The Deucalion Restaurant

🍬Chapter 20🍬

The smell of cinnamon greeted the three friends as they walked through the entrance to the Christmas Carnival. It was such a familiar, overwhelmingly powerful and nostalgic smell. It took Morrigan back to simpler times.

Like months ago when her friends hadn't invited a hot waiter out for a date with her.

Wait.

Did this even classify as a date? Neither asked the other out, and one hadn't even known until the day of. They wouldn't be dressed up too nice... well Morrigan wasn't. Oh Divine! What if Jack was? What if he thought it was a date? Did she think it was a date? Did she want it to be a date?

Any carefully collected and calm feelings came crashing down around her like turbulent waves as the storm that was her situation made itself fully known.

She was spending time alone with a coworker from work, of whom she had an ever-growing crush on.

And hence, Morrigan was doomed.

As if sensing her sudden internal panic, Cadence lay a hand on her shoulder, guiding her through the crowd and tugging Hawthorne along behind them with her other hand. Once she had successfully steered their group to a seating area, Cadence directed them to a bench, pushing Hawthorne forward to sit. She gave Morrigan's shoulder a quick squeeze before letting go to let them both sit.

"So... what now?"

"Jack said he gets off work at four-thirty, so," Cadence pulled out her phone to check the time, "that gives us about forty minutes to an hour before he gets here.

Morrigan nodded. "Right, so what do we want to do first?"

"Hawthorne wants to try that weird new archery game, so I guess we could start there?"

"Yeah, that's- wait. Where is he?"

"What do you mean, he was right- HawtHORNE SWIFT! For the love of-"

Morrigan sighed, standing up. "Come on, he can't have gotten too far."

Twenty minutes later, Morrigan was beginning to think that maybe - just maybe - Hawthorne could have gotten too far.

The two girls had searched all the tall boy's favourite stalls and stores. Well, except Dawson's Scaly Beasts, of which they were struggling to find.

"I swear, I take my eyes off this boy for a fraction of a second, and he just disappears-"

"It was a little longer than a fraction-"

"Well, he still managed to disappear completely, now didn't he?"

Morrigan sighed. "I suppose he did."

"We'll have to find him before Jack gets here - or I'll drag him into find him too," Cadence muttered weaving her way out of the crowd.

Morrigan couldn't help but smile at her friend's worry. She was sure Hawthorne was fine - the gangly boy likely just got excited and ran off in the direction of said excitement, not wanting to interrupt the girls' conversation. It was a bit endearing really, and Morrigan was sure Cadence thought so, somewhere deep down inside where she wasn't worrying what mischief their boy was getting into.

"Cadence, there's a map of the stores over there - we can find Dawson's stall. He's probably there asking Nan about that ancient purple lizard again," Morrigan said gesturing to her left as she turned around to find Cadence. To her surprise, the taller girl was nowhere to be seen.

"You've got to be kidding... two friends and they've both disappeared. Nice going Morrigan." She sighed, turning around again before deciding to step to the side, out of the crowded walkway.