Page 36 of A Witch in Notting Hill

Oliver

I thought I knew what it meant to be overstimulated, but the festival taught me I hadn’t even scratched the surface. Why was everything on fire? And why was there so much glitter?

And did the godforsaken drumming ever stop?

But one look at Willow and the glint in her eyes behind the mask reminded me why we were here, and that I promised to be open to the festival and all it had to offer. A promise that would be easy to keep if she kept up the doe-eyed look.

“Someone remind me what exactly we have to do here?” I asked.

“I think we’re doing it,” Willow said. “All the list said was to participate in the ceremony and stay awake until the following sundown, so... I guess this is it? Except none of you have to stay up. I can do that bit on my own.”

“Are you insane?” Lola asked, taking the words right out of my mouth for what might have been the first time in our lives. “Of course we’re going to stay up with you. We haven’t pulled an all-nighter together since graduation. It’ll be fun.”

Willow looked to me for confirmation, and I gave her a firm nod. “What fun is staying up all night alone?”

The longer we stared at each other, the clearer it became we were thinking the same thing: staying up all night together was a recipe for disaster. Things were bound to unravel between now and tomorrow night. And we were pulling the loose thread.

We walked deeper into the festival, keeping tight to each other as we made our way through the maze and to the nearest bar. “Drinks?” Min asked, pointing at each of us and taking our orders. “Ol, give me a hand, will you?”

“Don’t move,” I said to Willow and Lola.

“Afraid I’m going to whisk her away?” Lo asked.

“Quite literally.”

“You can relax, you know,” she said. “She can take care of herself. If she gets whisked away, that’s her decision.”

“I know that,” I said, rolling my eyes at Lola and turning my attention to Willow. “Please don’t get whisked away. Even of your own volition. She looks nice, but she’s insane.”

“Guilty.” Lola smiled.

“There will be no whisking,” Willow assured me. “But there might be running if you guys don’t get back here with drinks in the immediate future.”

“You heard the woman,” Lola said. “Off with you.”

I found Minho at the bar and squeezed in beside him, signaling the bartender and keeping an eye on Lola and Willow on the other side of the crowd. Their heads were bent together and they were both smiling wicked smiles and I could only imagine what they were saying.

“You good?” Min asked, following my line of sight.

“Grand, yeah.”

“Grand as in you don’t want to talk about it, or grand as in actually grand because you’re having a secret fling with a beautiful American celebrity?”

“No one’s having a fling, mate.”

“Maybe she can give you some acting lessons while you’re having a fling,” he said, “because you’re shit at lying.”

The bartender reappeared, and I drank nearly half my pint in one go.

“It’s that obvious?” I asked.

“Nah, just haven’t seen you this keen on a woman in a while. Kind of endearing, if I’m honest.”

“Oh, piss off.” I laughed. “It’s nothing. Just a bit of chemistry, that’s all. She’s got some bloke back home and she’s going to leave next month as soon as her thing is done, so.”

“I don’t see that bloke here,” Min said. “And she’s an actor. Can’t she just hop on a private jet and fly back here any time?”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” I said. “Even if it did, I doubt she’d want that. So I’m afraid it hardly makes sense to pursue this at all.” No matter how badly I want to.

“But do you want to?”

“Do I want to what?”

“Pursue it. In a perfect world. Or even in this world. You’re interested, yeah?”

Of course I was bloody interested. Anyone with eyes and ears and half a brain would be interested.

And Min definitely knew that, so I wasn’t sure why he needed to hear me say it.

But the way he was looking at me with his brows raised and his pint halfway to his lips, I knew I’d have to say it anyway.

“Yeah, I’m interested. But it doesn’t matter, really. Besides, there’s the whole witch thing, which you know I think is shit, so.”

“And yet, here you are.” He smiled, and I didn’t like where this was going. “At the full moon festival. Dressed in a mask and a sport jacket and preparing to stay up until tomorrow night even though you could be literally anywhere else.”

“Doesn’t mean I believe in it.”

“Supporting something and believing in something aren’t the same thing,” he said.

“Just keep an open mind, Ol. You don’t have to believe in everything she believes in.

You just have to support her. Try not to be a dick about it and this might work out for you.

” He raised his glass, and his smug smile made me want to slam my head into the bar.

“And what about the fact she’s going back to LA, hmm? Can I find my way around believing in that?”

“Of course you can,” he said, “by keeping an open mind. And not being a dick.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m serious.”

