by Rose Pressey
I slipped into the café and flipped on the light. The space was eerily silent; there were no clanking dishes, no chatter, or demands for refills. I ambled across the room, touching a chair, then moving on to brush my finger across a picture of Mystic Hollow from 1952 that grandma had hung on the wall.
As I studied the photo, I realized the town looked strangely the same back then as it did today. Grandma Imelda may be in Florida enjoying the sand and surf, but her presence still lingered in the café. What would she have done in my situation? What a silly question. She would never have made a mistake as I had.
Grandma had placed a calendar on the wall behind the register. I looked over at the date. Hours ticked away toward my forty-eight hour deadline. It felt as if I was watching the sand pour through an hourglass, and I had done nothing to stop it from falling completely to the other side. With running the café, there was hardly time to think of anything other than pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I needed to stop messing around. The answer to my problems wouldn’t fall at my feet. How would I find the time to reverse a magic spell? I had to make the time. Somehow, some way.
As I moved toward the kitchen to begin work and attempt to relieve my melancholy mood, the bell jangled on the door.
I spun around and clutched my chest. “What are you doing here?”
“The better question is what are you doing here?” Mary Jane propped her hand on her jutted-out hip.
I sighed. “I knew I couldn’t sleep, so I came here to work off my troubles.”
“I’m sorry to say it probably won’t help, but you can give it a try. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really, but…”
“But you know you will.” She grinned. “I expected you’d still be with Rory. Last time I saw you guys, you were by the Tilt-A-Whirl.” She covered her mouth. “I didn’t spy. Honest.”
I smiled and shook my head.
“What happened? It looked as if you were hitting it off,” she said.
“I thought we were, until Kim popped up.”
Mary Jane flushed red and dropped her purse on the floor. “What!” Her voice boomed across the café.
I filled her in on every detail, even up to the point where I sat in Tom’s hotel room.
“So that’s what happened. And now I’m trying to figure out why I feel like this.” I sighed and leaned against a table.
“You love him.” Mary Jane wiggled her eyebrows. “Not to mention you have a lot of crap hanging over your head right now.”
“I do not love him,” I huffed.
“You do. I can see it in your eyes.” She pointed.
“You can’t.” I looked away. “I think I’m still at the in lust phase.”
“Good point. But it could definitely turn to love.”
“I don’t know him, and besides, if the end of the night was any indication, I think he’s spoken for again. Kim has her eyes and heart set on getting back together with him. I don’t think she’ll stop until she’s succeeded.” I pulled out a chair.
“In a span of twenty-four hours, I learned Rory’s favorite doughnuts…chocolate glazed, and sports team…Cincinnati Bengals, for heaven’s sake. All things I discovered during our chitchat at the county fair. These are things I doubt Kim would care to learn.”
“Wow, you did learn a lot. I’m impressed by your skill.”
“I bet she knows nothing about him after dating him for two years.” I shook my head in disgust.
But it didn’t matter how little she knew about him, she had the history with him and I didn’t. But that didn’t mean she loved him or that they belonged together because of it. My stomach acid churned and I rubbed my chest. Between the caramel apple, ice cream and the stress, I’d need a vat of acid reducer soon.
Mary Jane walked up and put her arm across my shoulders. She’d been absentmindedly rearranging the sugar packets on the table. “It’ll work out. Just you wait and see. The café will stay open and you’ll sort out this thing with Rory. Kim doesn’t want him. She messed with his heart and mind once, she’ll do it again. He deserves better than that. He’s a fine man and not just on the outside.”
“The good ones are always taken. Come on, let’s go back to the kitchen,” I said, jumping up from the table.
She nodded. “Sometimes the bad ones are taken, too. As in Kim.”
“You think she’s a bad one?”
“What do you think? The way she treated him?”
“She claims the opposite,” I said.
“If she really believes that, then she’s crazy. She’s only lying to herself. She knows the truth. And there are plenty of people who can back up the story. Rory didn't realize it at the time but, in my opinion, it’s the best thing that could have happened to him.”
The bell on the café door jingled and I walked over to the kitchen door. I thought everyone in town knew we didn’t stay open this late.
“Sorry, we’re closed,” I said as I opened the swinging door from the kitchen.
It was Kim.
Making a sound somewhere between a grunt and a dying cat, I stopped in my tracks.
“Oh, look now, it’s back. Er, well, she’s back,” Mary Jane said when she peeped out the little window.
“I’ll go talk to her.” As if I thought for a second Mary Jane would stay behind and not listen to this conversation. Maybe I’d need her for backup, though. Kim probably wanted to clobber me.
I hadn’t expected to see her in the café again so soon. She hated that I didn’t have any fancy coffee drinks. I had a suspicion as to why she was there and it had nothing to do with coffee and everything to do with Rory. Why wasn’t she still with Rory? What happened to her ‘broken’ car?
The usual scowl was displayed on her face.
“I need to talk with you, Elly, if you have a minute?” she asked in a clipped tone.
I didn’t like the sound of this. She had to have seen us kissing. No doubt, she’d been stalking us all evening, way before she popped up in the park.
