Chick with a Charm

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “I’m keeping you from making a mistake.” She found the cab company among his stored numbers and quickly arranged for a cab to come to the Bubbling Cauldron. Fortunately the dispatcher said a taxi was parked a mere block away.

  He watched her, disbelief shining in his eyes. “You’re actually sending me home?”

  “Yes.”

  He lowered his voice. “But you want me. I know you do. When we were dancing you melted against me. I know you, Lily. I can tell when all you really want is—”

  “Never mind that, Griffin.” Sad to say, he probably could tell exactly what she wanted. He’d learned her responses well in the past few days. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “The hell it doesn’t!”

  Lily became aware of her parents watching the little drama, along with Anica and Jasper. Obviously they hadn’t decided whether to become involved, but that indecision wouldn’t last long. She’d have to work fast.

  His voice rumbled with anger. “And what if I don’t want to take this cab you’ve called? What will you do to me then?”

  “Take the cab, Griffin. Once you’re in it, you’ll remember that’s what you intended to do in the first place.” Gazing upward again, she drew in a quick breath. “Mirrored ball, release his feet, send him out his cab to meet.”

  Neither of her incantations was particularly strong. She’d linked each one to the mirrored ball, which retained traces of magic from being repaired earlier in the day. Such a spell could work only if the subject had an inclination to do the thing the magical person had suggested.

  She was counting on the urge that had made him consult with Dorcas and Ambrose and the plans he’d made as a result. Those plans combined with her spell could send him out the door.

  He gazed at her and finally spoke softly in surrender. “All right, Lily. Make my apologies to your family.” Then he turned and left the bar.

  The magic-induced adrenaline rushed through her again, and she gripped the back of a nearby chair to keep herself from running after him.

  “Lily?” Her father must have been designated as the emissary. He walked over, his Peruvian headdress bobbing, his forehead wrinkled with concern. “What’s the problem?”

  If you only knew, Dad. But she didn’t intend to unburden herself now, and probably never would. “Nothing,” she said. “Griffin just needs to get home. He has to be up bright and early for work.”

  Her father didn’t look convinced. “I can understand that, but I thought the guy had better manners. He didn’t even come over to say good-bye.”

  “He asked me to do that for him.” She turned and gave her dad a hug. He smelled like incense, which probably came from the ceremonial headdress. “Don’t blame him for leaving abruptly. He and I have . . . a few issues.”

  “I was afraid of that.” Her father sighed and hugged her back. “It’s not my headdress that bothers him, is it?”

  “No, certainly not! It’s a fine headdress.”

  Her father smiled. “It is, isn’t it? Your mother says I look like an Incan god.”

  “You most definitely do.”

  “I hope he’s not upset about the magic.”

  She was touched by how much her father wanted Griffin to approve of them. “Not magic in general.” Her magic, however, the magic she’d foisted on him—now that he wasn’t so crazy about.

  “Well, that’s something, at least.” He pierced her with his dark-eyed gaze. “And he knows you’re a witch, right?”

  “Oh yes. He definitely knows.” She’d now placed spells on him right in front of his face. He couldn’t doubt her magical powers at this point.

  “I hope you can work out your problems with him, Lil. I always wanted you girls to end up with wizards, but now that I’ve met Jasper and Griffin, I’m becoming a fan of integration.”

  If she hadn’t been so heartsick, she might have smiled at that. For all his virtues, her dad had been prejudiced against nonmagical people for years. She was happy to see him giving up his long-held belief that magical people were somehow superior.

  She responded with forced gaiety. “Let’s drink to integration, then! Where’s your drink, Dad?”

  “Your mother’s holding it. I was sent over to—”

  “I know. And I seem to have misplaced my drink, too. Let’s go find ourselves some full glasses. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to party.”

  “Attagirl.” His expression was approving. “I can always count on you to put a little life into the proceedings. By the way, your friend who runs that Hangout place, the café and late-night coffee shop, was asking me where you were. I guess he came in late.”