“Won’t matter if she runs away because we aren’t back with a drink fast enough,” I said, grabbing the other two glasses and nodding toward Lola and Willow. “Ready?”

“Are you ?”

I rolled my eyes, and Min nudged my shoulder, following me through the crowd.

Not that I’d ever say it, but he did sort of have a point. Was it possible I could look past the witch thing? Chalk it up to two different belief systems? It would be like dating someone who wasn’t Jewish. Or who though milk belonged in tea.

Not that we were dating. Or even could be.

I was getting way too far ahead of myself and needed to reel it in before it was too late.

“It’s about time,” she said as we approached, taking the proffered gin and tonic from my hand.

“Missed me?”

“Terribly.” She smiled around her straw, and I almost collapsed into the dirt.

“Gross,” Lola said, ruining what might have been a nice moment, if a little sarcastic.

“Ignore her,” I said. “She may wear a lot of things well, but jealousy isn’t one of them.”

“You lost me after ‘she may wear a lot of things well,’” she said, and Willow laughed. A relaxed, melodical laugh that made me grateful Lola was here, even if she drove me insane. If she could get that uninhibited laugh out of Willow, she was welcome around any time.

“So, what’s the plan?” Min asked, ever the leader. Without him, we’d likely still be stuck on the isle. If we even made it that far.

“There’s a meditation later we could try,” Lola said, flipping through a brochure she must have grabbed when we walked in. I reminded myself to keep an open mind. “And a moon water workshop. And a lantern walk through the park—that might be nice.”

“Where to first?” I asked, trying to throw myself into it before I could run in the opposite direction.

“Moon water, for sure,” Lola said, and Willow nodded in agreement. I hadn’t the foggiest what made that the obvious choice, but who was I to argue?

The workshop was being held in an open part of the park, which I quickly learned was so the water could absorb the moonlight without being obscured by a tent.

We listened as the woman running the workshop, Aurora, explained the importance of moon water rituals, reminding us of the divine femininity of the moon goddesses.

She read some poetry or spells or something about the water acting as a catalyst for the moon’s power, before distributing vessels filled with water and instructing us to place our meaningful objects inside.

It seemed like everyone else had come prepared with all sorts of things to put in the water: herbs, dried fruit, crystals.

The four of us looked around, somewhere between bewildered and self-conscious about our lack of preparation.

“What the hell are we supposed to put in there?” Minho asked, holding the water up to the moonlight and peering through the glass.

“Whatever this is?” Lola asked, pulling up a small weed and dropping it into her glass.

“So meaningful,” Min said.

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“I have a lavender perfume?” Willow said, rifling through her bag. “Maybe a spritz of that?”

That bloody lavender perfume. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since the first time I got close to her, and now I was supposed to actually bottle it? Maybe I wouldn’t trash the moon water as soon as we left here after all.

“Now it just... sits and waits?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Gets charged by the moon.”

“Then what do we do with it?”

“Sometimes you can drink it, but I hardly think with the perfume and the weeds any of us plan on doing that,” she said, and laughed.

“But you can water plants with it, clean with it, whatever. You just have to, uh, put an intention into it for it to work. You don’t have to say it out loud or anything.

Or I guess you don’t have to say it at all.

But if you wanted to, you could think something you wanted, and the water would sort of help you achieve it. ”

I hated the way her sentences sounded like questions even though she knew exactly what she was talking about. She was softening her beliefs for me, which made me an arsehole. And I needed to snap out of it. Fast.

“Right, then. I can just think of something and it’ll go into the water?”

She smiled, and I stopped caring if I sounded like an idiot. “Yep,” she confirmed. “Just close your eyes when you do it. And make sure you really mean it.”

“And it can be anything I want?”

“That’s the beauty of it. You can ask for healing, clarity, growth, whatever.”

“Can we ask for love?” Lola asked.

“You don’t want love,” Min said. “You’d rather ask for a good shag.”

“I don’t have to ask for that.” She wiggled her eyebrows, and Minho pretended to gag himself.

“Don’t ruin the moment,” I said, and they both snapped their heads to me, as surprised as I was.

“Yes, sir,” Minho said. “Let’s set our intentions, then.” He and Lola immediately closed their eyes, leaving Willow and I to linger a moment longer. The way she was smiling at me, soft and hopeful, I thought I’d never close my eyes again.

Go on, then , I mouthed.

You first , she mouthed back, her gentle smile turning into a full grin.

I knew exactly what to ask for.