Page 8 of Rewitched

“I know you had your reasons.” She sighed. “Although you know we think they’re completely wrong ones.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I can confirm it feels categorically awful to turn down your dream.”

“I still don’t really understand why you did,” Monica said.

“Because I’m not ready. I couldn’t do it. There’s a lot that could go wrong, more than could go right. And I don’t deserve it, anyway.” They drained their mugs in unison. “Although, having said that, I’m not sure I deserve a man coming in and turning my favourite place in the world into what’s starting to feel like an after-work bar in the financial district, either.”

“At least then we’d be drunk,” Monica offered. “Still, promise me you won’t leave. No one else here is weird enough for me to eat my lunch with.”

“Thanks?” Belle snorted, then pinched the skin at the bridge of her nose. “Well, I need to do something. He walks all over me, takes the credit for the fact we’re somehow still afloat despite all of his awful decisions. And there’s literally nothing I can do about it. It’s my own fault. Every time I so much as mention it to Vi, she just rolls her eyes and says that he’s a businessman.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I think it means he wears a suit. How do we stand up to a man who allegedly ‘knows business,’ when we’re just the silly little guys actually selling the books?”

“We attack at dawn? Or at the morning meeting, anyway,” Monica suggested, tilting back against the wall above Belle, who was still slumped on the floor in defeat. “Or, I guess, we leave before we watch the whole place burn.”

“I won’t leave, don’t worry,” Belle said, then hesitated. “Maybe I will leave. I should leave. Should I leave?” She searched her friend’s face for an answer, then sighed heavily. “I can’t abandon Lunar.” She offered her hands to Monica, who tugged her to her feet.

“Life really loves to chew you up, doesn’t it?”

Belle nodded. “And then rather than spitting you out and giving you any kind of escape, it slowly digests you until you’re a rotted, relenting piece of your former self. Just covered in enzymes. And Christopher’s effusive sweat.”

Monica shuddered. “So much sweat.”

3

The Unexpected Invitation

ARIADNE PULLED AT her slice of pizza, wrapping the strings of melted cheese around a finger while they entirely ignored the Halloween film that they’d spent a considerable amount of time selecting.

“So leave.” She was always so matter of fact, so logical, that it came across as harsh if you weren’t familiar with Ariadne’s heart of gold. “I keep telling you. You could get another job so easily.”

“How about vampire’s wife? Tiny frog in a forest dwelling? Seductive keeper of the underworld in a ghostly wedding dress?”

“All of the above.” Ariadne nodded. “Anywhere would be lucky to have you.”

“Why should I leave, though? I love Lunar. It’s special. I just don’t like being taken advantage of over and over by a man who is a walking midlife crisis, has no talent that I’ve ever witnessed other than an impressive skill for ruining joy and yet earns double what I do while accepting all the credit for…” Belle chewed and swallowed. “Wow, I should leave.”

“Thank you. Now we just need to find you something that’s worthy of your time and general excellence.”

“You think I’m much more excellent than I actually am,” Belle said, dipping a crust.

“Well, of course I do. I’m your best friend. I believe you are a perfectly excellent idiot.”

“And I you.”

Excellence had once been something that both the girls considered a given. Growing up with slightly terrifying determination, they had both been certain that the curse of ordinary would simply never happen to them. It wasn’t meant to be that way. But time changed things and brought a dose of reality with it.

On paper, Ariadne had ticked the boxes of “successful” a little more effectively. People took her seriously, working in an office with floor-to-ceiling windows and swanky free lunches from which she regularly snuck extras home for tea. Healing from a long-term relationship that had simply faded through no one’s fault, she was even testing the ghastly waters of online dating for the first time in over a decade, unexpectedly embracing it, finding all new facets of herself. Belle was constantly in awe of the way her friend grabbed plot twists by the lapels and always found the excitement in them.

“You’ve been talking for so long about buying the shop from Violet, I don’t understand why you won’t just go for it. It’s what you’ve always wanted. And she must be getting on for—what?—197 years old now. She’d be grateful for it,” Ari said, picking off a piece of pineapple.

“She does keep telling me that I made a big mistake, to just say the word,” Belle admitted.

“There you go.”

“I know, I know. It’s just terrifying. If I’m in charge and blow it and the shop goes under, I lose everything. I’ve plugged so many years into getting to this point. Imagine if the dream job isn’t the dream, that I picked the wrong thing. So much could go wrong,” Belle said, ripping pizza from crust. “It’s not the right time.”