Guess who's back?
Back again?
As they'd gotten dressed that morning, Luna had commented how Candace resembled Cinderella, with her transformation from lackluster and forgettable to jaw-droppingly stunning.
And right now, she did indeed feel very much like Cinderella. Pre-Fairy Godmother.
She tried not to sneeze as flyaway wisps of her hair tickled her eyes and nose – she'd spun it up into a sloppy pile that Luna would have had a conniption fit over - and attempted to ignore the water dripping down her angled arms onto and around her bare feet. And she didn't even want to beginto think how many times over she'd have to wash her hands to get out the acerbic scent caused by the mixture of wet spotter, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol that she was using to clean Julius's shirt.
"Any luck?~" Julius appeared in the doorway of the washroom, looking strangely ordinary in his tan slacks – the only piece that had survived Luke's accidental fruit punch assault – and a cornflower blue polo shirt that he'd just purchased from the shop.
"Your suit jacket will have to be sent to a dry cleaner on the mainland, b-but your shirt – come here, Julius, see." Candace motioned him over with a damp hand, and he sidled up next to her at the wash basin. Even though she was focusing on his shirt and not his expression, she heard Julius's soft gasp of delight when he saw that his beloved shirt showed no residual scars from what he'd feared was a fatal blow.
She chanced a small smile up at him, and he returned it with one of his own. "Hand me that towel, please?" Nodding to the fluffy one she'd set aside on a nearby table, she gently spread the shirt out on the drying rack, taking care to smooth out the sleeves.
"It's almost as good as new, i-it'll just smell a little funny for a few washes." A still-grinning Julius held out the towel for her, and she took it from him, folding a section around her hand and pressing it firmly to the stain, once, then a few times more.
"Candace, dear, you're a lifesaver!" Julius circled his long arms around her waist, pulling her into a loose hug. The contact happened so quickly that Candace didn't even have time to process it before Julius dropped his arms away. She couldn't stop her smile from growing wider, though it had nothing to do with the display of affection from Julius.
She'd genuinely made someone happy. It really didn't feel like she'd conquered some impossible task, nowhere near as difficult as she'd told herself it was all these years, and she couldn't help but think that the encouragement she'd received from Luna and Kasey over the past few days was part of the reason she was able to accept Julius's gratitude.
It was easy to say as much. "You're w-welcome. But I really don't think you would have died, Julius..."
"No, no. I meant Luke. Now I don't have to kill him." Julius replied nonchalantly, like homicide was the perfectly reasonable reaction to anyone ruining his clothing.
Forcing a polite chuckle and quickly stowing the cleaning supplies in their appropriate cabinet, she tried to redirect the conversation away from such an unpleasant topic. "Um, Julius, did you want anything to eat or drink? Not fruit punch, of course."
"Mm, no, that's quite all right, but - " He padded gently at his cheeks with his fingertips. "My goodness, all that sun, I can feel my pores drying out! You wouldn't happen to have any moisturizer, hm?~"
As long as Candace had known Julius, it was still hard to keep up with his sudden demands. "Well, um, there's some in my room but I don't know if Luna would want you-"
"Oh, wonderful~!" Julius immediately bolted out of the washroom to the front of the store, through to the kitchen, and shoved open the door that led to the bed rooms, with Candace trailing at his heel the whole way.
"Julius! You really shouldn't b-be back here!" She lamely reached for Julius's arm as he leaned over the vanity that the sisters shared and reached for the jar of cucumber cold cream. It wasn't the first time that Julius had been in her room, but it was the first time that he'd been there while no one else was in the residence.
When he unscrewed a lid, a glop of the cream landed centimeters from the sketchbook that Candace and Luna had added several new patterns to the previous night. "Oh, tish-tosh, why not!" He was already dabbing at his cheeks with the cream, facing the mirror the entire time and frowning exaggeratedly as he massaged it in.
Candace caught a glimpse of her own reflection, and hastily removed her hair tie, allowing her hair to tumble back down. At the edge of the vanity where she stood was a small seashell tray that was overflowing with Luna's various hair-clips and pins. She extracted one that resembled a wire butterfly, its wings translucent beads of orange and yellow, and twirled it around and around in her fingers as she tried to piece her words together, that it wouldn't sound as silly as it did in her head right now.
"Y-You're...well, you're a boy, a-and..." Her sentence died with a bite of her lip, and she realized there was no way she could form her explanation without giving herself a little too much credit. Even if she didn't think she wascompletely undesirable anymore, to be so insinuating about herself and Julius would be more than a little inappropriate, and probably even laughable, from his end.
