Hazel in the Demon's Den

Their next stop was a pottery studio where you could make your own vase. This was a three-stop destination; after you made the vase you had to wait a week to come back and glaze it and then wait again to pick it up because of all the firing time required.

This didn't faze Hazel in the slightest. In fact, she was delighted.

"Ooh, I love pottery! I took a couple of ceramics classes even though I never really got into it as a career because I prefer drawing and painting but this is awesome!"

Will was pleased he had made the right choice of date destination. "I thought you might like it."

Suddenly something occurred to her and she looked at him skeptically. "Do you know anything about pottery?"

"No, but how hard could it be?"

Very hard. It was very hard. He couldn't even get his stupid clay to center while Hazel was already shaping a lovely vase. She had moved onto using tools to carve patterns into it as the pottery wheel spun before she noticed he was stuck.

"Don't feel too bad," she reassured him. "Lots of people can't center the wheel. In fact, in my introductory ceramics class we had a wheel test and about half of the class failed it at least once. Here, let me help you."

Hazel expertly formed his messed up hunk of clay back into a ball and slapped it down on the middle before getting her hands wet in the water provided. She gestured for him to get his hands wet as well and to place them back on the clay.

Goosebumps rose up on Will's arms as her slim fingers guided his hands. He barely managed to reply to her when she asked what kind of shape he wanted to make. Honestly, he couldn't care less. As long as she kept touching him of her own accord he could go for anything.

She reminded him to keep getting his hands wet or else the shaping wouldn't work. The clay had to be very wet for it to be moldable.

Clearly Hazel was in her element. She was quite a competent teacher, explaining how and why everything was happening along with what he needed to do as she continued guiding his hands. Will wished the vase would never be finished so they could stay there like that forever.

Unfortunately, beautiful things aren't meant to last. It took her less than five minutes to help him make a decent but very simple vase. The one she made herself was much more intricate.

Of course. She had probably made dozens of vases in her life. Unlike him, Hazel actually knew what she was doing.

Will would have to be sure to always have fresh flowers to put in these vases once they were complete. He loved seeing anything she made. The first drawing she ever gave him with that terribly written note on the back was framed in his office.

Hazel had given him too many drawings during their time together for him to possibly save them all from the fire. Thankfully he was able to fold up the one that mattered most to him and fit it in his pocket before he went out looking for her through the smoke.

That innocent drawing got Will through a lot of dark days without her. It helped keep him going even when he had to do things he would have really preferred not to in order to survive.

There was a beautiful little girl that loved him who was out there waiting for him to come back. The drawing was a reminder of that.

"How does that look?" Hazel asked as she gazed down at their handiwork. "Are you satisfied with it?"

Satisfied wasn't a strong enough word. It was something they had made together that he would be able to treasure forever.

"Yeah, it looks much better than anything I could have done on my own. Thanks, Hazel."

"You're welcome," she said happily.

She most definitely enjoyed this date. He would have to find other similar places to take her in the future. Will wanted that expression to remain on her face all the time. At least now he knew he was still capable of putting it there. That was quite reassuring.

The last thing they did before going to the grocery store was pick up Hazel's new car. Since she was already suspicious of where all of his money was coming from he had the foresight to buy it earlier in the week and wait to pick it up on Saturday.

He bought her a brand new Audi A4. It was smaller than his SUV but still had four wheel drive, which was absolutely necessary driving around the mountains in winter, even with snow chains.

The car cost a lot more than it appeared to since it was fairly simple in design. What mattered were the features. That car was fully loaded and would be able to do basically anything Hazel needed it to. It even had the option of using voice commands for certain things.

She didn't need to know all of that now though. It looked like any other car that happened to have a GPS in it. Lots of cars had GPS these days.

Will knew how much Hazel hated anything white and loved all things colorful so he made sure to buy her a blue one. She seemed overwhelmed even without knowing how much it actually cost or anything about car makes or models.

"This is too much, Will!"

He shook his head to disagree. "You needed a car with four wheel drive for the winters here and this is the smallest one they had. Think of it as something to ease my mind; I don't want you to be trapped up on that mountain by yourself when I'm at work."

Hazel bit her lip, internally debating whether or not she could accept it. Eventually he knew he won because he saw the defeat in her eyes.

"It's nothing," he said honestly. "You're my wife. What's mine is yours."

Will would give her anything in the entire world that she wanted. Anything at all. If she one day decided she didn't like the moon's position in the sky and wanted it all for herself he would find a way to make that happen.