“This one is all roots and no plant. Ew, this smells like the cat pooped in it. Maybe she did poop in it. Where is the cat by the way?”
Elowen watches her friend, and I see it in her eyes, she’s teetering between answering the onslaught of questions and wanting to be alone with the plants.
Juniper wanders out from underneath a bench and rubs against Lila’s legs, tail twitching.
“She likes you.” Elowen smiles.
“Of course she does. What’s not to like?” Lila crouches to say hello to the cat and, within moments, starts sneezing.
We all watch her back away from Juniper towards the doorway.
“I must still be allergic,” she manages between sneezes. Her eyes are already puffy and streaming. “I thought I’d grown out of it. Does anyone have any antihistamine?”
“No, but I’ll come with you to the infirmary.” Elowen’s bag is already on her shoulder.
“I have some in my room,” Tyler says. “I’ll walk back with you,”
Elowen hesitates for only a moment. “Stay. I’ll go with her.”
“No, Elowen.” Lila manages two words before she has another sneezing fit, this one more violent than the last. “You only just… got here. I’ll go… with Tyler.”
Tyler holds the door open with one last glance in Elowen’s direction, then he leaves with Lila, and peace settles back inside the greenhouse.
“The antihistamine will kick in quickly,” I say.
Elowen nods and shrugs her bag back over her shoulder. “I should’ve gone with her, to make sure she’s okay.”
“Tyler will look after her.”
She pulls a trowel from her bag, checks the seeds she planted over the weekend, and finally meets my gaze. “How well doyou know him?”
I smile. “I trust him if that’s what you’re asking.” I spread the tools I brought with me across my workbench. I’m not in any rush to leave.
If I’m honest, I only came because I thought she might be here. I don’t know why, but she has a kind of calming influence on the greenhouse, and I spent all morning counting the minutes until I could come back.
“Is that why you asked him to help?” She sorts through stringy baskets while she speaks.
“Partly.”
She studies me closely. “What’s the other part?”
“I think the greenhouse deserves better.”
Elowen smiles, and I wonder if she even has the smallest clue how beautiful she is. “You’re right. It does,”
We work in comfortable silence. I lose myself in the grain of the wood I’m sanding down. The smell has always made me feel safe for some reason, ever since I was a little kid and my uncle used to take me to his workshop.
When I finally look up, Elowen is kneeling on a workbench to reach the shriveled bunches of herbs hanging from overhead racks.
"What are you doing?" Without thinking, I navigate the tables and hold it steady. Her scent hits me like a blow to the gut, honey and green shoots. Her color. Already so familiar, I can recreate it in my imagination when she isn’t around.
"The rosemary and thyme are salvageable." She peers down at me while her arms are still stretched overhead, and sways.
Acting on instinct, I let go of the table and reach for her waist, realizing too late what I’ve done when my hands close around her.
“Calder?”
A familiar voice carries across the greenhouse, and I set Elowen down on the floor and stand back. My fingers tingle from where they touched her. “Sophie. What are you doing here?”
