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However, once I started shopping, it didn’t seem so bad. I got the feeling that I’d crested a wave of post-church shoppers, and a lot of them were already heading to the checkout stands while I still had plenty of shopping left to do. I gathered up recycled, biodegradable paper plates and cups in the aisle with the picnic supplies, and added a nice selection of cheeses and deli meats to the cart as well. From there, I headed over to the produce section.
To my utter shock, Lilith Black’s Snape-looking lackey — assistant…lover…roadie…whatever — was there as well, putting peaches in a plastic bag.
This must have been my day for chance encounters. I knew I should’ve done a three-card Tarot spread before I’d taken my shower that morning; maybe then I would’ve had some advance warning of what the universe planned to throw at me that day.
My first instinct was to grab my shopping cart and bolt, but I realized that kind of behavior would only make me more conspicuous.
Besides, he’d obviously spotted me, because he smiled and said, “Hey.”
“Hey,” I replied cautiously. I hadn’t seen any sign of Lilith or her Wednesday Addams surrogate as I wandered Walmart’s aisles, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be lurking somewhere nearby.
“It’s all right,” the man said. He sealed off the bag of peaches he was holding with a green twist tie and deposited it in his shopping cart. “Lilith’s not here.”
“Oh,” I said. Was I that transparent?
He wheeled his cart closer to me and extended a hand. “We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Boden Marsh.”
“Hi,” I responded, then went ahead and shook his hand. He actually had a nice grip, firm without being bone-crushing, and no damp palms, either. And even though I guessed it was redundant because he already knew my name, I went ahead and added, “Selena Marx.”
“Stocking up for tomorrow?” he went on, eyeing the contents of my shopping cart.
“Yes,” I said. There didn’t seem to be much point in denying it. A single woman living alone generally didn’t have much use for economy-size blocks of cheese.
“Same here,” he said. “Not that we’re going to be as elaborate as you. Just some fruit and bread.”
I had to wonder why he was being so friendly. Was the niceness a cover to do as much fact-finding about my plans as possible? Maybe, but I somehow doubted it. I had to believe that Lilith was reading my Instagram feed, and so she must know exactly what I was up to.
And actually, I had to admit that up close, Boden wasn’t nearly as Snape-like as I’d thought. Dark eyes, yes, but they were a warm, friendly brown, and he had nice laugh lines around them.
“You’re probably wondering why Lilith let me off the leash,” he added.
Well, I had been, but I wasn’t about to admit such a thing out loud. “Um…I’m sure she’s getting ready for her ritual, right?” I hedged, figuring that seemed like a safe enough reply.
“That was her excuse,” Boden said. “She and Tansy are over at the site. I got sent to run errands because she said she didn’t want my masculine vibrations messing up its energy.”
Which seemed like an odd sort of thing to say, considering that solstice rituals tended to embrace masculine energy, due to their alignment with the sun. Then again, I didn’t know which precise path Lilith Black followed. There were many ways to find one’s way to the craft, and I wouldn’t presume to guess at the road someone else had taken.
And why was I not surprised that Wednesday Addams’ real name was Tansy? It suited her to a, well, T.
“It’s probably cooler in here,” I observed, and he nodded.
“True. I’m more use running errands anyway. I don’t know anything about magic.”
Startled, I asked, “You don’t?” It seemed kind of odd to me that Lilith had an assistant who couldn’t help her in any sort of magical way.
“Nope,” Boden replied. “I was drumming in a band when I met Lilith. She said she wanted someone with my kind of energy, and she was offering a lot more than I was getting paid for two or three gigs a month, so here I am.”
Now that I’d heard it, Boden’s story made a lot of sense. He gave off the vibe of someone who’d been in a band — and I’d met a lot of people like that, thanks to my biological father, Jordan Fairfield. Sure, he was now a respectable music teacher in the Valley, but he still had an air around him that told you he had a wild past. And the same with his friends, almost all of whom had moved on to be insurance agents and contractors and lawyers, but who still didn’t feel entirely on the straight and narrow.
I had to wonder if Lilith had chosen Tansy as her assistant because she also had the right vibe and the right look. It did seem that almost everything for Lilith was based on surface impressions.
Not that I would ask…and I also wouldn’t ask Boden if he was “with” Lilith. From the way he’d spoken, I got the feeling that he wasn’t, but none of it was any of my business.
Before I could respond to his comment, he went on, “Actually, Lilith doesn’t really, either. Know about magic, I mean.”
For a second, I could only boggle at him. Somehow, I found my voice and managed to say, “But she’s — ”
“A famous Instagram witch,” he cut in. “I know.” A pause as a wry smile touched his thin lips. “Don’t you know that being internet famous is mostly smoke and mirrors?”
