Almost Charmed

by Rose Pressey

“Wow, I made a great impression,” he said with a smile.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, but we’ve been busy,” I said.

  “Yes, very busy,” Thomas said.

  Paul looked suspicious of us. But I guessed I was a bit suspicious of him too, so no one trusted anyone around here.

  “Did everything work out okay?” I asked.

  “The place is all mine. We’re going to have a celebration there tonight. I hope that you will come and Thomas too,” Paul said.

  Chapter 17

  I didn’t know if I should go. It felt a bit too soon for me to go out to a club. I was still depressed and upset. I hadn’t even had a chance to process what had happened. Everything had turned into chaos as usual. With a strange guest showing up, a ghost appearing and then a couple of weird women who might be trying to get the book, it was just one thing after the other. Paul was staring at me though, waiting for an answer.

  “We should definitely go,” Thomas said.

  I’d known he would say that. He always loved going to the Bubbling Cauldron. Plus, I was sure he would want to know if anything would change now that Paul had bought the place.

  “I suppose we can go,” I said.

  I knew I sounded less than enthusiastic. Paul had no idea that I had just been left at the altar a short time ago. He probably wouldn’t have asked me to go if he’d known.

  “Great,” Thomas said with a smile.

  “I’ll see you all later tonight down at the club? I just have a few things that I need to work on, so I’ll get out of your way.” Paul gestured over his shoulder.

  I smiled. “We’ll see you then.”

  Paul walked out of the room, leaving Thomas and I alone.

  “Well, what do you think about that?” Thomas asked.

  “I’m not sure I’m really up for going out to a club.”

  “We have to go,” he said. “Plus, it’ll do you good to get out of the house and get your mind off everything.”

  “I’m not sure going to the club will help with that, but if you really want to go we can.”

  “I think you should,” he said. “Now let’s finish our lunch. I’m still starving.”

  Thomas was always starving. Plus, I still needed to go to the grocery store. How would I find time for chores like that with everything else going on?

  *

  I’d been expecting the knock on my bedroom door. I tried to ignore it, but I knew Thomas wouldn’t go away. Of course, the door was locked and that made him even angrier.

  “Halloween LaVeau, let me in there now,” Thomas yelled.

  I wondered if Paul could hear Thomas. Though I thought Paul had already left for the Bubbling Cauldron. “I’m busy,” I said before covering my face with the pillow.

  “You are not busy. You said we were going to the club, now get dressed and let’s go.”

  “I don’t want to go,” I said.

  “Now you’re just being like a child.”

  “I’m not in the mood.”

  “You have to go,” he said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because the leader of the Underworld needs to see what’s going on at the club.”

  “There’ll be other nights,” I said.

  “Will there be other nights?” he asked. “Are you sure about that? What if utter chaos breaks out? You’ll end up having to go there anyway so you might as well be there for when it starts.”

  “I love that you’re thinking the worst automatically,” I said.

  “I’m just trying to prepare myself,” he said. “Now come on out.”

  “I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “Grab those yoga pants and a T-shirt and let’s go.”

  “I am not wearing yoga pants to the club.”

  “I’ll help you find something to wear if you open the door,” Thomas said from the other side of the door.

  I sighed and got up from the bed. It looked as if I was losing this battle. I really just wanted to stay home and have more ice cream. I hadn’t had a chance to get my emotions out and I needed that. I opened the door and Thomas stormed in, as if he thought if he didn’t move fast enough I’d slam the door shut and lock him out again.

  He headed toward the closet. “Open it up and let’s see what you have in that vault. I’m almost afraid of what we might find in there. Are there bats hanging in there?”

  I placed my hands on my hips. “No, I do not have bats in my closet. I keep those in the attic.”

  Thomas motioned. “All right, open the door and let’s get to this.”

  “I’m not sure if I want to open the door. It’s risky since the book is in there.”

  “It’s in the safe. You have to change your clothes at some point.”

  “I have yoga pants and T-shirts in the dresser.” I pointed across the room. “That’ll get me by for a while.”

  “You just said you didn’t want to wear yoga pants and a T-shirt to the club.”

  “Exactly my point. That’s why I can’t go.”

  “Open the door,” Thomas said.

  “Fine,” I said, pulling out the key and unlocking the door.

  I checked over my shoulder to make sure that no one had slipped into the room to trick us into opening the door and getting the book. Even if I did have the safe as my main source of security I would still remain cautious and vigilant.

  Thomas stood in front of the closet, staring at the contents. “Well, not a lot to work with here.” Thomas pulled out a red dress.

  I shook my head. “I wore that to the Valentines’ dance with Nicolas.”

  He put it back on the rack and then he pulled out a green dress.

  “Christmas party,” I said.

  “With Nicolas?” he asked.

  I nodded. He placed the dress back on the rack. Thomas pulled out a black and white polka dot dress.

  “His cousin’s wedding.”

  “All right, let’s do this a different way. Is there anything in here that has nothing to do with Nicolas?”

  “No,” I said.

