Cupid in a Bottle
A Touch of Magic Mystery
Danielle Garrett
Copyright © 2018 by Danielle Garrett
Edited by Magical Words Edits
Cover Design by Alchemy Book Covers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
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Contents
Books By Danielle Garrett
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Preview of Newly Wed and Slightly Dead
Also by Danielle Garrett
About the Author
Books By Danielle Garrett
BEECHWOOD HARBOR MAGIC MYSTERIES
Murder’s a Witch
Twice the Witch
Witch Slapped
Witch Way Home
Along Came a Ghost
Lucky Witch
Betwixt: A Beechwood Harbor Collection
One Bad Witch
A Royal Witch
First Place Witch
* * *
BEECHWOOR HARBOR GHOST MYSTERIES
* * *
The Ghost Hunter Next Door
Ghosts Gone Wild
When Good Ghosts Get the Blues
Big Ghosts Don’t Cry
Diamonds and a Ghost’s Best Friend
* * *
HAVEN PARANORMAL ROMANCES
* * *
Once Upon a Hallow’s Eve
* * *
A TOUCH OF MAGIC MYSTERIES
* * *
Cupid in a Bottle
Newly Wed and Slightly Dead
Couture and Curses
Wedding Bells and Deadly Spells
Introduction
Climbing the corporate ladder in a pair of fabulous stilettos isn’t easy, not even for a witch.
* * *
Anastasia Winters is on a mission to become the supernatural world’s go-to event coordinator. With a high-profile wedding in the final stretch, she needs everything to go just right. Her next promotion depends on it.
* * *
But when the groom gets dosed with an experimental potion and professes his undying love for the maid of honor, Anastasia’s shot at the wedding-planner big leagues goes up in flames.
* * *
Can she get the wedding back on track, or is she destined to be demoted back to wrangling baby dragons at birthday parties and filling the guest list for the Tooth Fairy’s Halloween bash?
* * *
**Note, this short novella is a revised edition of the short that appeared in the Hexes and Oh’s Anthology**
Chapter 1
Leasing a condo in a magically-enhanced building had its perks; charmed security systems, on-call fairy cleaners, and calorie-free cookies in the lobby. However, there were downfalls too, like living next door to a chronically drunk wizard who mistook my doorbell for his own whenever he found himself locked out of his own condo at three in the morning.
Buzz. Buzz. Buuuuzzzzzz.
Groaning, I shoved the coverlet aside. “Patrick, I told you put an extra key under the mat so you don’t have to remember your password.”
Blindly, I patted the foot of the bed until my fingertips found a pool of smooth satin. I pulled the robe on and then stalked into the living room, tugging the sash closed around my waist.
“This really is the last time,” I called, reaching for the door knob.
A familiar voice replied, one that most definitely was not my oft-tipsy neighbor, “Stace? Is that you?”
I recoiled from the door. There was only one person who called me Stace and I hadn’t seen her in over a year. I only knew she was alive thanks to a series of desperate letters that arrived in my mailbox on a quarterly basis. The scenarios differed, but the purpose was always the same: she needed money.
She’d never shown up in person before.
With a flick of my fingertips, the built-in security wards protecting my condo released and I pulled the door open, coming face to face with my younger sister.
“Harmony? What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Stace.” She gave a sheepish smile. “Can I come in?”
I arched an eyebrow. “You do know what time it is, right?”
“Stace,” she whined. “I really need to talk to you.”
There was no denying that she was my sister, tempted though I might have been. Harmony was eight years younger than me—barely into her twenties—but there had been more than a few occasions when we’d been mistaken for twins. No one would make that mistake now. My long, chestnut waves were in stark contrast to her latest ’do. She’d chopped her hair into a chin-length bob that was a champagne blonde with shocking streaks of pink and purple.
Her normally peaches-and-cream complexion had deepened into a solid tan, making it clear that whatever she’d been up to over the past few months had provided plenty of sunbathing. Her bare arms and legs were toned and barely covered by a black-and-white mini-dress that clashed something awful with her cotton-candy hair.
I crossed my arms and gave her a pointed look, indicating I was still waiting on her no-doubt fanciful explanation. “Harmony, it’s three in the morning. I have to work in the morning. This isn’t a good time to catch up. So, can we skip ahead to the part where you tell me what you want?”
Harmony narrowed her blue eyes, the only feature we had left in common. “I was in the neighborhood, all right? Now, can I come in or what?”
Tamping down a long-suffering sigh, I waved my arm and pulled the door open wider. “Fine.”
She strode into the room as though she owned the place and looked around. Her sharp eyes wouldn’t miss a detail. I shut the door a little harder than intended and Harmony spun on her heels to face me. “Where’s Peaches?”
