Essie nodded slowly.
“He should be here any minute to join us. Is there dessert?”
Celeste was already getting up from the couch and heading toward the kitchen, coming back with deserts in hand. Essie followed with glasses and juice.
Not long after, the door slammed again. Lu didn’t acknowledge him but raised her glass as the door creaked open. Ryan stomped his way in, pausing in the archway, much like Lu had when she first arrived.
“You told them?” he asked, still a bit of bite in his voice from wherever he had come from.
Lu waved him inside toward her with the fork she had been passed. “They made cheesecake, Ry-Ry. Get in here.”
He wrapped his arms around Lu’s middle and held on tight as he flopped down on the floor next to her. “I’m sorry. That was … I don’t even know what that was.”
“You don’t have to say another word,” said Lu.
“Happy graduation?” He chuckled.
“Happy graduation,” whispered Lu, starting on her own string of laughter at the entire situation.
She leaned further into him before Celeste handed him his plate of cheesecake. His eyes widened with intrigue and joy.
“Is this …”
“Hazelnut this time.”
Either way, Ryan dived in, shoving a large bite into his cheek before taking another, sharing bites with Lu before she got her own.
* * *
I letthe water nearly run over the top of my glass, taking in the quiet and stream of water coming from the tap. I needed something to calm me back down. Dom wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been sure how this day was going to turn out. And how it had …
I heard voices talking in the other room.
He seemed to fit there. Sure, he was a little large for the one end of the couch, and he looked a little awkward, knowing what everyone else had thought of him for the past so many months. But Dom … he looked all right here in the house.
Lu leaned up against the counter next to me.
I raised my eyebrows, finally shutting off the water and taking a sip from the rim of my glass so it wouldn’t spill. “Yes?”
She narrowed her eyes, taking a look at me. “You okay?”
“Of course I am.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m just checking in. I’m surprised you brought him.”
Him.
“Well, chaos ensues when Dom and I break a mile radius.”
Lu chuckled, nodding as she looked down and twisted her rings on her fingers so they were all right side up. “Makes sense. Has it eased up at all?”
I shrugged. “Hard to tell. We haven’t been exactly testing it lately since we gave up on the stupid reversal spells for now. We’ve just been … cordial.”
“Cordial?”
“That’s what I said.”
Lu watched me. “I’m just saying, the quicker you notice that it’s lessening and then you keep doing that, the faster he can get out of your apartment and out of town.”
