Story: A Loving Evening

This was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon for my Final Friday Fics - Wishes and a square of my January Public Domain Day Bingo Card.

This 905 word story is the 4th installment of my new series The Witch's Kitchen, which now has a landing page!

A Loving Evening

The acoustic strains a mellow guitar, in harmony with the haunting notes of a plucked lyre harp, filled the dining room of The Witch’s Kitchen. The music was soothing and enhanced the romantic atmosphere that suffused the restaurant. The seven oak tables were decorated with blush, ivory, or maroon tablecloths, and contrasting short centerpieces of white, red, or pink roses and carnations. 
 

On the specials board the Tea of the Day, for Valentine’s Day, was “Loves Awakening.” Jeannette’s magical blend of cacao nibs, carob, rose petals, orange peel, crushed cinnamon stick, and vanilla. Its sweet floral earthiness could melt away one’s cares and worries and leave their heart in a state where love of all kinds might flourish.
 

It was Valentine’s Day, and the restaurant was fully reserved for all three seatings. To make it a special night, the tables had only been available by reservation, and diners had been asked to indicate their preferred love experience for the evening; platonic, familial, or passionate, and were sat at tables accordingly. 
 

Lucia surveyed the front of house from where she was currently leaning in the doorway to the kitchen and felt the wash of love and affection that filled the whole building. It soothed the final nerves from the botched Grand Opening two weeks prior. That day had started so disastrously, and after waking up from the Time Out Tincture, she and Jeanette had reworked the plan to formally open the next day on Sunday, February 2nd. It had gone well. They had enjoyed a steady stream of diners, and no one seemed to carry any ill will that the opening had been delayed.
 

Now, they were hosting the restaurant’s first special event, and really pulling out all the stops on the magical dining experience. In addition to Jeanette’s love tonic, and Lucia’s Daily Special, the musicians they’d hired for tonight had a special magical talent as well. They moon shaped lyre harp played by Rayna could grant wishes if the circumstances proved fortuitous. Lucia and Jeanette were both fascinated by the potential gift locked inside the very simply carved instrument and hoped to catch a glimpse of its magic that night.
 

Lucia ducked back into the kitchen to get her part of the show underway. Appetizers had gone out very recently for the first seating of customers, and all the standing order dishes were prepped and ready to serve with finishing touches. So now it was time to make some magic.
 

Nonetto’s cauldron sat gleaming upon Stanley, the wood fire below crackling and scenting the kitchen of apple and cherry wood. She began singing an incantation, loading her voice with a husky sultriness.
 

Birds do it, Bees do it

        Even educated fleas do it

        Let’s do it, let’s cook with love

 

The cauldron’s rounded potbelly seemed to blush as it heated to a rosy copper glow, and the sudden sizzle of steak hitting hot metal rose into the kitchen. Lucia could smell tantalizing hints of a spice rub, picking up cocoa, paprika, allspice, and a hint of cayenne. Anticipation of what the cauldron was preparing rose as she watched the steaks rise out, perfectly medium rare, onto her waiting platter, only to hear the pot sizzle again as butter and chopped shallots joined the drippings in the bottom of the cauldron, followed a few minutes later by the powerful aroma of red wine pouring into the mix. She’d tempted the pot into creating a very romantic Cocoa Spiced Steak with Red Wine Chocolate Sauce. As the cauldron completed enough entrees for the first seating of diners Lucia sang the closure of her incantation.

 

        In shallow shoals English soles did it

        Goldfish in the privacy of bowls did it

        We’ve done it, we’ve cooked with love

 

She offered three noisy smacking kisses and the cauldron settled, at rest once more on Stanley’s burner, and slowly losing its rosy blush.

 

“Gorgeous compare, brilliant as always!” Lucia praised. She tucked the steaks and sauce under the warming lights and dashed for the dining room to write the Daily Special on the board with a flourish.

 

~~~

It happened as the third seating was well underway, and the atmosphere in the restaurant had taken on a sultry twist. The later reservations had mostly requested passionate love experiences, and at a table tucked into the farthest corner from the musicians a lovely couple of women were holding hands and murmuring to one another around bites of their meal. Lucia was helping Jeanette behind the counter and waiting to assist with serving the evening’s final dessert course when they both felt the magical change in the air. They listened as the melody from Rayna’s lyre harp turned even more fluid and haunting, and around her fingers tiny glittering sparks arose, red, gold, and iridescent into a swirling mass of wish magic. It coalesced above Rayna’s hands, hesitated for a moment, and then streaked towards the women where it burst above their heads, glistening down over them in a shower of warm sparks. Diners all around the room watched in awe, and then a gave a rush of applause as the women embraced while the magic settled within them. 

 

Lucia wondered what wish they’d been granted. She’d ask Rayna if she knew after they closed for the night, but now she joined in the applause and grinned at Jeanette as they realized one of their own sweetest dreams for their little café.

~~~Notes~~~

Rayna's moon shaped lyre harp