I grabbed my coat and made my way to the exit, but I hesitated before pushing the door open. Against my better judgment, I looked over my shoulder, allowing myself one more look at the beautiful bartender. She grabbed another beer—the same one my brother had been drinking—and set the bottle in front of him before leaning over the bar.
A flicker of something like disappointment caught me off guard as they got lost in conversation.
I shook my head, snapping out of my thoughts, and followed through with leaving. I stepped outside, immediately met with the glowing state Capitol building against the dark sky.
While my Chicago apartment was only two hours away, I’dgotten a hotel for the night, unsure how long we’d be out or how many drinks we’d have.
Turned out, only one beer.
Icouldgo back to the hotel and call it an early night—I needed the sleep. Or…I could pop into one of the many restaurants still open.
Easy decision.
This night called for some damn good food.
1
ELIZA
Present day
“My sex life’s cursed,”I groaned to my two best friends, punctuating the sentence by finishing my margarita.
Jules tilted her head from one side to the other, her wavy brown hair flowing with the motion. “I mean, the guys you’ve been telling us about recently haven’t been great.”
“Right?” I sighed. “It’s not fucking rocket science to figure out where a woman’s clit is.”
“Okay, yes. I agree completely,” Lily said, pausing before adding, “Butcursed?” She raised her brows skeptically, a look I’d gotten plenty of times from her over the years. The two of us had grown up together and were more like sisters. “The last few guys have been duds, but you’ve had plenty of great sex!”
“Not this year,” I muttered. “And it’s not for lack of trying.”
Apart from the one relationship I had in college, I liked to keep things casual. I didn’t want to have a man trying to change me. Again. I also didn’t want to deal with the inevitable loss that came with love—because I knew that well, too.
Typically, casual worked well for me and the man I was with. We both got what we wanted, maybe saw each other again or maybe not, and then life moved on.
Except in the last few months, Ihadn’tbeen getting what I wanted, and I didn’t think I was asking for a lot.
I wanted a man to give me a goddamn orgasm—or, at the bare minimum, realize I hadn’t finished during sex and do something about it.
At this point, I was ready to call men quits and run off into the sunset with my trusty vibrator.
Actually, that didn’t sound like a bad idea…
“It’s very possible,” my grandma Marnie, who was sitting at the table with us, said thoughtfully as she lifted her tea to take a sip—her drink of choice for the night over the margarita mix I’d brought over. “There’s been an energy around lately, and stranger things have happened.”
Lily turned to her, mouth open. “Stranger things have—” She shook her head. “I’d think a sex curse would be on the list of strange.”
“Oh, ladies, remind me to tell you about my twenties some other night, but we’ll need more tequila for that.” Gran winked then set her tea on the table and turned to me. “Do you want the number of my psychic?” she asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “I saw her at the end of last year, and I bet she’d be able to squeeze you in.”
I tilted my head to the side. As intrigued as I was, I didn’t want to find out something else. Something I shouldn’t know or didn’t need to know. I wasn’t that desperate…at least not yet.
“I don’t think so, but I’ll let you know if I change my mind.” I drummed my fingers on the table.
“Wait, hold on,” Jules cut in, her green eyes gleaming with amusement as she leaned forward. “You saw a psychic? What did she say?”
To anyone listening who wasn’t from our small town of Golden Falls, it might’ve seemed strange that my grandma casually dropped seeing a psychic while also being part of a conversation about my sex life.
But anyone who knew Marnie Hayes wouldn’t have been surprised one bit.
