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The other three women died laughing, and even Pru joined in. “I should have accepted your olive branch.”

Pearl tried to look superior as she bounced a baby on her hip. “Yes. You should have.”

Hannah, never one to be dissuaded, turned to Pearl. “Back to you wanting Corvus to touch you.”

Opening her mouth to reply, Pearl never got a chance because Pru groaned loudly. “Look. The three of you don’t know him. Stop encouraging her.”

Sofia’s response was swift. “And you do? Maybe you knew him a decade ago, but people can change a lot in ten years. I think you should trust Pearl to make her own decisions.”

“And you weren’t there a decade ago to pick up the pieces when he broke her heart. Forgive me if I don’t want to do it again.”

Pearl was handing Evelyn back to Hannah before her brain caught up to what she was doing. “I think it’s time for me to go home.” And the light of her magic bloomed and she just heard Hannah snarl at Pru as she transported away, “Nice. Way to show up late and ruin the party.”

Pearl felt rather silly leaving so abruptly but couldn’t bring herself to regret it. Her intention was to go straight to bed, and yet she found herself digging under it instead. Having a mother who was sentimental about things and moving across the country had made Pearl rather opposed to hanging on to much. However, her mother had given her a beautiful box to hold her treasures when she was young, and she’d kept it close ever since, but, it was rare that she put anything in it and even rarer that she pulled it out and wallowed in nostalgia. Opening it, the first thing she saw was Corvus’ smiling face, which reminded her why she opened it so rarely. It was one of the only pictures she had of him. It was before smart phones, and she’d never been great at taking pictures anyway, but he, of course, had a ridiculously expensive camera, and he’d insisted that they visit every bookstore in London on one of their dates. It was a silly request, but she loved it. She loved that he remembered it was one of her goals when she first moved here. And he’d taken photos of her in almost every one of them. He’d set the camera down to look at a book in one of the stores without a care in the world that the camera was expensive and would probably be stolen immediately. Pearl had picked it up to chastise him but instead snapped his picture right as he turned to show her something he thought she’d like in the book. He’d had the most beautiful, bright smile on his face like he was so happy it didn’t have any choice but to radiate out of him somehow. When they’d gotten the pictures developed, it had taken Pearl’s breath away, and she’d claimed it immediately. Looking at it, she wondered what had happened to all the pictures of her. Soft pops sounded from her living room, and she looked up to see Sofia and Aashvi standing at the doorway to her room.

It wasn’t until Aashvi put a hand to Pearl’s face that she realized she was crying. “We want you to tell us about Corvus. We want you to talk about him without fear of judgment or recrimination.”

Sofia knelt to join them. “And we want you to be able to speak without the weight of other people's opinions holding you back.”

Swiping a sleeve over her eyes, Pearl looked between her friends. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a while. Where are Hannah and Pru?”

Sofia and Aashvi looked at each other, and Sofia spoke up. “We told them they were in time-out and needed to think about what they’d done.”

Pearl laughed wetly. “I’m sure that went well.”

Grinning, Sofia put an arm around Pearl. “We left before they could talk back. What do you have here?”

For a moment, Pearl was tempted to snap the box closed and shove it back under the bed as though they hadn’t already seen it, but she took a deep breath and held out the photo. Sofia looked at it for a long moment before she spoke softly. “If that’s the way he looks at you, no wonder you fell for him.”

Aashvi laid a hand on Pearl’s arm. “Are you ok sharing this with us? You don’t have to.”

The itchy, unsettled feeling dissipated from Pearl’s body and was replaced with warmth and gratitude towards her friends. She pulled another item out of the box. This one was a worn paperback of Roald Dahl’s Boy. “I would love to share this with you. I’ve been holding all of it so close for so long, it feels wonderful to let it out. Corvus gave me this the first time I went to his home. He said it was one of his favorites, and I had only gotten through about half of it when everything fell apart. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it, but I couldn’t ever manage to throw it away either, so I put it in here.” She laughed at herself. “I feel so ridiculous. It’s like a little shrine to him. I promise I have other things in here.”

Sofia looked thoughtful. “No wonder your other relationships didn’t work out. Corvus was literally under your bed hexing all of them.”

“Hey, I thought you said no judgement?”

Aashvi jumped in. “That’s not judgement, love, that’s just the truth. Do you think he’s changed or matured or whatever word you want to use?”

Pearl didn’t take long to answer. “It certainly seems that way.”

“Ok, then the next question is, do you think you can forgive him and try again?”

But that question was harder to answer, and the three friends let it lie between them unanswered as they steered the conversation to other things.

Chapter fourteen

Past - December

Pearl made an offhand comment to Corvus when they first started dating that she hated that her birthday fell in December. It was too close to Christmas for anyone to really pay much attention to it - better to have a summer birthday like him so it evenly divided the year and was given the attention it deserved. So, of course, Corvus had started planning her birthday surprise from that moment on. He’d told her to request the day off from work, and she’d said “Please - like I was planning to work on my birthday anyway.” And he’d been upset he hadn’t just inquired with her boss so he hadn’t given himself away. Then when the day dawned, he attempted to play it cool, but she laughed at him five minutes after he arrived at her flat. “Corvus, you are absolutely vibrating with anticipation. What do you have planned?” He kissed her as a distraction attempt, and it worked impressively well until Prudence came into the living room and told them to get a room. Corvus shot her the V-sign, and she returned it with vigor. Pearl told Prudence that she would be making out with her boyfriend on the couch on her birthday if she wanted to, and that she wouldn’t be taking any further opinions on the matter. Prudence said that was fair, and that she would be in her room until they shoved off and left her to her blissful singlehood.

Pearl turned to Corvus. “Please tell me that means she and Frederick broke up.”

Shrugging he said, “One can only hope. I think that we would have had the second Great Fire of London if they’d gone on much longer.”

That made Pearl laugh, and he almost forgot why he’d come there in the first place until she looked at him coyly, “So…what are we doing today.”

A wide smile spread across Corvus’ face. “We’re going somewhere special – a place I think you’ll really like. But you’re going to have to trust me.” And he pulled a silk scarf from his pocket. “Are you up for being blindfolded?