Julius straightened up, turning a fraction so that he was facing her, only inches away. Slowly, deliberately, he withdrew the butterfly pin from her hold, and rotated it back and forth between his thumb and forefinger. "And you're a very lovely young lady, is that it?"
The beads caught the sun's rays and threw them about the room like tiny darts. It'd been so very plain just sitting there in the tray but, here in the right light, it was beautiful.
"Yes!...I mean! Thank you, but...I...I don't know about 'very lovely' ...o-or even lovely at all, but -"
"You are." Julius spoke over her. "Candace, honey, listen. There was a time when...where, yes, perhaps you and I in this situation – alone together, in a bedroom, even – would have been unbearably tempting for me." He took a deep breath, exhaled, the slow smirk he'd been wearing nearly all day disappearing as his expression turned apologetic, and he didn't continue.
"And now it's not," she finished, so he wouldn't have to. So she wouldn't have to actually hear it from him, though she couldn't imagine he enjoyed the idea of having to say it any more than she would having to hear it.
"No, no, not anymore." Gently, he used his free hand to tuck back a section of Candace's hair, and slid in the butterfly to capture it behind her ear. Julius's hands were so smooth, gliding like freshly-spun silk. Not repelling in the least but Candace couldn't help to mentally compare them to how rough but secure Kasey's were, and her face warmed at the thought of them brushing her skin.
"I didn't think you ever d-did." She drew her hand to her head, carefully traced the outline of the butterfly. "Y-You weren't very kind to me, Julius."
"Yes, well, I...I have a tendency to tease those I like the most – I'm not quite sure why, but I've been told that many boys act that way. When they like a girl, that is. Anyway, I just –I suppose I sort of..." He fluttered his fingers in the air, as if those past instances could disappear so easily. "I moved on, when I realized I'd gone about it all wrong – I'm very sorry for that, by the way - and that really, we worked better as friends. As a couple, we'd go together about as well as socks with sandals, hm?"
This was almost surreal. She was being rejected, romantically, but that hardly mattered, made her react emotionally in any way. The Candace from a few years, even a few seasons ago, would have been devastated to know that a boy, even one she'd never had true, evolved, feelings for, like Julius, had once been interested in her but now no longer was.
She would have selfishly sobbed about it, with the thought that he was her one and only chance at love and she'd passed it by, with no regard to the reasoning behind, and not caring about the fact that Julius still viewed her as a friend, or about how tremendously regretful he was about his actions.
All she saw in front of her now was that friend, one of her best friends, being uncharacteristically open and serious, and needing someone's friendship in return.
"But why are you telling me this now?" Candace dropped down onto her bed, smoothing her dress out beneath her legs as she did so.
"I don't know." Julius turned back to face the vanity mirror, experimenting with unbuttoning the buttons on his polo and flipping the collar up before he addressed Candace again. "Oh, well, I do feel awful about the things I said. You know, if a certain farmer decides to ask you out, I'd hate for you to reject him simply because some other silly boy said such terrible, no-good, untrue things to you, and made you think weren't good enough."
Candace lifted her head, blinking in surprise at the mention of Kasey, and Julius gave a small chuckle, his own eyes catching hers in the mirror's reflection. "Please, Candace. I know you'd rather be at the wedding right now dancing with Kasey, and not here acting as my own personal maid.~ "
"It...it's okay, Julius. I don't mind. And I didn't mind going w-with you, either. You're my friend. I...I didn't want you to be there alone." One of the most natural smiles she ever smiled emphasized just how much she truly meant that.
His gaze drew downwards, away from her, but his sly smirk remained. "And here I thought it was to save me the embarrassment of being rejected by that charming sister of yours!"
She'd gotten a little better at it over the years, but there were still times Candace had trouble determining if Julius was kidding or not, and the statement about Luna was one of those cases. And in that attempt to decipher his true meaning, she didn't see where Julius's attention had turned to until it was too late, and he had swiped up the sketchpad that lay open on the corner of the dresser.
"Julius! Don't!" Candace sprung up, and quickly closed in on him, reaching for the sketchbook but to no avail. Julius veered it away from her, flipping from one page to the next: outfit after outfit, the several that she and Luna had managed to put on paper last night, the designs she'd dreamt up that incorporated her button collection.
