ToGetHer

Shaky fingers follow along the words listed, “Crimson craft of the far depths, arise from the black of the midnight hour. Keep Turben- Turbenis ughhh!” A young man yells, throwing his book to the floor. “I’m never gonna get this spell right.” He says pushing his glasses up to his face and adjusting his pocket protector beneath his sweater vest. Dimly lit candles cast eerie shadows of his sinister plan along the walls. Jars of small organs from rodents and reptiles line the countertops to help him perform the ritual. He can’t even believe he’s resorted to this measure of desperation but she’ll never see him otherwise. The young man Tristan carefully collects the book, blows out the candles and gives up for the evening. “I hope this doesn’t stain.” He says as he pushes a mop across pentagram drawn in chicken blood on the floor in his small kitchen apartment. With all the ritual candles blown out the young man heads to bed but not before logging on to the dating app and gazing at her profile one last time. “I’m gonna marry that girl one day… One day we’ll be together.” He says before slowly drifting off to sleep.

Meanwhile across town a young lady dressed in a little black dress sits alone at a bar, deep in the heart of the city. “I don’t think he’s coming honey. You want another one?” The bartender asks. She takes a big sigh in the smoke filled tavern. “Nawh. I think I’ll call it a night. Ya know this is the third time this month I’ve been stood up. And it’s crazy we match, we talk, we have good chemistry and then they pull this shit. I swear men nowadays are just trash, no offense.” She says reaching in her purse for her wallet. “None taken hun, well it's like they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” He says, raising his eyebrows at her. Bridgette brushes off the man’s cliche one liner and hands him her card. A gorgeous man dressed in shark skin gray slacks and a black button down approaches her. His body looks to have been molded by the gods and face is straight from a magazine. “Hello” he says to the star struck woman. She can’t utter a word, instead she twirls the small cocktail straw in her mouth sucking down what little remains in the glass, hoping he would notice she was empty and buy her a drink. “Are you here alone?” He asks, piercing his honey brown eyes straight through her. She quickly nods yes and hangs on edge waiting for the next words to fall from his lips. “Oh great, so you won’t be needing this stool then.” The young man quickly snatches the stool next to her and heads to the other end of the bar with his friends. “Just gimme my card.” the young woman says to the bartender. Defeated, worn out and embarrassed Bridgette calls for an Uber and heads home. The Uber driver listens of all her man troubles and like any good Uber driver he not only offers his condolences but he offers his dating services as well. Of course she declines his advances and quickly heads upstairs to her apartment. She peels herself out of the dress and plops down on the sofa. She walks over to her calendar and adds another notch to the list of No Shows. She;s up to 7 in the last three months. A long sigh and large scoop of ice cream bring her back from a familiar place of disappointment. After watching a few episodes of her favorite reality show and a long venting session in a group chat with her friends, she decides to call it a night. But what’s this? The Finding Your Forever app has a new notification. It’s an “ultra like” from a stock broker named David. She scrolls through his photos with his BMW, with him shirtless by a pool, and with him in a suit with a million dollar smile.

-Hi David, pleasure to meet you, I’m Bridgette.

-Hi Bridgette, the pleasure is all mine, I’m sorry to message so late but I couldn’t wait. Women as beautiful as you dont last long on this site.

-Omg thats so sweet of you to say, but it aint true let me tell you how many times I’ve been stood up…

The conversation between the two carries until the wee hours of the morning. Bridgette should be exhausted, should be dragging ass into work, but with the thrill of a new love interest, and a cup of coffee she is wide awake and ready to take on the day. She storms into the office barking orders and putting out fires before her first meeting. She’s a boss today and feeling invincible on top of the world. She sits down in her big leather chair and winks at herself in the small mirror on her desk. And that’s when she sees it, a big, impossible to ignore zit smack in the middle of her forehead. The filthy thing grew just in time for her date with David tonight.

Across town Tristan is back in the kitchen practicing his dance steps to complete the ritual. His face is chalk covered in magical symbols and designs and he’s wearing a headband with various feathers and crystals. “It’s two spins to the left then side step right, no that’s not right.” He says before he spins three times right and slides backwards smacking into the kitchen table. His scrawny body crashes to the floor and he laughs. Defeated, outdone and tired he looks at himself and laughs uncontrollably. “This is ridiculous, I feel like a fool. Who’s to say this stuff even works anyway?” He tosses the headband into the trash and straightens out the table. “I had to be out of my mind.” He says with another chuckle to himself. He places the spell casting book onto the bookshelf and checks his watch. “Welp it’s nearly time, I guess I should send the money.” Tristan pulls his phone from the clip on his side and opens cash app. “There, the second half is paid. I wonder if this is tax deductible, Nawh probably not.” He says before proceeding to open the dating app to find Bridgette’s profile. His thumb hovers over the icon but he doesn’t dare open it. “This has gotta be bad luck before a date.” With that he puts down the phone and heads to his closet to pick out a nice shirt and slacks. He decides on a white button down shirt and navy blue slacks and irons them twice. Nothing can go wrong tonight, everything must be perfect. In the shower his nervous panic has him scrubbing off the first layer of skin in some places and nearly to bleeding in others. He hops from the shower with a spry in his step. His clothes fit him like a glove and there’s not a flaw in sight. Every follicle of hair in his mane flows in unison with the next. He spritzes on his favorite cologne “Love and War” masking the scent of his sinister desire in the air. His fangs sharpened and minty fresh gleam and sparkle in the mirror. Those bright brown eyes glow with predatory focus. Tonight is the night he steps from the shadows, tonight is the night he pounces.