My nostrils flared. “She’s sleeping. You know, the thing cats and people tend to do around this time of night.”
“Right.” Harmony tittered a nervous laugh. “Time got away from me, I guess. But, like I said, I was in town and didn’t want to leave without saying hello.”
“Harmony, you know that I’m always a phone call away. We can go to lunch, see a movie. Whatever you want. But we both know that’s not why you’re really here. You weren’t in the neighborhood and this isn’t a social call. I’m exhausted, so let’s just get this over with. How much do you need and do I want to bother asking why?”
“Stace, I swear it’s not about money.” She hitched her purse strap up a little higher on her shoulder and dropped her gaze to the wide wooden planks under her scuffed-up shoes. “I’ve missed you.”
Ignoring her, I crossed the room and snatched my checkbook from a kitchen drawer. My tiny, but chic, condo didn’t have a spare room to use for an office, so the kitchen pulled double duty. It worked well since I wasn’t much of a cook. As long as I had a place to warm up take out leftovers, I was all set.
I flipped open the folio and scrawled my signature across the bottom of the first check. Glancing up, I pursed my lips. “Last chance, Harmony.”
Her confident smil
e wavered and then fell entirely. My heart stilled for a moment at the flash of despair reflected in her eyes before they flitted back to the floor.
I set aside the checkbook. “What’s going on, Harmony?”
“Jess and I broke up.”
“Who’s Jess?” Last thing I knew, she’d been seeing some punk-rock shifter named Orson who made me feel old anytime I spent more than five minutes in his self-entitled orbit.
“My boyfriend,” Harmony scoffed, before quietly adding, “Well, my ex-boyfriend, now.”
“I kinda figured that part out,” I replied. “I meant, what happened to Orson? I thought you were on tour with him or something.”
“I was.” She frowned. “Until I caught him cheating with a backup dancer.”
I cringed.
“They’re engaged now,” Harmony added, her voice small. “That’s when I met Jess.”
She plunked down on the sofa as though the mere thought of telling the tale sapped all her energy. I didn’t know the particulars, but considering this relationship had to have lasted less than three months, I couldn’t fully understand what was so devastating about its demise. Then again, I hadn’t been on a date in over a year, so what did I know?
“After leaving the tour, I took a job working as a cashier in an apothecary,” she started, drawing me away from the edge of my own murky pool of dating memories. “Jess worked there too, doing his apprenticeship. It wasn’t the best job, the owner always smelled like cabbage—”
I glanced at the silver clock hanging above the stove. It was creeping up to half-past three. I had to be awake in less than four hours to get ready for work. “Harmony, cut to the chase. What does any of this have to do with you coming back to Seattle?”
“Right, right, right. Well, about a week ago, Jess and I were putting in some overtime, doing inventory and stuff like that. We started goofing around and well … we kind of had this competition; you know, see who could make the craziest potion. He made one that he swore would make whoever drank it start quacking like a duck. I made one that would make the person smell like gummy bears for a week.”
I blinked. “You were getting paid for this?”
“Well … that’s kind of the problem.” She drew in a quick breath. “Mrs. Maddy, our boss—the one that smelled like cabbage—came back to get something and found us messing around with all the supplies. We’d made a bit of a mess. I mean, we were gonna clean it up, of course.”
“Mhmm.”
She frowned at me and continued, “She started railing on Jess for being a bad influence and fired him on the spot.”
“Imagine that,” I muttered.
“I snapped at her, telling her we’d come up with the idea together, and that if she wanted to fire Jess, she’d have to fire me too.” She paused for a moment and then shrugged half-heartedly. “So, she did.”
It was a familiar story. Harmony had burned through more jobs during her four years in the workforce than most people did by retirement. For one reason or another, things always went up in flames. And usually, the one holding the match was, in fact, Harmony. She was an unnatural disaster and I’d learned a long time ago that I couldn’t do much to help, beyond periodically bailing her out.
Though, that plan was running thin too.
Harmony drew in a steadying breath and raked her fingers through her hair. “I thought Jess would be happy that I stood up for him, but instead, he kinda turned on me. Started yelling about how he didn’t need me fighting his battles and all this other stuff. I tried to apologize, but he took off and left me standing on the front steps of the shop with nothing but my final paycheck and the messed-up potions.” She absently patted at her purse. “So, I hopped a Shimmer Bus yesterday afternoon and rode around for a little while before deciding to come here. I didn’t know where else to go.”
I dropped my folded arms to my sides. “I’m sorry you’re having a rough time, Harmony. Where have you been living?”
“Portland,” she said. “That’s where the tour was stopped when I found Orson with Audrina.” She wrinkled her nose. “But I didn’t have my own place or anything. I was staying in an SPA hostel.”
