute as a porcupine.” Ned immediately snarked in true bestie fashion. “Unfortunately for you, that’s still about twice as adorable as you are. No idea what this neighbor of yours thinks she’s seeing. Maybe she needs her eyes checked?”
“Don’t listen to him.” Sam swatted at Ned’s shoulder without even glancing at the man. “I think its cute. It’s like watching a Victorian soap opera in real time- it’s been two months and you finally got a hi back. Let me know if you need a chaperone; as your mentor it’s my sworn duty.”
“No, it’s not, and only if you let me chaperone your dates.” Rose laughed at the face Sam pulled when she turned the tables back on her.
“No, thank you.” The woman mock shuddered. “But in all seriousness, it’s oddly entertaining watching you thaw your grumpy neighbor’s supposed cold exterior one morning at a time. Keep the updates coming.”
“Pretty sure she’s only cold because she’s outside every morning.” Ned broke back into the conversation. “You’re sure she knows this is Minnesota?”
“Think that’s pretty hard to miss.” Rose snorted, amused. “But I think we should circle back to Sam- that was a rather strong reaction for someone who’s not currently seeing anyone, don’t you think Ned?”
No one said Sam and Ned were the only sharks in the water, at least when it came to messing with their friends.