Translucent

Chapter 17: Crush

"Hey dear, Diane called in sick today. Could you whip some lunch? I'll be home in a bit to pick up some stuff before heading off again." Mum said over the phone.

Relief swept over me. I never thought I'd finally have the house to myself, and of course, sharing it with Cornelius. Diane's presence pushed me to keep my interaction with Cornelius a secret. 

Cornelius would randomly appear and stand idly and stiff at corners like any ghosts would, observing from the distance and floating through. We caught each other's gazes from across the room, exchanging smiles. It was hard not to get distracted by him when Lorelai and Phoebe came over to hang out, or even when Mum, Nathan, or even Diane had kept me occupied in conversations anywhere in the house. In exchange, Cornelius had kept himself composed by not moving things around, or making any obvious signs of his. When I moved away until we were out of everyone's earshot, Cornelius followed and we would break into chatters, ridiculing Nathan mostly.

"You could've scared him off." I chirped. "I want to see that smug face of his piss himself."

"I may be a ghost but I'm still a gentleman." Cornelius would say.

For a while, I managed to find ideal methods of how to interact with Cornelius openly with other people around in the house, and that required some me faking phone calls to respond to Cornelius, who was obviously next to me. Apparently, it didn't really work, as I couldn't help but look at Cornelius whenever we had a conversation. So we had to go back to keeping our conversations away from everyone's sights.

That afternoon, I headed for the kitchen and fried some sunny-side egg, bacon, mushroom, and potatoes. Diane had always bragged about some of the vegetables she stored inside the fridge, which she claimed to have picked up herself from her own yard.

I got to reignite some of my cooking skills for the first time since moving to Scotland. I used to cook a lot in London, yet now the cooking duties had been overtaken by Diane. She was a great cook though, I gave her that. The other day, she created some homemade haggis and it was a blast.

I placed my laptop down on the kitchen counter and the playlist shuffled to Muse. Cornelius materialised just nearby with his hands tucked behind his back.

"Hey, where have you been?" I greeted him as though he was another friend dropping by.

He produced three small stems of magenta flowers and two bright yellow ones from behind his back. I recognised them as Primrose and Buttercup, Highland wildflowers. They were all tied together with a makeshift twine made out of a loose stem to resemble a mini posy bouquet. 

"The last of this season before autumn arrives." He handed them to me. "I picked them up on my way here."

I caught my breath at his chivalrous gesture.

"Do lassies in this century despise flowers?" Cornelius frowned.

"No. I mean, that's really sweet of you." Our fingers brushed at the exchange. "Thank you."

I sniffed the sweet scents the flowers radiated before rummaging through kitchen shelves until I found a glass vase-like container, filled it with water, and placed the freshly picked flower there. They now sat at the kitchen counter like a makeshift tabletop decor. Upon returning to my meal preparation, Cornelius had now had himself seated by the counter, his hands propped at the countertop near the flowers. I stole a quick glance at him and found him flicking the flower buds, his eyes filled with childlike curiosity. He was learning to be a human faster than I thought.

Our eyes momentarily met in a fleeting glance, before he shifted his observation while I was lying the raw bacon on the pan. Cornelius' presence in the kitchen was no stranger to me. He caught me way many times having sneaked in here at night, trying to snack on some ice cream. We ended up conversing on the kitchen island as I was munching my way through right off the tub while ignoring my guilty pleasure.