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Improved Lavender Creamer

B y the time she came back, Charlie had calmed down again, and they were able to talk. She told him everything she knew about what Chris had been up to, and she learned that Charlie had discovered what had happened when the woman, whose name was also Charley, short for Charlene, called looking for Chris. At that point, Rafferty brought them t he coffee.

“He’s literally replacing me with the female version of me! It’s just sick!” Charlie bemoaned, not unjustly. Helena had a difficult time wrapping her head a round it.

“I never actually asked her name,” she said.

Charlie sniffed again and took a thoughtful sip of his cooling beverage. “The thing is, I don’t think she had any idea about me either. I… I feel bad for her. Is it alright for me to feel bad for her?”

“Yes, but that makes Chris seem even worse,” Helena said, shaking her head, holding her cup in her hands but forgetting to drink it, even though it was amazin g coffee.

Then Rafferty appeared beside her and poured something into it.

“What did you do?” she asked as he turned to go back into th e kitchen.

“I fixed it,” he reported, which clarifie d nothing.

So she took a sip. Vanilla danced on her tongue, but after she swallowed, she realized he had added her lavender creamer. Or his version of her lavende r creamer.

“Why didn’t you tell me when you found out?” Charlie asked softly, shaking his head.

She swallowed. “At first, because I was in shock, and I wasn’t sure if I would make things worse or better and I didn’t wan t to act—”

“Until you had the right answer, yeah. That makes sense,” Char lie said.

She took a breath, in for a penny, in for a dollar. “And then Chris said he would tell you himself, and for me to give him time, which I could understand, but then he threa tened me.”

“He threatened you?” Charlie asked, furrowing his eyebrow s harder.

“To tell everyone in my life about some personal secrets that I have and he knows,” she said.

Charlie’s face popped open to big Os, both his eyes and his mouth. “Oh God damn,” he said as he leaned forward to prop his arm on his table and cover his mouth with his fist. “No, h e didn’t.”

“Yeah, he did,” she c onfirmed.

“God, Helena, I’m so sorry,” he said, setting his hand on her leg and squeezing his apology.

She covered his hand and smiled gently. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I told my boss at work and she’s aware, so if he tries anything, she’s prepared.”

“Oh crap,” Charlie added, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have had to do that. He has no grounds to break your trust l ike that.”

“It’s alright. It’s too late now, and I’m fine.”

Charlie nodded and accepted that, then looked up as Rafferty came once more through the kitchen door. He set two plates of quiche down in front of each of them, and Helena’s eyes popped out. “Rafferty, this is…”

“Breakfast,” he said, “Bon appetit.”

He moved to go back into the kitchen, but Charlie held up a hand to him. “I’m sorry. I came in here a hot mess, and I didn’t even introduce myself to you. I’m Charlie, Helena’ s friend.”

Rafferty took his hand and shook it.

“You two actually met,” Helena admitted, her cheeks pi nking up.

“Oh?” Charlie asked, looking quickly to her and then back to Rafferty, his eyebrows popping up as he realized it. “Oh, yes. You were the caterer that night. Oh man, your food is delicious. I swear to God, there had to be some magic in it because I had the biggest breakthrough on my golf game the next day. I had been plateauing for years, and after your dinner… It was a miracle.”

“It affects different people in different ways,” Raffe rty said.

Charlie didn’t know how to take that, and Helena almost choked on air, but her friend just rolled with it. “Well it was delicious, and if you made this quiche, I’m guessing it’s going to be t he same.”

“I’m glad you’re going to enjoy it,” Rafferty said and turned to go back into the kitchen.

“Oh,” Charlie said to his back. “Aren’t you joining us?” he tried to ask but Rafferty kept moving into the kitchen, so he redirected the question to Helena, “Isn’t he joi ning us?”

“Raffie, are you joining us?” she call ed after.

There was a pause. “Do you wan t me to?”

“Yes, get in here and eat breakfast with m y friend.”

“Fine.”

She glanced back at Charlie, who finally had a proud, smug grin on his fac e. “What?”

“Cindy owes me $20,” he said.

“No, you did not bet on me hooking up with…” She indicated Rafferty, who picked that moment to come in with his plate and move to the seat at her right hand, opposite Charlie.

“What’s not to like, Hel? Tall, dark, reasonably good-looking, and he can cook,” Charlie said blatantly as he watched Rafferty take his seat.

