A couple days had passed since the Hunter's Moon incident, and thankfully no one had brought up the werewolf drama. The Pentacle had gone back to their routine, the training on a slight pause. Ivy had no objections to this plan. It allowed her to get back to her shop and avoid an interrogation from her fellow witches. As for Hunter, he had been fast asleep when she had entered the house that night. He didn't see how shaken up she had been.

Knowing she should do research on this, Ivy went the other direction. She buried her head into her plants and rarely came up for air. This entailed repotting a bunch that had outgrown their homes and downsizing other that refused to grow. Ivy didn't have to worry too much about plants dying on her. She frequented the shop regularly enough to pump some of her power into her babies. Now, if she had been gone for days on end, this place would likely look like a waste zone.

Music wafted through the store. The notes got under her skin and pushed her to dance. Midway through a slight shimmy, the bells on the front door cut through the shop like a knife. Ivy froze in place, poking her head past the wall that blocked her from view. Griffin Moreau stood just past the entrance, pushing his hands into the depths of his pockets. His normally perky hair lay in a mess over his scalp. His eyes rounded the shop until they landed on Ivy.

"Oh hey." Recognition reflected in his eyes. From his reaction, Ivy knew Griffin wasn't expecting to her see here. He sent her a slight wave with a smile that sent chills down her spine. "Is this your shop?"

Ivy's mouth failed her. She settled with a nod. Disappearing for a second behind the wall, she repotted her plant with a wave of her hand and joined him in the front of the shop. In those seconds between her darting behind the wall and reappearing, Griffin had started to walk over. When she came around the corner, Ivy ran headfirst into him and practically fell onto the floor.

Griffin threw out his hands to catch her, gripping her by the biceps. Ivy put a hand to his chest to steady herself, blushing immediately at the contact. After deeming she was fine, Griffin let her go, taking the warmth his hands brought with him.

"Hi, yes, yes it is my shop." Ivy spoke fast, her hands trailing absentmindedly to where the warmth had once been. She moved in front of him and shifted back to the front of the store. "A generous and anonymous benefactor left it for me."

"Hmm." His dark eyes examined the place from floor to ceiling. Cocking her head to the side, a curious gleam shone in her eyes. Griffin recognized this place, and she wanted to know how. "Nothing's changed. It's just like how I remembered it."

Ivy's brow furrowed at the nostalgia-rich sentence. When she took over, she didn't feel it was right to gut the existing nursery. She kept the name and the basic layout but opted to give it a fresh paint job.

Griffin chuckled at her expression and continued on his journey down memory lane. "I grew up around here, as you likely heard." He sent her a wry smile over his shoulder. "We popped in here quite often. My mother –" His eyes grew a few shades darker as he broached a sensitive subject.

Seeing him struggling for words, Ivy became overwhelmed with sadness. She wanted to close the gap between them and tell him it would be okay. Gripping the edge of the counter, she refrained. It wouldn't be appropriate, especially with how little they knew of each other.

"You'd think it'd get easier," Griffin all but said to himself. He took a deep breath, holding it in a few seconds longer. "As I was saying, my mother was an earth witch. She loved to come in here and play with the plants. She tried to teach us her tricks, but none of us were skilled in the art of the earth." Griffin paused, letting the sentence hang. "Nice to see that someone worthy took over the shop."

"What do you mean worthy?" Ivy's eyebrow almost shot off her face. She moved from leaning against the counter to standing straight. "We all but just met."

"I just know." He bit his bottom lip for half a second before a grin spread over his face, actually reaching his eyes this time. "We'll have to leave it up to chance that we somehow met again, in a garden of all places." Griffin stepped back into the middle of the room and motioned with a sweeping gesture at the bustling biodiversity.

"Chance? Not exactly." Ivy stifled a giggle with a hand. "This is my shop."

"But I didn't know it was your shop when I stumbled in," Griffin countered with a point of his index finger, leaning against the wall.

Ivy rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. There was no winning this argument. Twiddling her thumbs, she racked her brain for what to say next. She had no good response to his wit. As she went to say something, Griffin cleared his throat to speak first.

"Say, what do you do around here?" Griffin pushed off the back wall and moved toward her.

Ivy channeled her inner Rodin and pondered the question, thumb and forefinger on her chin. "Well, today I was in the process of repotting plants."

"Feel like having a helping hand?" Griffin offered. Ivy hesitated, her lips twisting to the side. "No, really. I don't mind. If I wasn't, I'd be back to frequenting the Tulip. That's where I was before this."

Griffin hesitated before looking down at her. "And I don't really need to spend any more time in a coffee shop. Marina keeps giving me new drinks to try."

"Yeah? I guess?" Ivy brought her hands up in shrug. "I typically use my magic, but we can do it the old school way."

His mouth fell open. Shock shone in his eyes as he tilted his head to the side. "Wait, you use your magic? I thought you'd want to feel the soil beneath your hands."

"I typically do, but some things I've been using my magic for." Ivy passed the front door and flipped the open sign to 'closed' before leading them toward the back. "It makes some things so much easier."

"My mother would have had your head," Griffin playfully admonished, hot on her heels. "She taught us all how to take care of plants, even if we couldn't control them like her."

"I wish my mother would have done that," Ivy muttered under her breath. Griffin chuckled softly, an indication that he had heard the comment.

"My mother felt that by manually working with them, she had a stronger connection to her plants, especially her flowers." The memories played behind Griffin's lids. "Flowers were her calling. She was a master at them."

"That's interesting," Ivy mused as she grabbed a few pots and plants for them. "Vines...they seem to be my calling. Could your mother control the flowers?"