The outfit he was currently looking at was a dress, that in Candace's mind was perfect for Phoebe should her friend ever decided to wear another one. A shimmering silver mesh lace that resembled wire adorning the tea-length hem, and what at first glance could have been actual machine cogs, but were really just metal buttons, tracking down the back. It was straight out of a science fiction novel, but still elegant enough that it would never be out of place at a formal event.
Last night in the midst of drawing it, she'd thought it unique and inspired, but now, with Julius in an uncharacteristic concentrated silence, she felt she ought to explain herself, even if that explanation was almost completely false. "There wasn't anything t-to do last night, with the electricity out, so L-Luna and I...it was just a few silly ideas I had, don't...don't take them seriously, Julius. I know they're not very good, we were just having a little fun."
Julius ignored her, or maybe he was just so immersed in studying the sketches that he really hadn't paid any mind to what she said. She knew they could be good, were she given the chance to polish them, but they were certainly not ready to be viewed by Julius's ever-scrutinizing eyes.
Candace stood fraught with anticipation, waiting for Julius to finish. She tried to keep Kasey's words in her mind, that she was so much more than the clothing she created, more than a seamstress. But having someone like Julius, whose opinion she took for more worth than almost anyone else's - and whose opinion was so often very critical - it was almost too easy to let the worry brewing inside her win out over positive thinking.
Nevertheless, she willed herself to focus on, maybe not the best, but certainly not the worst possible outcome as Julius's countenance remained neutral, unreadable, save for a hum of curiosity and a quirk of his expertly-plucked eyebrow.
He turned to the next page, next design: a beige-colored cardigan Candace had envisioned Chloe wearing, with toggle-loops that fit over bright maple leaf-shaped buttons. A sketch of the sweater's back was scribbled down hastily, but it was apparent it was to feature a huge pile of leaves, and an assortment of abbreviations designated that the leaves would consist of all sorts of warm Autumn tones, and be patched together in a wide array of fabrics: corduroy, tweed, velvet, and more.
After the final design – an apple-print apron with a large collection of pockets and ruffles and matching apple-shaped buttons, that perhaps Colleen or Yolanda could find useful – Julius exhaled loudly, as though he had been holding his breath the whole time, and set the sketchbook back down on the dresser with enough force to rattle the jewelry and trinkets resting upon it. He didn't appear upset or annoyed with what he'd seen. Rather, that he was overwhelmed, having experienced something he was totally unprepared for.
That made it possible for Candace to shove her fear aside long enough to ask what was on her mind. "What...what do you think?"
Which was, she realized as she said it, silly to ask because Julius would have said what he thought whether she had asked or not.
Julius, however, didn't find her question inane in the least, his face the portrait of utter seriousness. "Quite frankly, Candace, I'm appalled! All these gorgeous creations and nothing for your dearest friend?Moi?" He pressed a fanned-out hand over his heart, as if it were truly paining him inside.
A pleasant relief swept into Candace's heart. "Y-You...really, you like them?"
"'Like' them?! They're positively inspired! Why, they're just as good as anything I've seen in magazines, if not better!" Julius tapped a finger on the closed notebook, as if he thought Candace could possibly believe he was talking about another set of drawings, someone else's." I can't believe you've been holding out on us like this.~"
"It was just...I never really was any good at getting my ideas down on paper, b-but Luna helped. And she said that her teacher from fashion school would know people who might be interested!...I mean, if you...do you really think so, Julius?"
"Heehee, Luna's always got the right idea, doesn't she?" Julius picked up the notebook again, this time handing it to Candace. She hugged it to her chest, a certain realization starting to creep up on her, about just what Julius had meant when he told her he had "moved on."
But that wasn't her business to dwell on right now, or perhaps not even at all; as Julius hadn't pried into her feelings for Kasey, despite clearly being aware of them. She could and would show him the same respect if it was true that he had developed a fascination with Luna.
So she just nodded, which Julius must have taken for much more than just simple agreement, as his reaction was cheerfully clasping his hands together. "Then what are we standing around here for?! Fashion does not idle, darling."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Scratchy grey shadows transformed to bold-lined and brightly-filled illustrations under Julius's mindful watch. Almost incessantly he would advise Candace in what instrument would best be used to enhance the texture and shading of each specific article of clothing, and to an outsider – and even Candace herself, were she not so eager to actually work on her designs - Julius may have sounded as harsh and commanding as a drill sergeant. However, Candace found his constant suggestions helpful and even somewhat contagious, that she herself became so engrossed in the task, much as if she were actually sewing together the pieces themselves.
