Page 68 of Meet Cute Magic

He technically never promised he would get in touch with me after he was done, and really, he doesn’t owe that to me. He owes me nothing.

We aren’t that after all.

Inevitably, my mind moves to other possibilities, as is my curse. Not of the magical variety, but of the anxiety variety.

Maybe now that we have everything, he’s over hanging out with me.

Maybe this was much more temporary than even I thought.

Maybe he didn’t even like me, only saw the opportunity to get some while we completed our adventure.

Maybe this is just one last reminder of why I desperately need this curse lifted: men suck.

Maybe—

But then I hear it as I lie in bed, overthinking. The tiniest clink. I sit up, looking around and trying to see what it was. When I see nothing nearby, I think it must have been in my head, or Percy may have knocked something off a counter. Yes, that must be it. Meddling Percy is constantly getting into trouble. But when he lets out a little meow, probably thinking that my sitting up might mean a second dinner for him, I realize it couldn’t have been him.

It was in my head. I start to lie back down to fall into my thoughts again, but I hear it once more, and this time I manage to catch the direction it’s coming from.

My window.

A tree branch? A bird? A—

A third hits, and then I stand, both anxious and curious. Phillip moves through a wall until he’s in my room with me.

“What did I tell you about not using the door to my bedroom?” I haven’t put a permanent enchantment on my room for fear Phillip will accidentally get caught in here, but now I’m wondering if maybe I should.

“There’s hubbub going on in here. I thought that meant the rules were off. What if it were someone trying to attack you?” I give him a look.

“And what would you do about it, oh incorporeal figure?” I deadpan.

“Tell Percy so he could attack,” Phillip says matter-of-factly, almost like he and Percy have long had this conversation and come to a conclusion about what to do if an intruder comes in. I give him another confused look and open my mouth to argue, but another something hits the window. It’s too much happening at once, so I shake my head to clear it before deciding to deal with Phillip—and possibly Percy—later, before moving to my window. I’m not sure what I expected to see in the grass beside my building, but it surely wasn’t Jack. My heart pounds, and his wide smile gleams in the dim light.

“Jack? Is that you?”

“Who else would it be, Rosie?” I blink because he has a great point, but still…

“What are you doing out there?” I look around the side of my building and realize slowly what’s happening, though none of the pieces are falling into place. Maybe he’s losing it because he’s standing outside of my apartment, in the fall cold in just a T-shirt, his phone raised high in the air while it plays music.

And he’s smiling. The man is smiling, like he just got a home run or won one of those games he loves.

“Throwing rocks at your window and playing music. Turns out, it’s hard to find a boombox these days. The only one I could find needed ten of those giant batteries, so I figured I’d just modernize it.”

“What?” I start, so confused, but his smile somehow widens.

“Come down here. I’m freezing.”

“Come up here!” I say.

“No, we’re going to my place, come on.” A million butterflies flit around my stomach before I smile and shake my head, slipping on my cozy shoes and grabbing my phone.

“Watch Percy, okay?” I tell Phillip, whose ghostly smile is wide and knowing, though I don’t have the mental capacity to question that. He nods, and before he can say anything else, I’m out the door and running down the stairs, feeling giddy for some reason.

Jack is at the door when I get to the bottom of the stairs, and he smiles wide at me, a reflection of what I know is the look on my face. Then he reaches for my hand, twining his fingers with mine and tugging me across the cobblestones that separate our businesses.

“What’s going on?” I ask as he unlocks the door to his shop, despite the fact that he clearly just left. We couldn’t be two more opposite people, and I like that about us.

“I have a surprise,” he says with a nervous smile.