David and Bridgette have just pulled into Hogan’s Italian restaurant and haven’t been able to stop starting at one another. “So you know I let you win!” David says grinning from ear to ear as he opens her car door. “So you’re saying you bowled a gutter ball to let me win, and not that you cracked under pressure.” She says smiling at how cute he is. “Yea something like that!” He responds. The two share a laugh and make their way inside to dine in the candlelight. The food is spectacular and now the chemistry is explosive. Each word has her hanging at the edge of her seat. His smile makes her melt and he woos her with his charm. In a flash she envisions her future with David and her heart skips a beat. She is head over heels smitten with this wonderful man who has been everything she’s been waiting for. “Ya know I’ve really been enjoying you, I don’t want this night to end.” She says twirling the whipped cream on her apple pie with a spoon. “Yea, it has been pretty magical and I already know I’m gonna hate to see you leave.” He says with a big smile before sipping his coffee. Bridgette reaches across the table and takes David’s hand. “What if you didn’t have to see me leave just yet?”

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“My place isn’t far from here…” she says with a sultry tone. David stares deep into her eyes. Bridgette bites her bottom lip in anticipation of his response. Finally after seeing her intentions in her brown eyes David slowly pulls his hand back. “I don’t date whores…” he says softly and hangs his head. The once cheerful man is now a melancholic drab figure of his former self.

“No David I didn’t mean it like-”

“Let’s just go.” He says assertively, and standing so quickly he knocks the chair over.

The whole drive home there’s a tangible silence between the two. Eyes that were once so eager to meet hers now have become blind to her presence and stare straight ahead on the road. Lips that had once seemed to have sweet words on standby for her have been sealed shut since the restaurant. The two pull up at Bridgette’s home and before getting out she takes one last look at David hoping for anything resembling the man from earlier. Nothing. She exits the car and before she could thank him for the evening he peels off down the street. Not again, not another one. Her knees give way and she crashes down to the ground faster than her falling tears. The heartache inside manifests as all visions of David in her future are dying. “Excuse me miss, are ok?” Tristan says gently crouching down beside her. “ Yea I’m ok.” She says between sobs. “With all due respect miss, it doesn’t seem like you are.” He plucks a small flower from the grass and offers it to her with a smile. Bridgette looks up with teary eyes and a snotty nose and actually sees the man that’s beside her on the sidewalk. He’s not the cutest and the glasses make him look a little nerdy but he’s kind. His smile is friendly and inviting. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m out here looking a hot mess. Thank you this is so sweet.”

“I think you look beautiful!” Tristan says in a way that she’s never heard anyone else say it before. It’s said with such force and confidence like to think anything to the contrary to her beauty would be a crime. “You wanna talk about it?” He asks picking another flower and placing it in her hair. “You don’t wanna hear about this.” She starts but is immediately cut off. “Well we’ve got nothing else to do and nowhere to be, whatcha got to lose?” Bridgette broods over her shambled date and lets down her walls and invites Tristan into her woes. That was all it took, a simple gesture of affection to a broken woman, to sow the seed of a beautiful relationship. The two talk all night about everything and nothing without any awkward silences. The sun finds them right where the moon had left them and they exchange contacts and plan to see each other again soon.

One year later

Bridgette can’t stop staring at her engagement ring and is reluctant to take it off during the move. She is packing up the books on the bookshelf in Tristan’s tiny apartment when one catches her eye. It’s entitled Spells and Witchcraft for the Modern Age. It doesn’t seem like anything Tristan would own, so the oddity easily catches her eye. It’s a red leather book with a green spine and green bookmark. She chuckles to herself before flipping it open out of curiosity. She can’t believe what she sees rituals and spells with her name written in blood over and over again. She screams so loud that voice cracks and goes silent. Tristan runs from the bedroom and stops short when he sees which book she’s holding.

“Did you cast spells on me?” She screams.

“Well no, but kinda.” Tristan says, stumbling over his words.

”Then explain this!” She yells holding up the book cracked open to a spell. “Explain why you were using magic to get me to fall in love with you!” She screams, throwing the book at him. Tristan hangs his head and chuckles to himself.

“You think I tried using magic to get you to love me? Ha! No, you did that on your own. The magic was to get you out of your illusion. You’re a solid four out of ten but you had your sights aimed at the best of the bachelors. You don’t remember this but we’ve actually met a long time ago in a bar. I bought you a drink and you completely blew me off and ended up fucking some guy in the bathroom stall who never called you again. I know because he came back to the bar the next day bragging about it to his friends. So the magic wasn’t for your love. It was for you to see yourself and get your head out of the clouds. But I didn’t fully believe in all this hocus pocus. So I created fake dating profiles with the hottest guys, chatted you up and then left you hanging. You needed to be broken before you were ready to accept who you deserve.”

Tristan's words shatter Bridgette’s psyche and heart. Months of anguish and feeling undesirable from being excited time after time for each man that was only a joke to him. Each heartache comes crashing down on her in an instant except one. With tears in her eyes she stares at a man with diabolic schemes for the two of them to be together. “What about David? That wasn’t you. He showed up and he actually liked me!” Tristan moves to pick up the book from the floor, and dusting it off he opens it to the spell he hasn’t seen in over a year. “Bridgette, David was an actor I paid to build you up and crush you. He played his role beautifully, you were so broken I could have scooped you up with a strainer that night we met.”

Air escapes her lungs and she clutches her chest fighting to catch her breath as she suffocates on the truth. Engulfed in anger. Blinded with rage. She screams until her voice gives away its sound. Down on the floor, fetalized and slobbering, her brown eyes stare at her wedding ring. Tristan crouches down beside her. “It doesn’t have to be like this.” He says “You should be flattered that someone went through all this trouble to be with you. There was no reason for you to keep looking outside your league, I’m right here. I would have done anything for us to be ToGetHer.”

-End