Frankincense & Lavender

Sandy didn’t want to look directly at the man. Number one, she knew she didn’t blush all cute like normal girls do. When she blushed her face looked as if it was splattered with fuschia paint, and in her opinion, it wasn’t attractive.

And she also didn’t want to look directly at the man because the strong elm had a deep baritone voice that vibrated the ground when he spoke to her; and Sandy decided that if the face that belonged to the bellowing baritone wasn’t exquisitely beautiful, she would lose all faith in the Man Upstairs.

But when she saw that the man in front of her was an extending his hand, Sandy reached out to take it. But then the man cupped her hand in between his.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance Ms. Lady, the name’s Cedric, but my friends call me, “C”.

Sandy felt herself blush again as Cedric removed his hat and tipped it in Sandy’s direction. In the meantime, Sandy shuffled to gain her composure.

“Hi Cedric, my name’s Sandy and…”

He cut her off and chided her, “So you fittin to call me Cedric, huh? You sayin you don’t wanna be friends with the man who saved lil Minnie from the wolves ?”

A surprised Sandy gasped but then finally got a chance to take a step back and fully take in Cedric’s kind eyes and impeccably white smile. He was ruggedly handsome. The realization of his handsomeness caused Sandy to stammer a bit, “T-T-There’s wolves back there?”

Cedric chuckled, “Not sure lil lady, but I reckon you ain’t the type to find out.”

At this point, Minnie was trying to wriggle free from Sandy’s arms while Sandy was trying to fasten the leash until she realized it must have frayed and broke in two.

“Oh no,” Sandy whined and looked up at Cedric. “And you right, C, after I saw three deer just walking through the back there like they was late for a picnic, I’m not tryna find out what else is out here.”

The pair laughed, but Minnie was wriggling a little more than usual.

“Listen, I better get my baby girl home and get her fed so she can calm her hyper self down, but thank you, C.”

Cedric tussled Minnie’s ears but also took the frayed leash out of Sandy’s hand, “If ya want, I can fix this for ya? We wouldn’t want this pretty little thing getting away again.”

“No, no that’s okay, I have another one somewhere up in there,” she replied as she motioned back to the house with her head and began to walk.

“Well since we’re friends and stuff now, Minnie’s Mama, why don’t ya leave the leash with me and I’ll have it back to ya before her evening outing.”

Sandy was too preoccupied with Minnie wriggling and trying to escape her arms that she just shouted “Okay…” over her shoulder and trudged out of the woods the same way she went in.

It didn’t cross her mind how Cedric was gonna return Minnie’s leash if he didn’t know where Sandy lived. But as she entered the house from the back porch and looked back towards the woods, she just chalked up what the man said to her as idle banter.

Because Sandy was short in stature, men always thought they had to help Sandy with things. Sure it was fine went she went to get groceries, because who didn’t need a little extra help getting a family sized bottle of detergent off of the top shelf in the market? But for the most part, Sandy was ferociously independent. And like she told the man she befriended, she had another leash for Minnie at home and she didn’t give it or Cedric a second thought until Minnie’s evening outing.

***Hazelnut cappuccino with a splash of vanilla syrup & hazelnut creamer and a pineapple 🍍 🌱💨.