There was hardly ever a reason to be anxious over the daily ritual of checking the mail, and if there was one it could easily be limited to a few understandable causes: A notice on that bill you forgot to pay, a reply from that application you sent in months ago, or a letter from your parents informing you all-too-late of their surprise visit. None of the above were the case, but as Sullivan shuffled through the small collection of letters in his hands where he sat at the kitchen table and a particularly curious parchment caught his eye, a sinking feeling in his gut overthrew his usually calm disposition.
“Come one, come all, to the Inkwell Ball! All residents are welcome!”
It wasn’t like him to let his nerves take control of him. If anything, he had every reason to smile. An event like this always meant good business for the boutique: Women rushing in to get a new gown and men dragged in after them to also look their best. Every holiday, party, and promenade was evidence to this most financially beneficial of patterns. There was just one flaw in it this time: The Thimbles and Corozos had been invited to attend themselves...
“Reading something interesting?” a polished feminine voice tickled alongside his head.
Sullivan’s heart leapt from the pit of his stomach to his nonexistent throat as he all-but fell out of his chair in surprise. Felicity chuckled at his reaction before placing a mug of coffee in front of him and taking the adjacent seat with her own cup. Amaryllis and the boys had already gone to school, and Catrina--as usual--lived in her workroom, so it was just the two of them. This had also become a ritual for them, just before it was time to open the shop, to take a moment to relax before the day could truly begin.
Not that he felt very relaxed as she inched closer to him to peer across his shoulder at the letter. “There’s going to be a ball?” she mused aloud as she read. Though Sullivan kept an expression of outward calm, inside he was cringing. “That’s actually not a bad idea...” she continued, “We should go.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing and it showed, the expression he wore now looking as through he had been smacked clean in the jaw. Felicity could handle herself in a crowd just fine and was as pleasant as could be, but she wasn’t a party person. Years of living with Catrina had given her the same kind of workaholic nature that their former caretaker and landlady lived and breathed. Her evenings were spent double-checking the boutique’s inventory: A ball certainly wasn’t her style. Not to mention with how busy the shop would likely get because of the event, he would expect her to outright refuse the invitation.
Personally, he didn’t mind it either way, but the thought of attending the ball with Felicity rattled him like nothing else. How many years had they and their siblings lived with Catrina now? They had still been crunching numbers on a school chalkboard when they came to Inkwell. He had fought with his feelings throughout his adolescence only for them to eventually be snuffed out by time as they two took to their own roads. They still had their siblings to look after and Felicity wanted to work. She never showed an interest in anything of the romantic sort, much less... him. He had settled with the logic that their relationship would stay professional as coworkers and housemates. Or so he thought. For Felicity herself to bring up a thing like this stirred something that he hadn’t felt since their school years.
Professionalism was the only thing to keep him grounded, “This is all on really short notice,” he countered, “Don’t you think we’ll be busy?”
“Oh no doubt,” she answered, encouraging him to hand her the invitation with a light tug of her fingers. Despite her words, there wasn’t any reluctance as she spoke. “Still, this would be the perfect chance to advertise for Catrina’s spring collection. We’ll have the kids go too.”
Of course. Releasing a deep breath he hadn’t known he had been withholding, he picked up his coffee mug and hid a strange, conflicting smile behind it. Professional as always...
“Hmm... We might be able to make a little time, I guess...”
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The actor is best known to genre fans as the lycan/vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in Underworld and its first sequel, Underworld: Evolution. He also starred in The Strangers. Others may recognize him as Ben Covington from Felicity.
It's kind of hard to believe these characters are 18 and 19 when they are played by people in their midtwenties and dealing with issues that may be dealt with in college but that aren't dealt with all at once...