"In her words, it was a mutually beneficial relationship." Griffin looked down at the witch. His eyes were glassy, slowly becoming redder and wetter. Ivy decided not to prompt further. She'd leave her questions for another day. She had so many floating through her brain.

The two settled at one of the workstations and stood side by side. Their shoulders were inches apart, brushing each other every once and awhile. As they kept working and talking, the temperature grew, a far cry from the brisk autumn air just on the other side of the door. If the heat affected Griffin, he didn't show it.

"I'll be right back." Ivy wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "Just gotta take off this sweater."

Ivy ducked just behind the wall, feeling his eyes on her as she moved away. She tugged at her sweater, yanking it over her head before a cold draft hit her stomach. The eye roll she shot the universe would have made any sassy, 12-year-old proud.

Call it corny, but her camisole had gotten stuck to her sweater. When she made a move to retreat and start over, her arms were stuck. Curse this damn sweater.

At least she had worn a cute bra.

"Griffin?" Her voice ended in a high squeak. His footsteps approached and stopped before her. He tried to suppress a laugh, but the muffled sound gave him away. "This is so awkward. I know we're still getting acquainted and all, but would you please help a girl out?"

Griffin lost his composure at this point, howling with laughter. She'd likely join in if she weren't stuck and breathing in sweater, but that wasn't the case. Here she stood in front of a stranger – who had seen her in rougher moments to be fair – completely exposed.

"First the bathroom, now this?" Griffin composed himself enough to get a jab in. "You have zero luck."

Ivy felt the heat before his fingers even brushed against her torso. He speedily returned the camisole to its rightful place, and she yanked the sweater over her head so fast that it almost smacked him straight in the face.

"That was..." Griffin looked back at the workstation while trying to stop the biggest grin from forming.

"Embarrassing? Humiliating?" Ivy finished for him, storming back to the table. "Wait, no, humiliating was the bathroom. This was just embarrassing."

"Hey, now." Griffin put a hand on her bicep, slightly turning her toward him. Ivy may have been tall, but Griffin seemed to tower over her, his height and expanse of shoulders swallowing her up. "We all have those moments."

Silence settled between the two. The heat pulsated from his hands through her body. Their eyes stayed locked on one another, neither one sure what to say. He leaned forward just a bit; opening his mouth to say something when the bells, those ever so pesky bells, signaled someone had entered the shop. Ivy jumped out of his grasp and buried her hands into a pot of soil. Griffin stood there too stunned to move. Confusion etched into his features before being replaced by something else.

"Babe." Hunter's voice hit her ears, and Ivy whirled around to see Hunter carrying a grocery store back, filled to the brim with vegetables. "What's going on?"

"Hunter," she breathed a sigh of relief and moved forward to greet him. She gave him a peck, which he deepened by pressing his hand into her low back.

Jealous buffoon, a voice whispered in the back of Ivy's head.

When she turned back to Griffin, he stood straighter, more rigid. His chest slightly puffed out as he crossed his arms over his chest. He furrowed his brow for a split second before going back to his poker face.

"Name's Griffin." He extended a hand in greeting. "I grew up around here. I had just stopped in, looking for something to do."

Ivy could tell Hunter bit back a sarcastic comment as he pursed his lips. He glanced down at the hand before clasping it with his own. "Hunter, Ivy's boyfriend."

"Nice to meet you," Griffin huffed out. This cold demeanor had replaced the fun one he exuded earlier.

That same silence resettled over the three of them, but instead, this was the uncomfortable kind. Hunter snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her into him tightly. Ivy kept her eyes trained on Griffin as she tried to get a read on him. His eyes darted to where Hunter's hand possessively lay, growing a shade darker. He wretched them from her hips and found her eyes. When they met, he looked away hastily, trying to hide his reaction.

Ivy wondered what could be going through his mind right now. His reaction to Hunter confounded her, as this was the first real time they had spent together. The only other time had been in a bar bathroom with her drunk as a skunk, which Hunter still didn't know about. In the midst of all this, something gnawed at her. Hunter's usual greeting felt off and too forced. Beyond that, it missed that same spark he typically brought with him.

"I better get going." Griffin broke the silence, running a hand through his hair and down the side of his stubble. He looked up, locking gazes with Ivy. "I had a great time getting to know you better. Until next time?"

"Until next time," she finished, a grin forming.

Hunter pulled her even closer to him, if that was possible. "Great meeting you man. See you around."

"See you." Griffin didn't bother sparing him a second look as he weaved his way to the front of the store. The bells signaled his departure, the door hitting the frame confirming it.

Hunter opened his mouth to argue about something, but Ivy held a hand up. She didn't want to deal with any attitude from her boyfriend. He would only say something stupid and regret it later on.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." She met his fiery gaze. "We can discuss this later. I have work to clean up, and you have stuff that needs to be put in the refrigerator."

"Hmph," he grunted picking up the bag. He started for the back door that led to their street. "We'll talk about this later."

"Hunter," Ivy called out. She knew what he thought and that she had to remedy those poisonous thoughts before they rooted in too deeply. "Nothing happened."

Her boyfriend breathed a sigh of relief but didn't respond. The door sounded behind him, leaving Ivy with her plants.

As she turned back to work and reexamined the scene, which included replaying the events of the day in her head, Ivy wasn't quite sure if Hunter would fully believe that. She wasn't even too sure if she believed it herself.

A/N

Well, everyone has been acquainted with one another. Hmmm. What does this all mean? Didn't seem like Hunter took this too well.

It's been another crazy week out here. Hope you're safe and doing well in whatever part of the world you're in <3