Chapter 2
Sitting in my living room that afternoon, I realized just how stupid I was for thinking that we could work out, even now. Making any sort of contact with him like calling or texting was stupid. For all I knew, my spell wasn’t strong enough and it would break at knowing anything more than my name and coffee order.
Honestly, seeing him everyday probably wasn’t a good idea either. Barty had been safe for years, so there was no real reason for me to continue to “check on him”. With my luck, Barty would recognize me and then everything would come rushing back to him. And I couldn’t have that. I didn’t spend all these years in misery for that.
So, it was that day that I decided to stop going to the coffee shop, to stop seeing Barty in general. There was nothing I could do anymore. I had done what I had done and I was not going to risk reversing it for my own personal gain.
Of course, that slowly deteriorated from never seeing him, to seeing him every two weeks. For all I knew, somebody could be after him, trying to drag him back into the world of magic. I couldn’t let that happen. Barty was out. Who was I to let someone pull him back?
So there I was, two weeks later, wandering into the coffee shop like nothing had changed.
And there he was, beautiful as ever behind the counter, his hair refusing to stay behind his oddly pointy ears. I thought back to that day when we pierced his ear in our dorm room.
We were stupid and didn’t do it right so it ended up getting infected. Then, he had to go see Madam Pomfrey about it. But, she pretended to believe us when we told her that Barty’s father had let him get it. Not sure why it was she did that as she obviously knew it was a lie but we didn’t care.
Now, my eyes scanned for an earring that I knew wasn’t going to be there. In fact, the hole wasn’t even there anymore.
I knew it wasn’t. I had noticed it the first couple weeks after obliviating Barty but since then I had refused to look for it. It just reminded me of another memory I alone have, another day Barty would never remember because of me.
I knew it was for his safety but I still hated the feeling of being so alone, almost like I was on my own island. After Pandora’s death, I was left with nothing. Of course, there was Luna but I was more of an estranged relative that sent her birthday presents every year rather than the uncle I was supposed to be.
I told myself that I wasn’t involved with Luna because I wasn’t part of the Wizarding World anymore but the real reason behind it was that I was too scared to see her. She was a spitting image of her mother so how was I supposed to interact with her when I would barely look in the mirror because all I saw was Pandora?
I took a deep breath, trying to expel those thoughts from my brain. I needed to focus on Barty right now, and not messing this all up, not Pandora or Luna or anyone else.
So, I stepped into line, fighting the rapid beating of my heart as I approached the counter.
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Barty smiled, an eyebrow raised slightly with curiosity.
“Works been busy,” I shrugged, knowing all too well that it was a lie. I worked at a bookstore, it wasn’t really a place that got busy.
“I see,” the brunette laughed, the overhead lights making his eyes sparkle like bronzite, “The usual?”
“That’d be nice,” I nodded, not able to stop the smile that spread across my face.
“Alright, that’ll be ready for you down on the other end,” he told me, winking as I walked away.
I bit down on my lip, pretending to not see it. I couldn’t let him even have any sort of idea that I liked him, much less was in love with him and had been for years. He has to let whatever it was he felt about me pass and go find someone else, someone who would make him happy.
Because that sure as hell wasn’t me.