  Thomas rested his head in his hands. “Okay, what are we going to do?”

  “Not go,” I said.

  “You’re starting to make me angry,” he said.

  I nudged him out of the way and reached into the closet. “All right, how about this black dress?”

  “Perfect,” he said.

  “You haven’t even looked at it.”

  “I don’t care what it looks like. It’s perfect. Let’s go.”

  “You have to go downstairs and wait for me to change.” I gestured.

  “I’m not falling for that,” he said. “You just want me out of the room so that you can lock the door and not go.”

  “I won’t do that,” I said.

  “You can use the bathroom to change,” Thomas said. “I’ll just wait here on the bed.”

  “Fine,” I said as I stomped over to the bathroom.

  Yes, I was being a bit annoying and practically having a temper tantrum. But I felt I deserved a bit of it after what I’d been through. All right, so no one else deserved to put up with my antics. I needed to pull up my big girl panties and deal with it. Thomas was right. I needed to check out the club and make sure things were on the up and up. I stepped into the bathroom and shimmied into the black dress. It had a fitted waist with a full skirt, small straps and a V neckline. It was a beautiful dress that I’d worn it to the club before. I could never go wrong with a little black dress though.

  After a couple minutes, I stepped out of the bathroom and spun around. “Well, how do I look?”

  “Gorgeous,” Thomas said. “Now get your dancing shoes and let’s go.”

  I hurried over to the closet and grabbed some black heels. I made sure to lock the door and checked it three times before meeting Thomas at the door. I wore the necklace with my keys around my neck. It was a permanent fashion accessory for me. On the way out the door, I spritzed Chanel Number Five on my neck and wrists. Just because I had been dump
ed didn’t mean I couldn’t smell pretty. Once out in the hallway I locked the door and checked the doorknob three times to make sure it was truly locked. I’d just turned around to walk down the hallway when I received an alert on my phone. It was a text from Liam.

  I’d been so busy that I hadn’t gotten a chance to check in with him. He was probably wondering what was going on with me. If he guessed I was in bed crying while eating ice cream, he would be partially correct. But not nearly as much so as I wanted to.

  Are you all right? I’m worried about you.

  I had to answer him once I got outside. I had planned on driving just because Thomas’ driving skills were a little iffy, but now maybe I would have him drive so that I could speak with Liam a bit. I needed to tell him about what had happened with the book and the mysterious women. Not to mention the ghost. I wasn’t sure I would mention Paul though. I didn’t want to complicate things.

  When Thomas and I reached the bottom of the steps, I grabbed the car keys from the table. “Would you like to drive?”

  “What?” he asked with wide eyes.

  “Just this once I guess I can allow it,” I said with a wink.

  “I know you’re up to something,” he said.

  I raised my hand. “Nothing, I promise.”

  I locked the door behind us and we headed for the car.

  “By the way, you didn’t say how great I look tonight,” Thomas said.

  He wore black pants, a white shirt and a black and brown tie.

  “You look dashingly handsome,” I said.

  “Thank you,” he said as he opened the car door for me.

  I slipped in the car as he hurried around to the driver’s side. I really hoped I wasn’t making a bad decision by allowing him to drive. He had a tendency to speed and not pay attention as much as he should. He said it was just my imagination.

  Chapter 18

  I started typing away as we pulled down the driveway.

  This is a lot to relay in a text message. But I think someone’s trying to get the book again.

  I hit send. I wasn’t sure if he would get the message right away, but I knew as soon as he saw it I would hear from him.

  We pulled out onto the road and I immediately thought about almost being run over. I’d never found out if the woman at the neighbor’s house had been the one behind the wheel of the black car, but I almost wanted to go over there again and poke around.

  “I suppose pulling in the driveway would be a big red flag to her,” I said.

  “She’d probably lose it if we did that,” Thomas said.

  As we neared her driveway I was tempted to tell him to pull in.

  “Well, we are in the car. She couldn’t get to us quickly and we could probably get out of there before she got to her car.”

  Thomas whipped into the driveway without saying another word.

  “I take it that’s a yes.” My adrenaline was really pumping now. Maybe I was just asking for trouble. But I had to know if it was really her. “Do you see any cars around?” I asked.

  It was dark, so it would be hard to tell.

  “I don’t see any sign of a person… no lights in the house and no car.”

  “If that was her in the black car she must not be back yet,” I said.

  “Maybe she’s gone for good,” he said.

  “We can only hope. Where are the women you saw?” I asked.

  “Maybe they left too. Are you sure it was only one person in that black car? Maybe they were with her.”

  “I’m not sure it was only one person because, like I said, it happened so quickly. I just hope they are gone for good,” I said.

  Thomas managed to turn the car around so that we could get the heck out of there.

  “Well, at least now we know that she’s still not there. I would’ve been thinking about this all night at the club.”

  “Oh, you’re still going to think about it all night at the club. Because we don’t have the answer yet.”

  Soon we arrived at the club and just as always it was crowded. There was a line of people outside waiting to get in. We had a tough time finding a parking space too.