  She’d forgotten all about inviting Brad. It was just as well that he’d missed the magic show, because he didn’t need any more reason to be fascinated by her. She could dance a few fast dances with him, though, and work out some of her adrenaline rush.

  “I’ll find him in a minute,” she said to her dad. “First we need to locate our drinks!”

  Her father laughed. “You bet we do, party girl.”

  Arms around each other, they returned to her family, where her father assured everyone things would work out between Lily and Griffin, and now it was time to make this old bar rock. Lily backed him up with an enthusiasm that she didn’t feel.

  Her mother beamed at them both. “I think this is the perfect time to open the gifts!” She put an arm around Lily and leaned close, laughter in her voice. “Aren’t you dying to see Fred and Janet’s reaction to the fertility symbol?”

  “Mom, it’s going to be worth the price of admission.” Lily winked at her mother. “I can hardly wait.”

  She was beginning to understand her role in this family, which was to be the life of the party. By Hera, that’s exactly what she would be, even when her heart was breaking.

  Lily was right. Once Griffin moved out of her orbit he remembered the plan. He took Dorcas’s calculations out of his pocket and studied them.

  In order to figure out how much time he should spend alone with Daisy, he’d have to recall every sexual experience he’d had with Lily and he’d have to estimate the amount of time they’d spent on it. The calculations were daunting enough, but the emotional toll would be worse as he relived each of those scorching sexual encounters.

  If he tried to do that alone he’d crash and burn. He’d be over at her apartment, ringing her doorbell like a maniac and begging to be let in. Not dignified. He speed-dialed Kevin.

  As Kevin’s phone rang, Griffin glanced at his watch. Ten twenty on a Sunday night. Kevin could be sleeping already.

  But his buddy answered on the second ring and sounded wide awake. “So how’s the stone working? Are you still at the engagement party? What’s—”

  “I’m on my way home from the party, but I have a spell-breaking assignment from a certified witch and wizard.”

  “Cool.”

  “It, uh, involves doing some calculations. I could use some help.” Griffin decided not to mention what the calculations would involve.

  “I’m all over that, buddy. Direct that cab straight to the home of the Kev-man.”

  “Thanks.” Griffin felt the tension in his shoulders relax. “I’ll be there in about five minutes.”

  “Is this a beer occasion or a caffeinated occasion?”

  Griffin thought about that. “You got both?”

  “Always. I just wondered whether to pop the top on the brewskies or put on the coffee.”

  “Let’s start with the coffee. We may have to move to the beer before we’re done, but we’ll start with a couple of cups of coffee.”

  Kevin sounded excited. “Should I call Miles? I think he’s still hanging out with the natural foods clerk, but I could call him. He helped on Friday, and he might want to be in on this.”

  “Sure. I can use all the help I can get.”

  Thirty minutes later the three of them sat at Kevin’s small dinette table, each with a steaming mug of coffee, a yellow legal pad, and a pen with BIDDLE, RYERSON & THATC
HER printed on the barrel.

  Miles tapped his pen on his legal pad. “How many minutes are we giving to that first blow job?”

  Griffin ran his fingers through his hair and tried to think of this as a legal case. “Uh . . . maybe fifteen, maybe a little longer.”

  “Can’t we make it ten?” Kevin punched in numbers on a calculator. “We have guidelines for ten, but not more than that, unless we start going into the addendums, which are way complicated. I don’t think this Lowell chick figured on a blow job taking more than ten minutes.”

  Miles blew out a breath and threw his pen down. “I’m jealous as hell. Fifteen minutes, maybe longer? I’m dating a health food nut, for Christ’s sake, and I can’t get more than ten out of her. Who wants a beer?”

  “Me.” Griffin put down his pen.

  “I could tell,” Miles said. “You’re getting a crazed look in your eye.”

  “I’ll get it,” Kevin said.

  Griffin scrubbed a hand over his face. “This is tough. No matter how much I try to think of this in clinical terms, just talking about it makes me want to head straight to her apartment.”

