It all started with Mira’s attempt to be helpful. Which, in Cedar Grove, was usually a hex but with good intentions.
She was testing a new tea blend for Harmony Café’s upcoming Sweetheart Specials men and was aiming for something “soothing but flirty,” as the Queen of the Hollow Moon had dramatically requested. Mira called it Heartstring Hibiscus and steeped it in moon kissed water with a whisper of rose petals and a totally safe dusting of enchanted cinnamon.
She left it unattended for approximately seven minutes.
When she returned, Clorvex was sipping it out of a novelty mug that said Witch, Please.
“Oh no,” Mira whispered.
Clorvex blinked, turned toward a customer at the counter, and blurted, “Your nose crinkles when you lie, and I’d follow you into battle or to brunch. Your choosing.”
Turning beet red, the customer dropped their reusable cup and left the cafe.
“Yep,” Clorvex said, nodding to himself. “That’s love.”
Chaos followed.
By noon, three customers had written sonnets on napkins, someone proposed to the espresso machine again, and Matteo confessed to a regular that he secretly admired how they ordered their cappuccino like they were daring fate.
Jo burst into the backroom holding two mugs and a fire extinguisher. “Why is everyone proposing and why is the whipped cream shaped like hearts?!”
“Possibly a minor enchantment,” Mira admitted. “Or a major one. I might’ve, uh, steeped it too close to a love knot candle while listening to a playlist called ‘Soft Groans and Stardust’.”
Jo stared. “You made a horny tea?”
“It was for ambience!” Mira sighed. “All I wanted was a limited-edition blend that tasted like hope and felt like a hug. You know as the Queen requested, soothing but flirty and thought could maybe help me file my taxes on time.”
Outside, a couple reenacted a meet cute by spilling iced lattes on each other, and Clorvex was organizing a confession conga line.
“Okay,” Jo sighed. “We’re not shutting down the café. We’re just going to vibe through this. Calmly.”
The Queen of the Hollow Moon breezed in wearing a velvet blazer and full eyeliner. “Has my tea arrived? I’m ready to seduce the sunlight.”
“No!” Jo, Mira, and Matteo shouted in unison.
The Queen glared at the trio. “Rude.”
By evening, Harmony Café had become a hotbed of accidental romance. Mira tried brewing an antidote, but it only made people shout love haikus in reverse.
As Jo scrubbed lipstick off the pastry case, she muttered, “If one more customer proposes to their reflection, I’m charging double for therapy foam.”
Matteo, who had just made a flat white in the shape of two foxes spooning, handed her a cup. “At least it’s good for business?”
Clorvex danced by, holding a heart-shaped mop, and shouting, “Love potion cha-cha-cha!”
Jo raised her mug in exhausted solidarity. “Here’s to one of the weirdest days we’ve ever had.”In the corner, Mira was furiously scribbling down what she now called Tea of Unfiltered FeelingsTM.