Page 62 of Meet Cute Magic

Men.

They’re always making things so much more complicated than they need to be.

It would be as simple as could be to just go into Mrs. Hanna’s shop and get a hair from her, but instead, I have to get a hair from the mayor.

“That makes sense. So… we need one of his hairs?” Jack asks. I nod and sigh. “Can you use your magic? Send your magic into his house to grab one off his pillow?” I shake my head.

“I don’t know the layout of his house, so I couldn’t confidently tell it where to go. There’s too high a chance it would either get the wrong hair or nothing at all.” Percy moves past us as we sit on the couch in my apartment, rubbing along Jack’s legs. He bends a bit to pet my cat absentmindedly, nods as if he understands, and I think, in his own way, he genuinely is starting to understand how things work.

For someone who was sidelined by the existence of magic recently, he’s been a fast learner.

“So what are you thinking?” Phillip asks, floating in a loopy circle. I roll my eyes as the pesky phantom. Jack and I have made a habit of coming to my place for dinner recently, for Jack to spend time with his grandfather before he passes along to the other side. I tell them both it’s for Jack’s benefit, but the truth is, my ghostly roommate has kind of grown on me, despite being annoying and meddling, and I think I’ll actually miss him once he’s gone.

“I think he goes to Clips and Snips for his hair,” I say, telling him the idea I’d been brewing on for a few days. “The problem is, I don’t know what days he goes in. If we did, I could absolutely get a clipping, even if it’s by stopping by on the day and time of his haircut and dropping something nearby. I could pretend I’m dropping off treats or flowers from my sisters. They do that to local businesses often, and I’ve done drop-offs for them on slow days.”

“We’d need to know his schedule?” Jack asks, and I nod.

“I could ask Sienna, his personal assistant, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to make that sound… natural, you know? If I could get into the book of the barbershop and just… see, it would be easy peasy.”

“Why can’t you just go in and ask?” Phillip asks. I roll my eyes again.

“Because it would be incredibly suspicious if a random citizen in town wandered into a barber she does not frequent personally and asked when the town’s mayor was getting his next trim,” I say, deadpan. “It would probably get me on some kind of a list, and some of us are still going to have to live in Heartwood Hollow after you drink that potion.”

Phillip opens his mouth to add something, then closes it, like he decided it wasn’t a wise choice. I stare at him for a long moment, skeptically, before I realize Jack is quiet beside me as I bicker with his grandfather, and I turn to look at him.

“Jack?” I ask, confused. He looks at me for a moment, which makes me pause before speaking.

“I can do it.”

“You can… do it?”

He nods. “I mean, I can try.” I tip my head in confusion, not understanding.

“You can?”

He nods again, and my brow furrows. Jack, who was too shy to talk to members of the business committee to help his own business, can go into Clips and Snips and make small talk?

“I have… an in. I can make an appointment and scan over the datebook when I do.” Phillip lets out an amused sound, but I ignore it, turning fully to Jack.

“An in?” That all too familiar blush burns across his cheeks before he nods and explains.

“I used to date Jeanette.” My body stills, a mix of confusion and another emotion I won’t look at too closely taking over.

“The receptionist?” He nods. “Jeanette Smith?” I clarify further. He smiles and nods. I don’t… I don’t know how to handle that. Jeanette is an absolute bombshell, all tits and ass and a fuckton of hair anyone would be jealous of, and she knows how to work all of it. The idea that Jack dated someone, someone as gorgeous and sexy and outgoing as Jeanette, just… doesn’t fit.

“When?”

He reaches behind his head and scratches the back of his neck before shrugging, but answers all the same. “I don’t know. We stopped seeing each other maybe… six months ago?”

“How long were you together?”

“Is that jealousy I’m sensing, Rosemary?” Phillip asks, and I fight the sudden urge for my jaw to go tight, instead giving the ghost the middle finger.

“No. I just…” I want to know because about eight months ago, Jeanette came into my store looking for a book. She told me she was really into some new guy she was dating and wanted to keep the happy feeling going.

There was no reason not to, but for some reason, I didn’t think she was ready for a love pick. So I pointed her in the right direction of the rom-coms and let her shop on her own, not giving her a love match. It’s haunted me since, especially when Violet told me that a month later, Jeanette came into her shop upset and looking for a pick-me-up.

She’d been dumped.