  “Hell, it makes me want to head straight back to my health food chick.” Miles sighed. “But I won’t. I’ll stay here and help.” He glanced over at Griffin. “Want me to tie you to the mast?”

  “Excuse me?” Kevin returned, open beer bottles dangling from his spread fingers. “Are we taking this project out on the lake?”

  “Nah.” Miles picked up one of the bottles Kevin set on the table and took a swig. “I was thinking about that Ulysses story we had to read in humanities, where the guy had to be tied to the mast so he wouldn’t be tempted by the Sirens.” He gestured with the bottle. “I thought we needed a little culture around here.”

  Kevin pulled out his chair and sat. “We need a plan for Griff, is what we need. He’ll have to have a fair bit of uninterrupted time with Daisy when Lily’s not around to sabotage the program. Maybe while she’s at work tomorrow.”

  Griffin had already thought of that. “She doesn’t work tomorrow. She has Sundays and Mondays off. There’s no way I can be alone with Daisy tomorrow.”

  Kevin exchanged a look with Miles. “I’m feeling a guys’ night out coming on. We can monitor you at work, but after work anything could happen.”

  Miles nodded. “Strip club.”

  “Nope.” Kevin shook his head. “Too close to home for Griff. We don’t want him getting worked up. The Cubs are away, but I think the White Sox have a night game. We’ll do that.”

  All that time without seeing Lily. It stretched ahead of Griffin like the Sahara—featureless and frightening. “This feels like detox.”

  “That’s because it is like detox,” Kevin said. “We’ll get you through until Tuesday. Assuming we do that successfully and there are no incidents—”

  “Aka sexual encounters,” Miles added helpfully.

  “I know what he meant.” Griffin was feeling more miserable by the second. “I’m going cold turkey.”

  “For your own good,” Kevin reminded him. “You’ll thank us.”

  “I’m already thanking you.” Griffin took a swallow of his beer. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to enjoy this.”

  Kevin made a note on his legal pad. “Okay. Tuesday you can leave the office early so you’ll be at Lily’s right after she goes to work. If you spend her entire eight-hour shift hanging out with Daisy, you might break the spell.”

  “Maybe.” Miles looked over his figures. “Obviously, some of these estimates could be off, but damn, you had a lot of sex in a very short time.”

  “Yeah.” Griffin was already mourning the loss of it. “What if the spell made me more studly than I really am? What if after I break it, I can’t keep up the pace?”

  “I dunno.” Miles took another swig of his beer. “Were you any good before?”

  That cracked Kevin up. “How do you expect him to answer, moron? You think he’s going to admit that he wasn’t?”

  Miles gazed at Griffin across the table. “I think you would, Griff. You’re not hung up on your rep like some guys in this room.”

  Kevin continued to chuckle. “Speak for yourself, Miles.”

  “At least I admit it.” Miles turned his attention back to Griffin. “So, were you any good in bed before Lily zapped you?”

  “I was okay, I guess. Nobody ever complained. But with Lily, it was like . . . like going from analog TV to high-def with Blu-ray.”

  “Whoa.” Miles reared back in his seat. “I need me some of that potion.”

  Kevin shook his head. “No, you don’t, Miles. It might sound great, until you think about the total loss of control over your life.”

  “Hey, it might be worth it!”

  “It almost was,” Griffin said. “Believe me, it almost was.”

  Chapter 27

  Lily was extremely put out with her dog. She’d taken Daisy to the dog park and tried several times to coax her to play the way she had with Griffin, but Daisy refused. Instead she flopped down on the grass with her head on her paws, looking as depressed as Lily felt.

  Crouching down next to Daisy, Lily stared into the dog’s expressive brown eyes. “Hey, Daisy, don’t you know dogs are supposed to be cheerful, bouncy, and generally the sort of animal you want around to improve your mood and make you laugh?”

  Daisy let out a little doggie sigh but didn’t change position.

  “At this rate I might have to get you some doggie Prozac.”

  Dogs weren’t supposed to be capable of rolling their eyes, and yet that’s exactly what Daisy did.

