THE ROMANTICIST | C. GRIMES

02 | CHAPTER ONE

Mollie was picking the dirt from under her nails annoyedly as she walked into her building. She hadn't intended on working the garden at all today, in fact it was supposed to be her week off, but Nabila had called her over as soon as she saw her. The Royal Gardens had a pretty bad bug infestation, and they needed all hands on deck if they had a chance of saving anything. Of course Mollie jumped in to help, her plans of herb hunting could easily wait. Hours and hours later, Mollie was covered in dirt and sweat, and they hadn't been able to save anything. It was already too late. Even the bit of magic she'd tried couldn't revive anything.

As she pushed open her bedroom door, choosing to ignore the dirt smudge now residing on the wood, the last thing she expected to see was Benjamin standing there with a small bouquet of wildflowers.

"What happened to you?" He gawked.

"Shut up." She huffed, unable to help the small smile as she stepped inside and shut the door. "Bug infestation in the Royal Gardens." She sighed, kicking off her shoes next to the door. "We lost everything. All of it! It took us years to get all of that grown, we'll never be able to recover it now."

"I'm sorry, Mollie, that really sucks." He sighed. He'd been around when the idea first came up for a Royal Garden, and Mollie had been the first person to volunteer to run it-at age 14. Ben had always admired her for that. He never had the courage to step up and get a job, until his dad died and he realized someone had to protect Henry.

"Ah, it's fine." She sighed. "Just plants, I guess."

"Well they're more than that to you." He mumbled, making her look over at him. "I uh, got you these when I was out this morning. I-I mean we went out and then came back and then I went out again." He explained, voice quickly speeding up.

"They're beautiful, Ben." She interrupted, taking the flowers from his hand. "Thank you." She walked across her room, pulling open a low cabinet and producing a vase. She'd begun collecting them after she and Ben starting dating, as he loved to bring her flowers.

"I knew you'd like them." He nodded. "I got them from the backyard of that place with the treehouse." He watched as she unscrewed her waterbottle lid to fill the vase. "Oh and uh, we have two new arrivals."

"Wait what?" She nearly dropped her waterbottle, quickly spinning around to face him.

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"Yeah, so, Morgan and I will meet up here every morning before I go out on patrol and he'll teach me." Ben nodded, watching Mollie inspect the stick Morgan had given him.

"This is such a cool opportunity, Ben." She smiled up at him. "You're doing it, right?" She held the stick out.

"Yeah, of course." He nodded, taking it back from her and setting on the ground next to him. "Absolutely. I'd be crazy not to." She nodded lightly. "So, how impressed are you with me now?" He asked, reaching down and picking up one of the apples from the basket.

"Excuse me?" She laughed, throwing her head back. "And excuse you! These were for the school."

"We have like twenty apple trees, I'm sure the kids can spare one single apple." He laughed through a full mouth. "And you know what I mean!" He called out after swallowing. "Doesn't the fact that I'm about to learn this like, super cool like, karate kinda thing impress you? It would impress me if I were you." He leaned back against the bannister of the gazebo. "God, you're so lucky to have me."

"Yeah I am." She giggled, looking over at him. He looked back at they stared at each other for a few moments. Bugs chirped in the warm early evening, mixed with the sounds of the Kingdom winding down for the day-the only way either of them could describe it was that it sounded like home. Golden sunlight shined into the gazebo, almost a spotlight of warmth. Just as Ben was about to say something, Henry came crashing into view-quite literally. He ran up the steps, rushing Ben and jumping into his lap. After the initial shock, Ben started laughing, trying to tickle Henry before he could get away.

Mollie sat back against the bannister, squinting slightly against the sunlight as she listened to Henry's shrieks of laughter echo out into the Kingdom. A content smile settled on her face as she watched the pair interacting. It never failed to warm her heart seeing Ben with Henry. Even if he was unsure of himself, she could see how good Ben was doing at raising his little brother. It was obvious. Henry was a great kid, who despite everything was very happy and who idolized his brother.

Sometimes Mollie wished she'd had a sibling to have a relationship like this with. But then she realizes she already has Ben and Henry. And she realizes that she doesn't need more than that.