13/02/2001
la Deli boulangerie, Kingswear, Devon
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[ i n v i t a t i o n ]

"YOU BOUGHT LUNCH? FOR US?"

Yesterday, Bielle decided to break her clean record, skip her daily tea gathering, and spend the evening sipping tisane on her classically decorated porch with Elinor instead.

They were talking about random stuffs when Bielle suddenly said, "I know by heart that a good cup of warm tea before bed is bound to bring a good night sleep. And if it doesn't work for you, take some Ambien from the bathroom closet."

Elinor looked up from her distorted reflection on the tea's surface.

"You're twenty-one. It's not your time yet to have eye bags and wrinkles and ugh." Bielle waved her perfectly manicured hand over her own face, as if referring to herself, "It's the time to be beautiful and make some young men fall onto their knees, begging for love."

Elinor chuckled, "Does it show that much?"

"Yes, mon amour. Everyone can tell when you're happy or sad just by your expression. Is there something troubling your mind?"

"No!" Elinor exclaimed too quickly.

How could she tell her adoptive Muggle mother that she was terrified... because there was high possibility that the one thing (read: magic) she had been running away from... had finally caught up to her in the form of Mrs. Weasley?

She cleared her throat, "No, it's just a little insomnia."

"Ellie, darling... It's well past due time but I have to tell you this... If you remember anything from your past, you have to tell me."

Elinor pressed her lips together and looked down.

"If you want to look for your past, or your biological family—"

"No, Mama, this is my family now."

Bielle nodded. She put her porcelain cup back onto its plate. "Just take the morning off tomorrow."

"I'm fine, Ma. I can come to work—"

"Tatatat. Non. What you can do is get better and stop restocking the pain relief patches every two days. What are you, a vieille? Old woman?"

But the French herbal tea didn't work and the sleeping pill was efficacious only for five hours. The plan to wake up as late as possible went down the drain when Elinor opened her eyes to numbers zero, seven, zero, five etched on her clock.

So she decided to be productive and made use of the kitchen.

Six hours later, Elinor entered the Deli's door bearing two bags, each one containing five lunchboxes of Honey Glazed Roast Pork with apples.

"Oh no, I cooked," Ellie said, grimacing. She handed a bag to her team, "I had the morning shift off today and I made too much. It's probably not as good as Mama's cooking or yours, but this is Ezme's favorite. I've learned to perfect them for years."

"How thoughtful!" Florence exclaimed as she open a lid. The sweet, sour, and woodsy pungent aroma of rosemary filled the whole vicinity at once.

"This looks delicious," Elena said. Isla added, "What can't you do, exactly?"

"A lot. I need to talk to Ezme for a while," Elinor took out one more lunch box from the other bag and put in on the table, "I'll be back in a minute."

She walked towards the kitchen, where the whole Rousseau family was supposed to prepare the ingredients for today's menu: Opéra Gâteau. Once the door was opened, however, Elinor was greeted with the sight of Ezme and Cameron lip-locked, leaning against the counter.

"That is so disgusting, get a room."

"This is a room," Cameron replied, breaking the kiss while giving Elinor a side glance.

"I made lunch," Elinor continued her steps towards them, completely ignoring his remark. "Where's Ma and Pa?"

Ezme reached out towards the package and pulled out a box, "The bosses are out to buy more eggs at Monsieur Gunther's. Wow, is this Honey Glazed—"

"—Roast Pork, yes. You better finish it in ten minutes."

"Ooh, I can finish this in five." Ezme gasped, pushing Cameron off of her to dig into the dish.

"How are you feeling?" Cameron asked, "I thought you're supposed to rest this morning."

"I did. I cooked. It's relaxing."

"Ellie..."

"I'm fine, Marco. Don't worry."

Elinor excused herself from the kitchen, leaving the two lovebirds on their own, to interact with her mentees.

When she approached them, the sixteen-years-old Darcy twins were busy gorging down their food while the mothers were neck deep in chuckled and interesting conversation. Three half-empty lunch boxes were left untouched across the table.

"Do you mind if I take this home?" Molly asked, pointing towards the extra food, "I want to try making this. I think my children would love it."

"Of course!"

"We were just talking about our plans for tomorrow," Lionetta briefed Elinor with a giggle, "Do you have plans, Ellie? A little romance in the air?"

Elinor furrowed her eyebrows, "What's tomorrow?"

Her eyes darted to the space above the deli's counter, where a clock was ticking along to the tock of its minute hand beside a 2001 calendar. Today was Tuesday— oh.

"It's Valentine's Day!"

"Florence's husband the Marine has the day off tomorrow and through the weekend, so they're having some family time in London. And I," Lionetta gestured to herself, "Will be having candle-lit dinner with my husband at the Orange Tree—"

"The Orange Tree? Fancy," Elinor remarked.

It was one of the very few five-stars restaurants in Devon that offered fine dining experience for its customers. It was supposed to be very romantic, very beautiful, and very, very expensive.

Cameron took Ezme there last year. She came home feeling jubilant and stayed that way for a whole week.

"—and Molly is just having a regular family dinner, she was just saying."

"Like you said, the more the merrier," Molly interjected, "But it's actually just me, my husband, and my one single son. The others promised to stop by if their plans are done early. What about you, Ellie?"

"Oh," Elinor smiled, "Well... Mama and Papa are going for a one-night cruise while Ezme and Cameron are currently planning a date. I am left to keep our house safe."

"Hey, you're young! Start looking for your plus one, make some plans!"

Elinor laughed heartily, "I do have plans, actually! It's a silly tradition —hot choco, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, maybe some Julia Roberts on screen. There's a new musical movie, right, Moulin Rouge?"

"That's not how Valentine's is supposed to roll."

"What about you, Isla? Elena?" Elinor asked.

The girl and her sister just shrugged.

"Should I introduce you to my nephew?" Florence offered excitedly, "You're twenty-one right? His name is Christopher, a Marine, too. He's twenty-three and he just got promoted as Staff Sergeant, which is a huge achievement for his age, but I have to warn you, he can act like three sometimes."

"Thank you for the lovely offer, Madame, but I'm not really looking for a boyfriend. I'm still improving myself."

"Relationship doesn't come when you're already perfect, nor does it come to simply complete you. It's about helping each other grow and improve," Florence said solemnly, "I'll definitely tell him to drop by when he visits. Definitely."

"Ellie, dear."

Elinor hummed at Molly's call, "Yes, Madame?"

"Why don't you join me for dinner tomorrow?"

☆★☆

Ashley Rae Fink as Isla and Elena Darcy