Page 75 of Meet Cute Magic

“This is temporary. After the curse is broken, it’ll all be gone, right?” I tell him something Rosie and I have both repeated many times, reminding ourselves and each other more and more frequently lately.

According to my grandfather, once the curse is broken, Rosie will no longer feel emotions for anyone she was with previously. Neither of us is completely sure what that actually entails, though. I haven’t really been brave enough to ask him for clarification. Will it mean her emotions will be wiped, and we’ll be friends? Or my bigger fear: does it mean she’ll forget me altogether?

I haven’t mentioned that fear to Rosie yet, because it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done: why add more stress to her plate?

“Does it have to?” he asks, and my body stills as he echoes words a voice in the back of my mind has whispered many a time. Each time, I’ve buried it deep.

“What do you mean?” I ask. He looks at me, assessing me as only he was able to do. It’s like he’s seeing past whatever easy facade I’ve been wearing for Rosie’s sake, and as he does, he’s planting ideas. Thoughts. Possibilities.

Hope.

“Do you two have to end? You both seem pretty happy, is all I’m saying.”

“I—” I start, but then Rosie’s footsteps become clearer as she takes the stairs back up to us.

“Just something to keep in mind, my boy. Not all good things must come to an end, you know.” I open my mouth to ask what he means, but then the door opens, Rosie entering and giving me a relieved smile.

“Thank you for enduring that,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “They’re a bit much and very protective.”

I shake my head. “No need. I had fun. They’re good people.” She smiles then, a real one, relief coming through the bond, and then I open my arms for her to walk into them. She sinks into the couch next to me, taking the remote from my hand and continuing to click through, but all I can think about for the rest of the night is my grandfather’s words.

Do you two have to end?

CHAPTER 27

Jack

8 days until Halloween

I​’m going crazy.

That’s the only thing I can think. Every morning, I wake with Rosie still sleeping on my chest, and I feel complete in a way I’ve never felt before. I’ve never had this companionship that’s so perfectly paired with lust and need, but somehow I found it with the woman across the way who drove—okay, drives—me out of my mind. I’ve always been a bit of a loner, and even when I dated women, I rarely spent the night with them, much less at my place. Considering my grandfather is haunting her apartment and neither of us wants him catching an eyeful of that, we’ve been spending our nights in my apartment over the Gaming Den. Usually, when I have someone over, I feel an uncomfortable sense of urgency to get them out, wanting my place to myself once more. But with Rosie, it just feels… right. Like she’s meant to be here.

And it’s all going to end in a week. Eight days until the full moon, when she’ll brew the potion and my grandfather will break the curse that’s been haunting her family her whole life. I’ve never been a selfish person, but for the first time, I’m contemplating what I could do to get my way.

My grandfather’s words, Do you two have to end?, have been ringing in my mind morning, noon, and night, and every time she smiles at me or presses her lips to mine or comes while moaning my name, I feel that need settle deeper.

I don’t want this to end.

I want to wake up every morning just like this, Rosie’s red locks sprawled over my chest, her soft breath coasting over my skin, her magic twining between us, gold sparkles holding us together. I run a finger over one and watch her lips tip up in her sleep, the thread tugging at my heart with a terrible mix of adoration and sadness.

When we took things further, I told her to take off her locket and give me the kiss bond again, just so we could experience it. Deep down, I knew it was so I could play a mental game, so I could kick the ball down a bit, ignore reality for a bit longer. If I could blame my attraction, my need, my intense feelings for Rosie on the magic tying me to her, I could justify being with her all the time. It’s just because of the bond, right?

But I know in my gut it’s something more because when we were lying in the field waiting for three a.m., there was no bond between us. When we were in the car driving home, it was all I could do to stop from crashing because of my need to get there. There was no magic.

Except for the pure magic of Rosie, of course.

Slowly, she stirs, her body shifting even closer to mine, her face rubbing on my chest like a little cat, before her head turns to me, her eyes squinting open, a soft smile on her lips when she sees I’m already awake and watching her. My hand moves, shifting her hair from her face, and that smile grows a bit, her eyes opening more so I can see the green hue of them, the one that even before this mess reminded me of early spring leaves and fresh grass. Of nature and peace and all things good in the world.

Or maybe all of those things just reminded me of Rosie, and I was getting it mixed up.

“Morning,” she says in a sleepy whisper.

That’s the moment that does it.

It’s not the late nights of desire and sweetness, not the laughter we’ve experienced, or even the arguing that often feels more like foreplay than anything else. It’s not her helping me or letting me help her, it’s not her taking me to dinner with her sisters and them approving of me. None of that is what made me think that I would do anything to keep her in my life.

It’s that sleep-drenched look directed at me and the promise of having it for a lifetime.