21
Igrunted as I shoved another box to the side of Celeste’s attic. I reached up to swipe the thick sheen of sweat off my forehead. I probably had marks all over the place with how hot it was in the only room in the house, which apparently wasn’t connected to the air-conditioning. Wasn’t part of the original historical building—unlike Celeste’s recently renovated farmhouse kitchen, I guessed.
“I thought we already moved all the furniture. Why are we still rifling through all this crap?” I asked.
Lu snorted as she pulled out another dozen hazy but very usable glass bottles she had found from the cardboard box she was looking through. Along with the old antique fainting couch, Celeste had been storing more than a few trinkets.
“I wasn’t planning to,” said Lu. “Until Celeste told me I could take whatever. Free bottles, Ana! You can’t pass up that kind of deal.”
I rolled my eyes and snorted a laugh.
“What have you been up to the past two days anyway?”
“Besides being at your beck and call for the shop and having Dom be our pack mule to get all the stuff you’ve been finding here?” I asked, as if that wasn’t obvious.
Helping Lu had taken up most of our time in the past few days. And the days seemed to be going much faster than the previous weeks. It was me and Dom and the rest of the coven constantly, and when we weren’t with them … well, we hadn’t gone much further, but neither of us was able to forget our reunion the other evening for long, wishing for a repeat. Because there were repeats. Not that I was complaining.
“How is he?”
I paused. “Fine.”
“Fine?” Lu’s brows scrunched together as she looked up from whatever she had found in her next box, which took a backseat so she could stare at me.
I only shrugged and opened a box myself—nothing but old prom dresses and layers of crinoline inside. I moved to the next. “That’s what I said.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Everything has been completely normal, and nothing new is going on besides the world punishing me for my cursed mistakes,” I maintained.
“You’re keeping things from us again, Ana,” Celeste trilled, dropping off another box we hadn’t sorted through yet before turning to go and get another. By the amount of meaningless shit and mementos in Celeste’s attic, we were going to be here for the rest of our lives, or at least until Lu finally gave up and believed she had enough empty containers for the shop.
So, we were going to be here forever.
“Aha!” Lu scoffed, seeing that even Celeste had agreed with her for once. “I told you.”
“I’m not,” I repeated.
I maneuvered myself around another stack of boxes. I popped the top of one, which was tacky with old tape. I peeked inside. This one was less dusty than some of the others.
“You’re totally sleeping with him,” said Lu.
I persisted with my last comment. However, it started to sound dull, even to my own ears. When I lifted my gaze again to the two of them, both Celeste and Lu stared at me with wide eyes, only this time, there was no joking in them.
“You’re sleeping with him,” said Celeste slowly. Any lighthearted air to her voice was gone.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh my stars.” Lu leaned back into another stack of old crap like it was a backrest.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It absolutely does matter,” insisted Lu, staring at me like she hadn’t tried to warn me off of him. “How has it been?”
“Are you asking about my sex life, Lu?”
Reaching to her side, I couldn’t what random object she threw before it was flying past me. I laughed as I ducked, rolling my eyes. “It’s been good, but he’s still been acting weird,” I told them, though that wasn’t exactly true.
It was mainly me who had been acting odder than normal ever since I had woken up naked with him, constantly wondering when the inevitable would happen.
