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In the morning, Sacha is gone from the couch. She’s neatly folded her blanket and left a business card for The Cleanly Den on top. I laugh and shake my head at her. I have their number already because Zoe cleans the studio for me. I never thought about getting them to do the apartment though. I’ll definitely think about it, especially with business doing so well right now.
“Time to get up, Ade baby,” I call, sticking my head into her room. She blinks sleepily at me.
“Mama, I don’t want to get up.”
“Sorry baby, but if you want me to have Saturday off for your birthday next week, it means coming to work with me today.” I beam at her. “It’s not all bad. We’re meeting Jasmine for a drink first and you know she’ll buy you a—”
“Unicorn hot chocolate!” Ade yells, throwing back the covers, leaping out of bed and moving faster than I’ve ever seen. I laugh and follow into the kitchen to fix her some breakfast. The drink she and Jas prefer is like a meal in itself, but I’ll be damned if she’s having pure sugar first thing.
“Is it doga today?”
“Nah,” I say with a teasing grin. “It’s chair yoga for the over sixties today. I thought you could be on tea and biscuit duty.”
“Mama, that’s the worst,” she complains. “You should call that class stretch and fart.”
I giggle. She does have a point.
“Ade baby, I’m teasing you. Of course it’s doga today! I wouldn’t drag you to my boring classes.”
“Oh! Remember when JoJo the bulldog nipped Ms. Altomare on the bum?!”
I laugh and nod.
“That was so funny! And then her dog, that little princess one...what’s her name again?”
“Zoey.”
“Yeah and then Zoey got all grumpy and started barking at everyone.”
“Every time I moved she growled at me.”
“It was so funny. Kara thought so too.”
“Oh thanks, I’m glad it amused you both.”
“Your classes always do, Mama. They’re magical.” She winks at me. I give her a tight smile.
Magic is a huge source of stress in our household at the moment. When I was eight, I came into my elemental shifter powers and it wasn’t pretty. Luckily, I had an entire community to support and guide me, and I was able to get things under control pretty quickly. Ade is growing up without that support bubble. When her elemental shifter magic surfaces, it’s going to be hard to train her on my own. She’s excited, can’t wait for the day to arrive, but I’m worried about the damage she’ll do. Even in a town as accepting as Silver Springs.
Shaking those morose thoughts from my head, I finish making breakfast bagels for the two of us, and once Ade comes out of the bathroom we sit down together to eat. After we’ve eaten, she gets ready while I do the dishes and get something out for tea, and then we head off together in my car, which Sacha has kindly fetched for me. Well, I’m assuming it was Sacha. I don’t know anyone else that would know where to deliver Betty.
I drive downtown to meet Jasmine at Jewels Café.
“Mama, can I go and watch the troll?” Ade asks me as soon as we step inside.
“Baby, it’s rude to stare.”
“I won’t stare,” Ade insists. She’s absolutely fascinated by trolls, trying to figure out if she’ll be able to shift into a troll if she gets earth elemental magic, but I don’t have the heart to tell her how unlikely that is—even though her father was an elemental too. I have no idea what his powers were but it’s likely that she’ll get water or air like me. Maybe even both. “Look , Mama, I’ll sit in the window seat and watch the people in the street too. It’ll be fun.”
“Okay,” I reluctantly agree. “Take your drink with you.”
At least this way I can talk to Jasmine freely without little ears listening in. Ade beams at me, thanks Jas for her pink monstrosity, and takes off to troll watch.
“You okay?” Jas asks, shrewd as ever. We’ve become really good friends in the last few months, since the day I saved her dog Jasper from toasting half the park goers with bright turquoise flames, but I never really know if the way she gets me is down to her gifts or our compatibility.
“It’s silly,” I say.