  Lily blew out a breath in surrender and stood. “Okay, babe. You can do this kind of thing at home. We don’t have to be down here at the dog park for you to lie around moping.”

  “Is she feeling okay?” A guy in jeans and a sweatshirt came over, a standard poodle at his heels.

  Lily vaguely realized he’d been at the park when she and Daisy had arrived, but she hadn’t paid much attention to him. She was in her own fog, too. But she should at least be polite and answer a well-meant question from another dog lover.

  “I think she’s fine,” she said. “All her vitals are good, and she’s eating normally. She’s used to having a certain person around, and apparently she misses him a lot.”

  “The divorce lawyer.”

  Lily did a double-take. “You know Griffin?”

  “Not really. We met briefly when he brought Daisy to the park a few days ago. I remembered Daisy because she’s so intelligent and . . . I don’t know how to put it . . . sensitive, I guess.”

  “Maybe too sensitive.” Lily shook her head. “I didn’t think having Griffin gone would bother her this much, but she’s been in a mood ever since last night.”

  “So he’s on a trip of some kind?”

  Lily finally tuned in to what she usually noticed right away. The guy was interested in her. Because she was here without Griffin and because Griffin seemed to be gone somewhere, the guy wanted to know more, like whether Griffin would be coming back or if the field was clear.

  “He, um, has some things to take care of.” That sounded lame, exactly as if they’d broken up. She didn’t know if they were broken up or not, but Griffin hadn’t contacted her since the party.

  “Well, seeing as how your dog doesn’t want to play, and Max doesn’t have the cocker spaniel around this morning, how about we walk them over to the nearest Starbucks?”

  “Thanks, anyway.” She smiled to take the sting out of the rejection.

  “So, you and the lawyer are involved, after all.”

  “Yes.” Or at least she was. The idea of going for coffee with someone other than Griffin held absolutely no appeal. She’d forced herself to party hearty last night, and then she’d had to fend off Brad toward the end. Apparently her heart belonged to a man who might or might not want it. The jury was still out on that.

  “Let me know if anything changes. The name’s Mitch Adams.”

  Lily knew she
was supposed to introduce herself after that, but she didn’t. “See you.”

  The guy inclined his head, as if he’d gotten the message. With a wave he and his poodle left the dog park.

  Lily looked at Daisy, who continued to act as if she’d lost her best friend. “I didn’t want to exchange names with that guy, but you don’t have any reason not to sniff that poodle. Isn’t that what dogs are supposed to do?”

  Daisy gave her a glance that clearly said some things were beneath her.

  “We might as well head on home, then.” Lily reached down and snapped the leash onto Daisy’s collar. “This dog park has memories for me, too, you know. I’m not having a picnic with this situation, either. Come on. Haul yourself up.”

  Daisy stood and walked toward the gate, but there was no bounce in her step. Once Lily got her back to the apartment, she decided to leave her there and go over to Anica’s coffee shop, Wicked Brew. Hanging around with Daisy was only making her feel worse.

  She could go see her folks, but that wouldn’t help, either. They’d only ask about Griffin, and because they didn’t know the whole story she’d have to skirt the subject as best she could. Anica was the only person who knew the truth and would understand what she was going through, and now that the engagement party was over, Lily didn’t feel so guilty unloading on her.

  She took the bus over to Anica’s shop and tried not to think of the times she’d ridden the bus with Griffin. They’d created some potent memories, and now she had to live with them. She’d worn a favorite pair of red high-heeled boots today along with a red blouse and denim short-shorts.

  The effort seemed wasted, but she was determined not to look as bad as she felt. Although she checked her cell phone constantly, it remained silent. Griffin was keeping his distance, probably because he was in the process of breaking the spell.

  Wicked Brew was busy, and Anica was behind the counter helping her two employees keep up with the orders. Lily stood in line and waited her turn while trying not to fidget. By the time she got to the counter she discovered that she’d managed to knot the straps of her backpack together so that she couldn’t get to her money.