Promises and Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller

And Mamá always wonders why she can’t keep a decent boyfriend.
Pairing the outfit with the girl’s pale skin and slender frame, she could
easily pass for a vampire. Maybe that’s why she can’t go in.
“Are you afraid of what’s inside?” I ask finally, once the silence between
us turns awkward.
She purses her lips. “Something like that.”
More silence passes between us, and I tuck my hair behind my ears,
shrugging. “We could go in together. I know the owner, I don’t think he’d let
anything happen while he’s inside.”
Not again, anyway.
Kal doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to make the same mistake
twice.
The girl tilts her head to the side, giving me a once-over; I shuffle my feet
together, uncomfortable with her perusal, currently regretting my decision not
to wear underwear beneath this navy shift dress. I can feel everything,
including the weight of her stare.
“You know Kal?”
I hold my left hand up, wiggling the diamond there so it glitters in the
sunlight, letting the slight pang of jealousy that she knows his name slice
through my chest.
Better I embrace it, I suppose, than suppress it.
Puffing her cheeks, she lets out a low whistle, rocking back on her heels.
“Oh, so you know him, know him. You must be Elena.”
Pushing her hand between us, she gives a half smile, waiting. I blink at
her palm, taking it tentatively, pumping twice like Papá taught me.
When I don’t say anything further, she lets go and presses her lips
together. “I’m Violet, by the way.”
“Ah,” I say, roving my eyes over her features again, trying to figure out if
I’ve met her somehow and forgotten. In truth, I haven’t done much exploring
of Aplana since I’ve been here, except for visiting the farmer’s market a
couple of times with Kal and picking up muffins from a bakery on the north
end with Marcelline.
Since my last foray out in public didn’t end so well, I’ve sort of holed up
at home, resigning myself to a hermit’s life the way I probably would’ve
ended up doing as Mrs. De Luca, anyway. At least as Kal’s bride, I’m not
being forced to attend or host social events; in fact, most of the time he
almost discourages social interaction entirely, content to lock himself in the