The small local grocery store was a few blocks further, its brick facade weathered by decades of Harmony Glen's peculiar weather patterns. The bell above the door announced her arrival with a cheerful ding, and she hurried in, trying to look like someone on a simple, unremarkable shopping trip.
She failed immediately.
"Well, well, well."
Lila materialized from behind a display of seasonal melons, her grin covering her face. Her teal-streaked hair was piled in a messy bun, and she was carrying a basket of her own, though hers appeared to contain nothing but chocolate and wine.
"Don't," Marigold warned.
"I haven't said anything."
"You're thinking very loudly."
"I'm thinking that my best friend disappeared with nothing but a cryptic text about 'being busy,' and now she's wandering through the grocery store on a Saturday morning practically glowing." Lila's grin widened. "So either you've discovered an amazing new skincare routine, or?—"
"Lila."
"—you finally took my advice and jumped that satyr's gorgeous?—"
"Lila."
"What? It's a legitimate observation."
She grabbed her friend's arm and dragged her toward the bread aisle, which was mercifully empty. "Keep your voice down."
"Why? Do you think there's anyone in town who doesn't know? Mrs. Weatherspoon told the entire bridge club. Even the Sanderson sisters have been making comments about 'young love blooming in the vineyard,' and you know how they feel about puns."
She groaned and covered her face with her hand.
"Everyone knows?"
"Sweetie, this is Harmony Glen. Of course they do." Lila tilted her head, studying Marigold with the intensity of a scientist examining a particularly interesting specimen. "You're not denying it."
"Denying what?"
"That you and Thallos are together. An item. Making beautiful music together, possibly literally given he's a satyr?—"
"We're…" she hesitated. What were they, exactly? Dating seemed too casual for what had happened between them. Together felt both too vague and too certain. "We're figuring it out."
Lila's expression softened. "But it's good? He's treating you well?"
"He's…" She thought about the dance lessons, the way he listened when she talked, the vendor contracts and the rose petals and the look on his face when she'd told him she wanted more. "He's wonderful, Lila. He's kind and patient and he sees me. Really sees me. And I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it just… doesn't."
"Maybe there's no other shoe."
"There's always another shoe."
"Not always." Lila reached out and squeezed her hand. "Maybe sometimes you just get to be happy."
It was such a simple statement. Such an impossible thing to believe. But standing in the bread aisle of Morrison's Grocery, her best friend's hand warm in hers and the memory of last night still glowing in her chest, she desperately wanted to believe it.
"I'm going on a picnic," she said. "Today. With Thallos. In the meadow by his vineyard."
"That's disgustingly romantic."
"I know."
"Then you're going to need better bread than anything they have here. Get those rosemary sourdough rounds from the bakery. And you'll want cheese from the dairy cart in the square—ask forthe aged cheddar with the herb crust, it pairs beautifully with white wine. And for dessert?—"
