Free Promise: The Scarred Girl by Maya Shepherd Page A

the next morning?  Surely he could see how bad the weather was.
    Surely this was just another form of revenge for something she said. They constantly offended and insulted each other. Any strangers watching them would never get the idea that they were best friends.
    In the moments when they quarreled, Nea hated Miro with all of her heart. She wanted to beat him black and blue. But as soon as he was not close to her, she again longed for him. No matter how mean he was sometimes, she never wanted to be without him.
    With a loud creak, Nea opened the wooden door of the old warehouse where they have taken shelter for the past few days. Nea paused in amazement. She felt neither wind nor rain, but could only stare fascinated at the dirty floor. Several burning tea candles stood in a circle. In the middle of the circle was a wooden box, a sort of make-shift table. Miro had a piece of fabric spread over it as a table cloth. On this table were a wide candle, a bottle of wine, and two plates.
    “It’s cold, close the door, or are you frozen?” Miro called from another corner of the room where a fire was burning in a barrel.
    Irritated, Nea entered the room. When the door closed, a gust of wind escaped into the room and then a loud bang signaled that the door was now closed. Startled, she winced.
    She had not expected this. Miro was rarely openly nice to her. There were more and more little hidden gestures and glances that showed her how much he liked her, but this was new. Or perhaps this was not for her? Had he done all this for one of those other girls?
    “I never took you for a romantic,” Nea teased, without showing how much she liked it.
    “Do you like it?”
    Nea bit her lower lip. From outside, the wind raged against the house and the rain could be heard on the tin roof. Nevertheless, she felt her cheeks begin to glow.
    “For whom did you do that?”
    “Who do you think?”
    “I have an idea.”
    Miro began to laugh. Nea loved his laugh, because it came out of the belly, forcing her to smile every time. “Here, sit down. Easy.”
    He had made it for her. Unbelievable! Nea’s heart frantically began to pound when she brushed the wet coat from her shoulders and knelt in front of the fabric-covered box. Now she began to recognize the faint scent of warm chicken soup and her stomach growled hungrily.
    “Good evening, madam. You have done well to find our little modest restaurant,” joked Miro as he bowed to her as a waiter.
    Nea snorted loudly, but played along enthusiastically. Even as children they loved to play restaurant. “Excuse me sir, but there is dirt on the floor.”
    “But madam, that is not dirt, that is stardust. It saddens me that you cannot see that. May I cheer you up with the first course?”
    “Yes, I think I will try the first course.”
    “For the first course, I will serve a delicious chicken soup, fresh from the can, the specialty of the house.”
    Miro handed her a bowl of steaming soup he had warmed over the fire.
    Since they had no cutlery, Nea put the bowl to her lips and took a sip.
    “What do you say, dear? Does it meet your high standards?”
    “You said it was canned soup.”
    “Yes it is madam, is something wrong?”
    “It tastes kinda different than usual.”
    Miro smiled at her, a smile that warmed her heart. “That is because it has been refined with love.”
    Suddenly, one of the twins slapped her forehead with the back of her hand.
    “Oh man, how rude of us, we have not even introduced ourselves to you. I’m Hope, and my sister is called Faith. As you have probably already seen, we are twins, but if you look closely, you can tell us apart.” She added this last part with a grin and winked at Faith. These two had some unusual names. But there is nothing special in this world, names are names. Nea never really thought about names.
    “I’m Nea,” she said. Her parents had a taste for Finland and therefore named their only child a Finnish name.
    Nea started looking at their