"I hope that you won’t mind me handing you these roses?"
Inez lifted her head and stared at the roses that the man had brought for her. She didn’t know where she had gone wrong; all she did was step out of the lodge and head down to the beach for a little walk. She had been struggling with the drafts for the competition and wanted to refresh her mind. All she thought was, ’Hey, if I head down to the beach, maybe I can forget all about this great power that I am hiding, for I am too shy,’ but who would have thought that she would run into a man who turned out to be her admirer?
Or maybe she should put it correctly—the admirer of her beauty.
Inez looked at the man and then at the roses that he had offered her. Her eyes flickered with unease as she raised her head and said, "I am sorry, I don’t think—"
"Oh, but please," said the man as he took a step close to Inez, causing her to take a step away from him. "I swear that I fell for you the first time I saw you. I know—I know, you must be shocked by the fact that someone as gorgeous and handsome as me told you that I have fallen for you, but fear not, kitten, even if it’s unbelievable, it’s the truth."
Inez’s gaze snapped to the face of the man, and of course, she could see where the man was coming from. He was a good-looking man with wavy blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Every time he smiled, his set of pearly white teeth would flash brightly. A set of teeth, Inez was sure, was going to be broken to bits if the man didn’t walk away.
"Mike, short for Michael." The man smiled at her again, and Inez had no idea how he was smiling and managing to flash his teeth at her every time he smiled. It had to be a sort of talent in its own.
"Yes, Mike," Inez repeated. "I think there has been some misunderstanding, and I hope that you will listen to me quite well when I say this – I already have someone—"
Of course, the man didn’t listen to a thing because he was too busy smouldering and adjusting his blonde locks while posing against the sun. He shook his head and turned to look at Inez after he was done and said to her, "Oh, I am sorry. Were you saying something? I wasn’t listening."
Another smile and another sigh.
"That— is very clear," Inez remarked through gritted teeth, wondering for the twentieth time what she had done to deserve this. No matter how unlucky she was, this had to be a whole new low.
Inez raised her head just as Mike turned his head around and looked at the man who was running towards them. Inez caught sight of a woman who ran without looking back and frowned. Even though the woman was running quite fast, Inez was sure that it was Jules. However, before she could chase after her, Ajax came to a stop in front of them.
He flashed a smile at Inez, who smiled back softly.
He then turned to Mike and threw his hand around his shoulders before saying to him, "And what are you doing here?"
"Hey, Nessie. You should go to the main lodge. Kill has been looking for you. You know how he is; he gets worried when he doesn’t see you around." Before Mike could even form a reply to hand over to Ajax, the man turned and spoke to Inez.
His words were nothing less than a warm gust of wind in absolute cold. Inez sighed in relief and nodded before turning around and walking up the path from where she had come.
"What do you mean by ’Kill is looking for her? Why is he looking for her?"
Inez heard the man ask, and she didn’t even need her toes to think why; a second later, Mike yelped as if she had been stung by thousands of bees.
She shook her head and hoped that Mike would take this lesson to heart and learn how to listen to others.
"It seems like you are getting a little more popular?"
A familiar voice spoke from behind, and Inez whirled around. "Tracy!"
She had not expected the witch to turn up after last night, or much less turn up at all; however, here she was, standing right in front of her. And now that she was here, Inez had no idea what to say to her. There were countless and countless of questions flooding in her head, but at that moment, the only thing that Inez could blurt out was,
"What are you doing here?"
"It’s good to see you, too," said the witch with a smile as she pushed herself from the trunk of the tree against which she was leaning. She walked over to where Inez was standing and said to her with a frown, "I thought that you would come to see me after all, there was a lot for you to take. But I was quite surprised when I didn’t see you turn up at my boutique."
"I wanted to, but—I didn’t know you would be there," replied Inez with a disbelieving voice. She was still staring at the woman in awe, as if she were worried that the woman would disappear the next second.
"I finished my task early because I thought that you would come looking for me, who would have thought that you are way more careless than I thought?" Tracy remarked with a tilt of her head, and Inez frowned.
She said to the woman, "I am not careless. But I suppose if you tell someone, ’Hey, you have great powers; it’s just that you just don’t know about them,’ no one is going to believe it. At least not when it—"
"A witch says it?" Tracy offered with a polite yet cold tone.