  “You’d think they’d have reserved parking for the leader of the Underworld,” Thomas said.

  “Oh, why stop there? How about a limousine and a chauffeur?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “I’m just leader of the Underworld. I don’t get special treatment.”

  “As much as you put up with stress wise you should get special treatment.”

  “Well, I disagree,” I said.

  “I don’t know how you do it,” he said, turning off the ignition.

  We’d finally found a parking spot. I couldn’t say that I hadn’t thought that way sometimes. Like every time someone tried to take the book from me. And obviously the big one was when my fiancé dumped me at the altar.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

  “I can’t wait to see what’s going on in there,” Thomas said.

  I grabbed my black clutch purse and got out of the car. Thomas acted as if something crazy was going to be going on in there and I knew it would just be business as usual. But if it made him happy then we would definitely go and check it out.

  Thomas and I walked along the sidewalk toward the entrance. I supposed I did have one perk of being the leader of the Underworld. I could go to the front of the line and get into the club. I didn’t take this for granted though. There were plenty of times before when I’d never got in. And I had waited in line most of the time unless I really needed to get in there in a hurry. With Thomas in town though this was definitely an emergency. He was like a toddler, easily distracted and impatient.

  I didn’t recognize the guy at the door. Had Paul already replaced all of the employees? That would be awfully fast, and I hadn’t thought that there was anything wrong with the previous employees. They seemed like great people. They were always nice, and I liked them, so I couldn’t see why they wouldn’t still be here. Maybe they didn’t like Paul. Was he a bad boss? I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe Paul had someone new for the front door.

  When we stepped up to the guy, I waved and said, “Hello, I’m Halloween LaVeau. I’m probably on the list.”

  The guy frowned. “What list?”

  “The guest list,” I said.

  “Do you know who she is?” Thomas asked, placing his hands on his hips.

  “No,” the guy said dryly. “Should I?”

  Thomas laughed. “She’s only the leader of the Underworld. So if you could step aside and let us in now.”

  The guy was large and he blocked the entire entrance. No way we were getting around him.

  “I don’t have a guest list,” he said. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can get to the back of the line and maybe you’ll get in.”

  “Are you serious?” Thomas asked.

  “Can you go get Paul, the new owner?” I said.

  “I’ve been told not to disturb him.”

  “But he’s staying at my house.”

  “Then I suppose you can talk to him when you see him,” the guy said.

  Obviously, this was going nowhere.

  I touched Thomas’ arm. “Come on, let’s go to the back of the line.”

  “But this is official business. You shouldn’t have to wait in line.”

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  I glanced over my shoulder at the guy one more time as we walked away. He had turned his attention away, not looking at me.

  “Yeah, he can’t even look at you now,” Thomas said.

  A few people stared at us as we walked to the end of the line. Some people acted as if they recognized me. Others didn’t.

  “If they won’t let the leader of the Underworld in, then what chance do we stand of getting in?”

  I wasn’t sure who said that but obviously she was someone who recognized me.

  “What is that guy’s problem?” Thomas asked.

  “Just stay calm and I�
�ll text Paul. I have his number.” I pulled out my phone.

  “You have his number?” Thomas asked, staring at my phone.

  “Well, it was on the paper that he filled out and I figured since we were coming to the club we might need it. And it’s a good thing I brought it,” I said.

  “See, that’s why you’re the leader. Good thinking,” he said.

  I typed a message and hit send. I hoped to get a response soon. We moved forward in the line.

  “See, it’s not so bad. The line is moving. He’s letting people in. So even if Paul doesn’t see the text, we’ll get in and check out the place.”

  “Well, we’re not getting off to a good start,” Thomas said.

  “If I’d known I’d be standing in line I would’ve worn more comfortable shoes.” I shifted from foot to foot.

  We inched forward just a bit more. I checked my phone, but I hadn’t received a text from Paul. Liam hadn’t answered either. Was my phone working? I sent a text to Thomas as he stood next to me.

  “Just testing it out,” I said.

  “Oh, it’s working all right. Everyone is ignoring you.”

  “Annabelle won’t ignore me.”

  I sent her a message and she responded immediately. Now I knew for sure my phone was working. I thought maybe it was a fluke that the one text to Thomas had gone through. Nope, it was definitely working.

  We’re at the Bubbling Cauldron.

  Oh, with the new owner?

  Hardly. They won’t let us in. I’ll explain later. We’re waiting in line.

  “I’m going to need a drink when I get in there,” Thomas said.

  “I’d be willing to bet that you would’ve gotten a drink even if we got in right away,” I said.

  “That’s true,” he said.

  We moved a bit more. At least we were actually moving. I held out hope we would get in. Though it was disappointing that Paul hadn’t responded to me. It was opening night and it seemed to be busier than ever. Even if it was crowded, Paul had been the one to invite us here. I had assumed we would be his guests. Finally, we were a couple people away from the door.

  “It’s been forty-five minutes,” Thomas said with a snap to his voice.

  “Has it already been that long? I guess time flies when you’re having fun.”