“A hostel?” I repeated.
She shrugged. “Yeah. The Supernatural Protection Agency has a bunch of them. If you’re in trouble, you can call and they’ll put you up for a while. I guess they’d rather have all the wayward supernaturals out of the human world as much as possible.”
I nodded. It almost sounded like the situation my dearest friend, Holly Boldt, had found herself in when she got on the wrong side of the haven law some time back. Surely, if Harmony had landed in one of those hostels for supernaturals, she must be all right. At least someone was looking out for her and I didn’t have to worry about her sleeping on the street.
“Listen, it’s too late to go back out tonight,” I told Harmony. “So, why don’t you stay for the night and then tomorrow I can give you some money and get you on a bus back to Portland.”
She nodded, but kept her eyes downcast.
Taking a step toward the hallway, I waved a hand at my tufted sectional. “This place doesn’t have a spare room, so you’ll have to make do with the couch. I’ll get some linens.”
Harmony didn’t reply, so I ducked into the hall. A faint blue light illuminated my way, all of the lights set to motion-sensing mode. I opened the narrow closet off the bathroom and carefully rummaged through the stacks of neatly folded sheets and blankets to find a warm blanket and a set of flannel sheets.
“These should work,” I said, returning to the living room. “But, if you need more, there’s a—”
I stopped and lifted my brows. Harmony was still sitting in the corner of the couch but had folded in on herself, concave, in a way that made her look like a broken-down dress mannequin.
“Harmony?” I said, my voice whisper-soft.
She looked up and I saw streaks of black mascara running down her cheeks.
I took a deep breath and deposited the sheets on the back of the couch before rounding it to take a seat beside her. “Stace, I can’t do this anymore.” Her shoulders shook as a fresh wave of tears fell. “I need help.”
My heart clenched into a tight ball and pounded in my chest. It went without saying that a generous check wasn’t going to fix the situation. I’d never seen her this way before. She’d always been the brave one, ever since we were kids. She was the one who jumped off the roof to see if the charmed fairy wings she’d talked our father into buying her actually worked. The one who soaked up the spotlight in dance recitals and school plays. Whereas I’d always been the cautious—i.e. responsible—one. Everyone chalked it up to me being so much older than Harmony, but I’d always known it wasn’t just my age. We were different, from our very foundations.
Reaching for her hand, I offered her the ghost of a smile. “I’m here for you, Harmony. I always am. You know that, right?”
She nodded and sniffled loudly. “I’m so tired of being the screw-up. The mess. I only have a week left at the hostel before they’ll start suggesting I move on, but I don’t have anywhere to go. I want a place of my own. No more sleepy boyfriends or cobbled together part-time jobs. I just want to be normal!” She dissolved into sniffles and began sobbing again.
I patted her back and shushed her soothingly. “Tell you what,” I started, a new idea coming to me. “Tomorrow—” I paused, remembering the time. “Make that today, I have a rehearsal dinner at Luna. It’s an upscale restaurant downtown. The manager owes me a favor. I’ll cash it in and get you a job. You can stay with me until you get your feet back underneath you. Apartments here in the Seattle Haven aren’t cheap, but you’ll have some time to look and maybe get a roommate or two lined up.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, a hopeful lilt to her voice. “I won’t be in the way?”
“Considering this place only has one bathroom, I’m sure we’ll get in each others’ way sometimes, but we’ll make it work.” I smiled. “Besides, at least if you’re here, I
know you won’t be off getting yourself into trouble.”
Using the back of her hand, she wiped away the make-up smudges on her cheeks. “I’ll try not to.”
I gave her hand a squeeze and got up from the couch. “We need to be up in less than four hours,” I told her, smiling at the horrified look that flashed across her face. “So, get some sleep. The rehearsal tomorrow is for one of my biggest accounts. I can’t have anything going wrong, okay?”
“Got it,” she replied, mocking a salute.
“The bathroom is down the hall. Take whatever you need. We can go shopping tomorrow after the rehearsal.”
“Thank you, Stace. I promise I’ll make it up to you, somehow.”
“No need, baby sis.” I snapped my fingers and the lights in the living room dimmed to a faint, blue light. “Night, Harmony.”
“Night, Stace.”
I went back to my bed and exhaled slowly as I climbed in beside my fluffy Persian. “Looks like we have a new roomie, Peaches.” The cat lifted her head so I could scratch her chin. “Let’s just hope we don’t get carried away in Tornado Harmony.”
Rolling to my side, I reached out for my alarm clock and set it back half an hour. If I was going to have any chance of getting through arguably one of the most important days of my career, I needed to allow some time for a supercharged elixir from the local potions shop before going to the office.
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