She didn't even notice how late it was until her eyes began to pinch from the darkness that had stretched itself across the shop at the same leisurely pace the rest of life took during the final days of Summer. With as discordant a note the day had started out on, and tripped along at, Candace had sunken into a warm blanket of contentment.
Julius leaned in to examine the third piece they'd completed, gave an exclamation of approval and that's when everything sped up again, too fast, too sudden.
The loud, angry too-familiar voices overlapping; the front door bursting open and Julius yelping in surprise; Luna and Kasey all but toppling over each other to get inside, both of them notably disheveled in appearance and even more visibly edgy. From their sharpened glares to the insults they threw like knives at one another, there was no trace of the good nature that was normally embedded deep in their banter.
Candace rose from her seat at the kitchen table, equally curious and concerned, and before she could decide how wise it would be to try and mediate whatever the issue was between them, Luna had already shoved Kasey in her direction.
"Do it!" She moved to jam him in the back again, and yet another pink tendril of hair escaped its pin - whatever Kasey had done to offend Luna must have been serious, if Luna wasn't paying the slightest mind to her appearance.
Julius gracefully intervened so that he was in between her and Kasey, and carefully placed an arm on Luna's upper arm. "Oh, kitten, why don't you put those claws away and come over here -" He guided her away from Kasey and towards the kitchen, motioning to the open sketchbook and scattered-about colored pencils. "-and tell me all about these beautiful creations!"
Luna grumbled, digging her heels down and not allowing Julius drag her away just yet. "You heard me, you…you two-timing crustball! Do it! Ow! Hey, Julius, stop pinching – ow! I'm not- hey!"
"All right already!" Kasey bit back at her, before blowing a frustrated sigh upward into his rumpled hair. Whether the redness in his face and weariness around his eyes was from the sun, alcohol, or exhaustion of arguing with Luna, Candace wasn't sure, but either way, it morphed into a happier, though no less tired one, when his gaze fell upon her.
With a deep breath, he nodded towards the front door, and she followed at his side, out into town and down to the seawall rail.
Evidently he, like her, wanted to be in a setting that wasn't within earshot of Julius and Luna, and though her nerves were buzzing, she was thankful for the privacy. It would be easier for her to say what she wanted – needed – to say to Kasey.
She just wanted him to say something first.
"Look, Candace, about today -"
When Kasey stopped abruptly, Candace turned her body slightly towards him, saw him shake his head as if he'd messed up a well-rehearsed line. The motion of his head caused Candace to notice, even in the quickly-fading daylight, the outline of the button necklace she'd made him. It hardly complemented his now-unbuttoned navy suit jacket or his now-untucked matching pinstriped dress shirt, just as Candace had believed she didn't complement Kasey himself. But here it was, still dangling on red string around his neck, and here he was, with her.
His right hand lifted and closed around the rail and while there may have been hundreds of reasons that she shouldn't do this, the one reason that she should – because she just wanted to – was the only one that mattered in that moment. She drew her left hand up, setting it carefully over Kasey's, and gave a small but significant squeeze. And she kept it there.
That was what threw the switch. Candace could see the whirlwind of emotions storming across Kasey's face in the brief, ringing-loud moments before the dam burst. His fingers hooked up and wove Candace's own into them, as his eyes didn't waver from her.
"Luna screaming at me?" He thumbed back at the shop with his free hand and made a derisive noise. "Yeah, if we go back in there and don't have a date set up, she is going to stab me in the ear with a knitting needle. She knows the whole...thing about me and Selena and..."
Again, he paused, but when he continued, he gave a half-hearted, disbelieving little laugh. "Geez, I sound mad at you or something, don't I? Because that's really not it at all…."
He told her everything; the truth, he promised, not that Candace expected any less from him. That he'd wanted to ask her out for a while, but just didn't know how. And when he'd asked his closest female friend, Selena, for advice, she'd taken it upon herself to scheme up a way to get not only Kasey and Candace together, but herself and Luke as well.
Though Kasey's admission sent her heart fluttering, her pathos latched onto the fact that he, too, had been nervous, had been confused and unsure - maybe not as much as her, but enough that it had plainly affected him.