“Yeah, but…” Helena tried to protest and then Rafferty held his hand out to her to take, and Charlie’s smug smile grew eve n deeper.

Trapped, Helena smiled, sighed, and took her boyfriend’s hand, cutting a slice of the quiche with her fork. The quiche was perfect, warm and savory, with bits of ham, finely diced green peppers, and cheese evenly mixed in. But she didn’t notice any of it. Only Charlie’s happy/sad smile as he took his fi rst bite.

“How is it?” Rafferty asked. It was only then that a horrible thought came to Helena, and she shot him an alar med look.

He looked back at her, pinching his brows together to as k, “What?”

She wiggled her fingers at the food, while making pointed eyes. Did you put magic in the food? she thoug ht asked.

He pinched his fingers together a tin y amount.

Helena flared her eyes and nostrils at him. What?

It’ll be fine, he gestured and indicated Charlie with a nod of his head, who had indeed tucked into his quiche, eating calmly even as tears rolled down hi s cheeks.

Pursing her lips together, Helena did not feel convinced in the slightest. She leaned in, tugging on Rafferty to do the same, so she could whisper in his ear. “What di d you do?”

He returned the whisper, pulling her hair back to clear her ear. “I wished him peace. He’ll be fine. The chances of something bad happening from that are incred ibly low.”

She had to accept that; Charlie was already halfway through his quiche and the explanation of why he should throw it up involved explaining her demon summoning exploits. That was clearly one revelation too many at th e moment.

“Me and Chris were like that, in the beginning,” Charlie said, noting the whispering. “I’m so happy for you , Helena.”

“Don’t talk like that… I mean, in the past tense, you don’t know…” She struggled for the right way to say it. “Is it really over between you or do you think you’ll try to wor k it out?”

“I don’t know,” Charlie said honestly. Then there was a chime song. He dug out his phone and held it up. Predictably, it said Chris across the top. He didn’t answer it, just stared at it until the jingling went away. Then Helena’s phone began to dance an d jingle.

“Do you want me to answer it?” s he asked.

“No,” Charlie said, completely calm. “We’re having breakfast r ight now.”

So she muted the ring, and they kept eating silently while both their phones continued to blow up with miss ed calls.

“Have you talked to Cindy yet this morning?” Chr is asked.

Helena glanced at her phone clock. “I was going to before you came over. She told me to go to work, but I don’t see how I can. How did you hear about it?”

“She called me late last night before I got the call from the other Charley. We talked for a long time. So on top of everything else, I feel guilty about that too.”

“Charlie,” Helena said, leaning over to take his hand. “This is not o ur fault.”

“But I was wondering. I noticed some things, but I ignored them, that she wasn’t as alright as she wanted all of us to think. But I’m not like you, Helena. I’m not good at saying what needs to be said when it needs to be said. I just kept sitting around and waiting to see, you know. And this whole time she was a thin thread away from snapping.”

“Maybe she needed to snap,” Rafferty sudde nly said.

“She needed to hurt herself?” Helena c hallenged.

Rafferty shook his head. “Maybe that was the problem. She didn’t feel like she could. She didn’t feel like she could be weak or let anybody down, so she just extended and extended and locked herself up so tight that she couldn’t ever let go. That sort of thing will kill you or make you do stupid desperate things to guarantee that you don’t fail. But what she really needed was to fail, so that it could be over, so she could let go, and now she’s got a chance to actua lly heal.”

Charlie nodded his head at that. “I’ve heard something like that before. That another way to look at depression is not as a bad thing, but your body telling you that you need to stop and rest. Depressed. Deep rest.” He examined Rafferty a little closer and Helena grew worried about what he saw. “Probably a common thing in culinary schoo l, right?”

“The place I trained was very brutal. A lot of people didn’t make it,” Raffert y agreed.

“Ha, I bet,” Charlie said, cutting another bite from his quiche. “Well, you are a good guy, Rafferty, and you make a damn goo d quiche.”

“I am not a good guy,” Rafferty said, then nodded. “And I make an alright quiche. Could have used something more. Another spice. I don’t know.” He licked his teeth as he thought about it.

“And that is the sign of a true chef,” Charlie pointed out. “Not like Chris. The freaking poser. He thinks everything he cooks is amazing.”

“Yeah, I know,” Helena said, flashing the demon, who was refusing to look at her and yet unable not to. “I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last couple months with out him.”