Page 80 of Meet Cute Magic

“You never mentioned it,” I say, as if that’s evidence enough that it’s a lie. He gives me a sad look in response.

“Look how you’re reacting.”

I close my eyes and shake my head, not wanting to accept that as an answer, even though he’s probably right.

“I realized not long after the moonflowers that I could fall for you. That I was falling for you. If we’re honest, it was probably when I saw you stand on a bartop and calm an entire room of fighting bikers. Or when I watched you chat with Geraldine about that show being cancelled. Or when you snuck into my place and you tried to talk your way out of it, or when you decapitated my warlock—”

“It was an accident!” I can’t help but correct, but he ignores my outburst.

“But every moment just made it more and more clear. When I saw you get jealous of Jeanette, I knew it wasn’t one-sided, that you felt it too. Possessive and protective, and that maybe, maybe you could fall for me as well. So I tried to show you what you meant to me. Small moments and big ones. I even got your sisters to see how good we were together.”

“So all of that was fake?” I ask, though even I know I’m being a brat now. He doesn’t call me out on it, instead shaking his head and keeping a calm tone, a reassuring one.

“Never. Never, Rosie. I wanted you to know what it felt like to have a man falling for you, to have him care for you. You need to trust me on this.”

“How am I supposed to trust you? I just walked in on you sabotaging me!”

“I’m not—” He starts to argue, but my blood goes cold and my tone goes neutral.

“Those moonflowers are not the ones we got,” I say, cutting to the chase once and for all. There’s no need to drag this out any longer.

“I…” He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and confesses. “I didn’t know what else to do, Rosie. Move on and pretend like I’m not in lo—”

“Don’t,” I snap, blinking back tears despite my anger. “Don’t say that. Not when you know how badly I want it. Not when you’re trying to take it away. Not when—”

“I’m not trying to take it away! I’m trying to give it to you! To both of us! You can’t tell me you don’t feel it, Rosie. How perfect we are together? How we’ve always been drawn together?”

“You hated me up until recently,” I say, grasping at straws even though I know—

He shakes his head, his face going somehow softer. “You know that’s not true. You frazzled me. You struck me speechless with your beauty, which left me feeling annoyed. I’ve spent a good bit of my life building up barriers, trying to hide my discomfort from people, trying to be a normal fucking person, but every time you’re near, all of that work flies out the window. So yes, that was annoying to me, and it was frustrating that you were everything I’m not: kind, happy, open, and talkative. I didn’t know how to handle you. You drove me a little mad with your constant mishaps that always resulted in my things being messed up, but maybe that was the universe at work too. Trying to get me to notice you, to fall for you. And I didn’t know what to do, Rosie, because you keep reminding me that once this curse is gone, every past relationship won’t matter to you, or it’ll be forgotten. I don’t want that. I know to my soul, even if it erased my memory of you, I’d feel that aching hole in my chest until the day I die. And I think you would too.”

I shake my head, unable to believe what he’s saying.

“What about your grandfather?” I ask of the ghost, normally haunting my place, that has been abnormally quiet today. I look around for the telltale whisps of him, but see nothing. “The deal was that he’ll break the curse when I help him pass. That’s what those flowers are for. You were just going to, what? Sacrifice that for him?” He shakes his head, running a frustrated hand through his thick hair, the messy look seeming to be an embodiment of how he feels in the moment.

“I just wanted to buy some time. We could still do it, just ask him not to break the curse.”

My heart cracks. “I need this curse broken, Jack. I can’t live like this, heartbroken nonstop. I want to find my true love. I want a love like in the books I read, just as I help others find theirs. I need this curse broken.”

“Why about us?”

“With this curse, there is no us!”

“There is! Right now, Rosie! There’s an us! Are you so fucking blind that you can’t see it?”

He doesn’t get it, and now I’m realizing he probably never will. We’ll never hit a point where we agree on this, not with the kiss bond overpowering his common sense.

That’s all this is. The book probably didn’t even have my magic in it, he’s just seeing things to connect dots that don’t exist, and I need to do or say something, anything, to make him see reason.

“We’re fucking,” I say, crossing my arms on my chest. “That’s it.” I almost watch the knife twist in his chest a bit, but I don’t care, not really. Not with the way he’s plunged his own into my chest with this betrayal.

“No, we’re not, and you know that. You helped me with my event. You get vicious if you see another woman flirting with me. We spend every waking moment where we’re not working together. Hell, we spend every night together. Like it or not, we’re together. You’re so desperate to break this curse, but we’ve got something good here.” My eyes start to water, then a single tear drops, and his eyes track it, sadness taking over his face as it does. I give him a soft shake of my head.

“You don’t get it, Jack. You don’t get it. It always goes well until it doesn’t. Then it ends, and I’m left trying to put the pieces back together. It happens every damn time.”

“Have you considered that’s just life? That’s how it goes for everyone. They meet someone, date, fall in love, and it ends once it no longer serves them. Until it doesn’t. Until they find the person they’re ready to spend forever with.” He’s so sure of himself, but he doesn’t realize it’s not that easy. Not for me. Not for my family. “This time could be different.” I look at him with sad eyes.

“I can’t risk that, Jack. I won’t.” I whisper my truth. Especially not if I already feel my heart breaking into two and I haven’t even said I love you. Not when I know if I let myself get in deep, it would hurt more than ever when it eventually fell apart, not when I’d have to see him every single day, to be reminded of my hurt and heartbreak.