Love Potion

by Andrea Cannon

Photo by Jakob from Pexels

She gazed after him every day as he left the coffee shop. Tall, dark hair, skin the color of ground walnuts, and he smelled oh-so-good. He never noticed Alice, not once in six weeks had he even looked her way. No. He was caught up in the barista’s net.

Megan wasn’t your typical forward thinking, hippie barista. Megan was the cheerleader type. Even her name tag was bedazzled. Alice glared at the back of Megan’s head each morning hoping to burn holes through her brain with laser vision. That would be her super power if she could have one — laser vision. (Alice believed laser vision would be better than strength or mind reading or even crazy-good intelligence.)

With her mousy hair and timid disposition, Alice felt like she’d never be able to outshine Megan. She had to find another way to catch his attention, to make him look her way for just one moment.

* * * *

The moonlight glowed bluish-gray outside Alice’s kitchen window in contrast to the orange candle flames jumping around inside. Alice stood looking at an eclectic array of ingredients spread across her table. Cocoa powder, vanilla beans, jasmine leaves, cinnamon sticks and lavender blossoms — everything needed to make him fall madly in love, according to modernlovepotions.com. She began chanting as she measured and mixed the ingredients with the mortar and pestle she had purchased at the apothecary store on Luna street.

Tick Tock
Hippity Hop
Forget me not
Oh love divine

A whiff of this powder
And you’re sure to be mine
Tick Tock
Hippity Hop

Alice repeated the chant fourteen times, spinning in a circle to the left between each incantation. She followed the directions to the letter, finishing the ritual with fourteen hops on her left foot and seven hops on her right. Then she used half of the concoction to make a tea for herself. She sipped it periodically through the remainder of the night and morning, despite the fact that she hates tea.

Alice arrived at the coffee shop earlier than usual the following morning, emboldened by the trust she placed in her new found witchcraft. This…