Maggie just stared at me, brows twitching, lips pressed together like she was seconds from losing it.
“You’re gonna laugh, aren't you?”
“No, no. Honest.” She laid a hand on my forearm, and the heat of her touch flicked on that part of me that wanted to claim every inch of her.
“I think it’s cute that you loved a movie so much you got a tattoo of a prop that no one even recognizes.”
“Excuse me? There are entire Reddit threads devoted to the chair that took Beni out. People remember it. You know what—pull out your phone. Right now.”
She blinked at me like I’d lost my goddamn mind but dug into her bag anyway. “O-okay?”
“Google ‘the chair that took Beni out.’” I watched the buildings slide past while she typed. When the video popped up, I pointed. “That one. Watch it.”
My lips moved with Brendan Fraser’s line about spring cleaning. Couldn’t help it.
Maggie shook her head, a smirk tugging at her mouth.
“Tell me that’s not iconic,” I demanded.
“I—”
I jabbed a finger at her, playful but dead serious. “You tell me, Maggie Maxwell… Don’t you break my heart.”
She stared, searching my eyes, her mouth twitching like she was holding back a laugh.
“This chair. This scene. It’s why I wanted to become a cop when I was seventeen.”
“What?”
“The way he took out a bad dude with a simple chair—yeah, that did it for me. At seventeen, I was already a big guy, so I figured I could one-arm a wicker chair at some thief stealing from the old lady down the street. So go ahead, tell me it’s not iconic and my entire career is a lie. I’ll have to change it to some other prop that no one even cared about—like Jack’s jar of dirt.”
“But see… that actually is icon?—”
I saw red and cut her off with a glare sharp enoughto peel paint. My voice dropped into a growl. “Don’t you dare make me say your full legal name.”
She raised her hands in surrender. “Okay—okay. It’s iconic.” Her smile knocked my hackles back down.
“Thank you.” I rolled my shoulders and shifted in my seat.
Maggie tucked her phone back in her clutch, snickering. “You know, I miss this. Our crazy. The way we bring out each other’s weird.”
I felt her staring at me, but I kept my eyes on the road, because if I looked at her, I wouldn’t be able to stop.
“Yeah.” My voice went quiet. “Me too.”
Maggie
The silence pressed in, and I wasn’t about to sit here and start spiraling over what could’ve been. I’d done that enough already.
I reached for what had worked in the past.
Box it up and focus.
I took out the pocket mirror and flipped it open. Green smoke hissed out, impatient. A breath later, Uncle Silas was sitting in the back seat—looking way too alive for someone who was supposed to be dead.
“Good heavens, it’s about time! When you said you were unsure about seeing her, I didn’t think that meant you’d make me suffer as well. Have some common decency, dear boy.”
“Fantastic, the pain in my ass is back,” Graham said, deadpan.