"I didn't think it'd get all...like this. I didn't know Selena was going to talk to you this morning either! Goddess, I can only imagine what she said to you. I didn't even findout until she said something to Luna while we were at the wedding, and they got all into it, and of course now Luna's all mad at me too. I'm sorry, okay, I shoulda just...followed my own advice, quit worrying and just go for it, but I...I mean, it'syou, Candace,I didn't want to screw anything up, and I hope...really hope I didn't."
Letting out another deep sigh, he dropped his hand way from the rail, bringing Candace's with it. He squeezed gently, perhaps a delayed reaction to her gesture, but thrilling to her all the same.
She pulled his hand up, closer to her own heart,and closed her other one around it. "No, you didn't ruin anything, y-you've only made everything better for me, Kasey. That's um...that's why I asked you to come see me, actually. I...had to tell you that. That I like you, a lot, and even when you're not around, just thinking about you makes my day better, and I've never felt that way before, about anyone. And..."
Kasey's hand had slipped from her grip, trailed up to toy with the butterfly Julius had placed in her hair. He was smiling, that same winning, ad-perfect smile that she'd fell for when they first met and since had never been far from her mind. It still made her thoughts snag, tangling them up worse than Luna's first attempt at crocheting a sweater.
So she was through talking, for the time being. She bobbed up on her toes, that she couldn't keep her balance without grasping a hand into the lapel of Kasey's suit jacket, and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. A quiet gasp brushed over her ear, and the amount of pride she felt with herself was so unexpectedly dizzying that she stumbled a bit as she came back flat on the path.
Kasey steadied her, holding firmly to her waist, and Candace huddled close to him, partly for the security it gave her and partly from the urge to make up for all the time she'd lost when she was busy wallowing in self-pity.
She couldn't see his face, but his grin was obvious in his tone. "What did Selena even say to you?"
He could have meant it rhetorically, that he was just as surprised at her forwardness as she was herself, but then again, it wouldn't be a jump to assume – and justifiably too, with Luna's dramatic reaction – that Selena had said something pretty awful in order for Candace to take so much initiative.
"N-Nothing really horrible, I promise! Only that I'd be too scared to ever ask you out." She had to wriggle a bit in order to look up at him. "Please don't be too mad at her, she was just trying to help.""
"You not asking me out sounds pretty darn horrible, in my opinion."
Giggling, Candace cuddled back up against Kasey. "Th-Then...will you go out with me?"
The change of season meant a busy week for both Kasey on his ranch, and for Candace at Sonata Tailors, so they decided on the next Friday – a week away, but she honestly didn't mind. She'd waited twenty years for her first date; she could wait a week more.
"Would it be all right if I walked you home?" She didn't want to pull away from Kasey any time soon, but knew she had to, to follow through on her request. "I mean, you've always done that for me, and..."
A loud thumping interrupted her question. The two of them swerved to see, yards away, Julius and Luna scrunched up against the slightly-ajar window of Sonata Tailors. Julius was as ecstatic as if he'd found a designer sweater on sale for half price. Beside him, Luna wore a pained smile that seemed to take a great deal of effort for her to keep pinned up – the corner of her mouth kept twitching, as if she'd developed a nervous tic.
Kasey's arms lifted from around Candace, and he gave the two eavesdroppers a wave, followed by a thumbs-up that was solely directed at Luna. She pointed her index and middle finger in a V, first at her own narrowed eyes, then jabbing them sternly at Kasey. Again, Kasey's response was another over-exaggerated thumbs-up, to which Luna threw her hands up in exasperation, and stormed away from the window. Julius shrugged, as though to say "what else would you expect?"
Candace looked back at Kasey, to see his elbow bent out, for her to take. "C'mon. Let's get me home."
Hey wow it's been almost two years but look at that. My apologies to everyone who's followed and waited for me to update this – I feel awful that I've taken so long. Hopefully this chapter made it worth the wait? I wanted to do Julius and Candace's heart scene without making it romantic. I realize it may seem boring and needless, but I personally enjoy it – all this relationship and character development - and I hope you do too. I've taken your reviews to heart and have attempted to make improvements. I'll probably go back and make very small edits (spelling, grammar, italics) in previous chapters over the next week or so.
Oh and I realize that there's no "washroom" or whatever in the Tailors or in any store/house. What's up with that, no bathrooms or laundry rooms or anything?
I probably at some point said that this would be the last chapter, and I shouldn't have held myself to that; that was before it became clear how I wanted to end this. Oh well. I will say that this is winding down and there will be two (shorter) more chapters at most. Maybe one big one. ANYWAY thank you readers, so so much, for sticking with this. -EC