“Sure. You want to have a seat at one of the booths?”
She stared at me for a moment while tapping her foot. “I’d rather not. This won’t take long.”
“Okay.” My lips twisted into a wry expression. I couldn’t believe she was staring me down.
Her back stiffened as the blood rushed to her face. “I’m tired of playing games with you. Stay in your stupid little café and leave my Rory alone.”
“I’m not playing games with you,” I said through a smile.
She held up her hand. “I’m not finished. He doesn’t want you. I tried to be nice to you, but I see that doesn’t work.” Pinning me with her green eyes, she continued, “Now, I’m warning you. Stay away.”
Kim spun around and stormed out the door. The bell moved so violently that it wasn’t able to make a sound. The door rattled when it slammed shut.
“Go dye your roots!” Mary Jane yelled in her wake.
“That’s telling her, Mary Jane.”
Mary Jane’s face was fire-engine red and her eyes narrowed. She’d always had a temper. “How dare she come in here and tell you that,” she ground out.
“Come on.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and led her to a table. “Forget about her for right now. Let me get you a piece of pie.” A little dose of pastry with a general spell for a calming effect would be good right about now.
“Can’t you do a magic spell on Kim to make her not want Rory?” Mary Jane asked.
“That would be a negative spell. And it specifically states in the book on page one that there are to be no negative spells.”
“I bet someone has done a negative spell.”
“Yeah, lots of people probably have, but it doesn’t turn out well for them in the end. Well, at least that’s what Grandma Imelda told me, anyway. Even if none of this magic was in play, I still believe in karma. It’s like grandma always said: what goes around comes around.”
“You really believe that?” Mary Jane asked.
&nb
sp; “I do, always have. Then again, I’ve been hearing it from my grandmother since I can remember. My mom, too. But regardless, I do believe it.”
“So if a negative spell is out of the question, what do you do now?”
I handed Mary Jane a plate with a slice of peach pie and a heaping pile of whipped cream on top. “Wait, I guess. Find out what Tom says I can do next.”
“There has to be something you can do on your own instead of waiting around. Rory needs to tell Kim that he’s not interested in a relationship with her.” She speared a hunk of peach with her fork.
“Ideally that would be nice, but I don’t know how the magic works. Maybe it stops him from saying what he really wants to say.”
She shrugged. “I guess. What about Tom? Do you really trust that guy?”
“I guess so, I haven’t checked up on him, though.”
“Maybe you need to. Sometimes people aren’t always who they claim to be. Perhaps a little background check is in order. What can it hurt?” Mary Jane asked before stuffing a forkful in her mouth.
I chewed my bottom lip, considering the question. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. Who would I ask?”
“I don’t know, Elly, but we have to think of something. Mystic Café is where you need to be. This is what you need to do. You’re good with people. And I must admit, I didn’t think you’d do so well with the cooking, but you’ve managed to keep the burnt items to a minimum.”
“Gee, thanks for noticing.” She ducked when I threw a towel at her.
“What do you know about this National Organization of Magic place?” She licked her fork.
“Well, I asked my grandmother and she backed up everything Tom claimed about them. And I trust her. She says they keep law and order within the magic world. So I have to do what they tell me to, if I want to keep the café.”
“What happens to you if they close the café?” Mary Jane asked, then frowned.
I knew she didn’t want to hear the answer. The last thing I wanted was for Mary Jane to be out a job. “I guess I’d move. Maybe go back to the city and look for a job and pray I found one.”
“I’d miss you. Things wouldn’t be the same around here without Mystic Café.”
“I’d miss you, too.” I reached across the table and hugged her. The smell of peach pie tickled my nose.
“Hey, it’s not goodbye yet, we don’t know anything. Everything will work out. We have to keep a positive attitude.” Her words were garbled by a mouthful of pie.
“Think positive.” I nodded. “You’re right.”
“Besides, maybe you wouldn’t have to move, maybe there’s something else in this town you could do.”
I raised a brow. “Seriously? I don’t think so. Even you know that.”
At the sight of my lifted brow she said, “Well, I’m not going to stand around and let that snake, Kim, ruin everything.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Besides not wanting you to lose the café and my need to keep this job at least until I finish night classes, I want you to be with Rory. You two would make a perfect couple.”
Just her mentioning us making a perfect couple made me blush and I was sure Mary Jane noticed my flushed cheeks.
“You do like him. Admit it.”
I shrugged. “He’s okay.”
She dipped her finger in the whipped cream and licked it off. “And he likes you, even if you did spray whipped cream in his face.”
“Thanks for reminding me, I was trying to forget.”
“I’ll never let you forget that. He probably got a good laugh out of it, too.”
“Oh, he laughed all right, but I think he was laughing at how much of a fool I am.”
“Nonsense, he likes you, too. I think he doesn’t know what to do now that Kim is back in the picture. I don’t see how any man could be with that woman. I mean, sure at first, the pretty package on the outside is tempting, but once they open it up, they have to want to return it immediately.”
