"You should get Cassie. We should make this a group dinner," Melissa said with a smile as she went about setting the table. "I'll get everything ready out here." She wanted a moment alone with Nick which was why she hadn't volunteered to go get Cassie herself. Even if Cassie was starved for sleep, a meal like this only happened every once in awhile in these days. It was worth being woken up for. The chicken smelled mouth watering and it was making Melissa's stomach rumble.
She set out the plates, the silverware, the cups and napkins. She put all the food in the center of the wobbly wooden table they had inherited along with the rest of this crappy apartment that had probably been a crack den in a past life. Now it was the home of three powerful witches and the demon lord of western Japan. Some really did just have greatness thrust upon them. Like Melissa. She never asked to be a witch. It was something that she had just inherited.
When she was done she turned to face Nick who was staring at her. "You have no idea why you're here, do you?" she asked him. "I mean really, Nick. You can be honest with me."
He shook his head slowly at her.
"Then you have to go." She folded her arms over her chest and tried her best to look stubborn and not tearful. "You being here is hurtful because I know you're just gonna go again."
Nick was quiet for a long moment. "Is this because of Adam?" he finally asked. "The two of you?"
"No," Melissa said a touch too quickly. "It's because I used to love you and now you're gone and I feel responsible for that. Nothing you can say can ever change that. Seeing you here. It doesn't help. I just want to say goodbye. It's time that we say goodbye." She knew it was time to move on and leave the past behind.
Nick stared hard at her for a moment. "Goodbye," he said quietly, his gaze intensely focused on her before he slowly faded away.
Melissa finally gave into her shaking legs and sank down into her chair at the table and put her head in her hand and cried.