I laughed. “I know I’d want to return her as soon as possible.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Twenty-four hours until the café was closed for good and I intended to make the most of the day. I’d make the best food Mystic Hollow residents had tasted. Well, the best food they’d tasted since Grandma Imelda left. And unless I figured out something in a hurry, the café would be history and so would any romance with Rory.
“So, Mary Jane, you got any wild plans tonight?” I asked, as I handed her a customer’s order.
“Me? Wild plans in Mystic Hollow? You know better than that. Wait. Maybe I’ll head over to the Dairy Queen and check out the new blizzard flavor. Or cruise around the town square a few hundred times.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve made your point.”
She delivered the food, then returned to where I stood. “No, no plans. Not tonight or any other night as far as I can tell. There’s slim pickings around these parts.”
“Oh, come on, there has to be somebody you’re interested in.”
She stared at me for a beat. “I know that look in your eye. Your grandmother tried her magic on me before and it doesn’t work.”
“It doesn’t work? Then why does Rory have women following him around like little lost puppies? Why is his ex-girlfriend back in town? Is it just a coincidence that after I did magic for those specific things that now they’re happening?”
“No, no coincidence.” She sighed. “The magic works, but let me clarify something. It doesn’t work for me. Okay? So get that little glimmer out of your eyes.” She pointed, giving a dire warning.
“Do you think the magic doesn’t work for some people?”
She shrugged. “I think some spells don’t work for some people. Like when Imelda did the spell for my hangover, it worked. But I know for a fact she’s tried love spells on me before and, needless to say, they didn’t work. So, to answer your question: I don’t know.”
“I think maybe I’m only attracted to Rory because of the love spell. Somehow the magic may have gotten to me, too.”
“Oh, Elly, I don’t think so. In my opinion, there has to be something about the individual people and magic, because I haven’t been affected by the spell. Don’t get me wrong, Rory is gorgeous, but when I see him, I think of my slightly older brother. So don’t be so sure that your feelings for him are based on magic.”
She had a point. I hadn’t noticed her being googly-eyed around Rory like the other ladies. If I only knew how the magic worked. Were some people more susceptible to it? Maybe there had to be underlying feelings for a spell to affect one person and not another. Or some kind of connection? I liked to think of the magic as a little booster of fate. It was only pushing forward what would inevitably happen anyway.
There should be some kind of magical orientation for this stuff. Classes or, at the very least, a pamphlet explaining this stuff. The magical folks were so secretive…even grandma. It was as if they wanted me to learn as I went, and how could they not expect me to make mistakes like that?
I nodded. “You’re probably right. I’ve got so many thoughts in my head at this craziness I don’t remember which way is up. Anyway, let’s talk about Mystic Hollow’s handsome Sheriff Jasper…” An innocent little smile curved my lips. “I saw the way you looked at him the other day when he came in. I think you have the hots for him. You’d really like to butter his biscuit.” I wiggled my eyebrows.
She threw a towel at me. “Stop. He’s not interested in me.”
“How do you know?” I placed a hand on my hip.
“I just do. He doesn’t pay any attention to me when he comes in. I saw him just the other day at the Piggly Wiggly and he didn’t even notice me.”
“Did you speak to him?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
She looked down, picking at the edge of her shirt. “Well, no.”
“Did you do anything to let the man know you were in the store?”
“Not exactly.” She picked at a loose thread on her shirt.
&n
bsp; “Uh-huh. Just as I thought.” I clucked my tongue.
“What was I supposed to do? Go streaking through the store?”
“Sure. If need be, why not?” I smiled.
“’Cause I’d get arrested, that’s why,” she chided.
“Well, he’d be the one arresting you, so is that such a bad idea?”
“I’d prefer if the first time he saw me naked wasn’t under the harsh lights of the produce section. It’s bad enough with the lights off.”
I chuckled. “Seriously, I think I’ll get him in here for a little lunch. Or maybe breakfast? You know how he loves those pastries. If the café has to be closed and I can’t practice magic, at least I’ll have done one last kind act before I’m locked out. And admit it, he does have nice biscuits.”
In spite of her nonchalant demeanor, as I stared into her bright eyes, a small spark of hope flickered.
“Whatever you say, but I don’t want someone to like me only because of some magic spell.”
I shook my head. “Mary Jane, Mary Jane. You know that’s not how it works.”
She tossed a sugar packet in my direction. “Shut up. You don’t even know how it works.”
“I do know how it works. I’ve been reading Mystic Magic.”
She quirked a brow. “You’ve been reading the book, huh?”
“Okay, I don’t know exactly how it works, but practice makes perfect. I’ll just do a spell to make him notice you. Sometimes men can be clueless. What am I saying? A lot of times men can be clueless.”
“I can’t argue with you on that one.”
“He just needs his eyes opened, that’s all. He’s too busy looking down to notice. He needs to lift his head up and see the world around him. I’ll find a recipe for something wonderful. I’ve wanted to try something new anyway. He won’t be able to resist. Plus, it’ll help me get a little closer to the truth behind this magic stuff. Why certain spells work for some people and not others. Now, make sure to put your lipstick on.” I pointed at her face.
She rolled her eyes. “What for? He isn’t coming in here right now. You’re too much, do you know that?”