Page 69 of The Soulmate Bakery

Mum rapped her knuckles on the door. ‘OK, but make sure to call if you need anything.’

I made a noise of agreement.

‘All right, well, I’m off!’ Mum said, and finally retreated downstairs.

When the door slammed shut, I moved quicker than lightning. It was good to be distracted from the video, and the vomiting, by focusing on putting one jean leg on after the other. Rhythmic, routine things that made me go from a pile of mess on the bathroom floor to presentable.

It was all going fine until my gaze snagged at the ledge of my bay window. It had a scuff mark – a boot mark – of a very large foot. A guy’s foot.

I tried to rack my brain for memories of last night. They came back in bits and pieces: arguing with Orion about what happened that summer, telling him I liked him, telling him why I had cast that stupid spell in the first place.

And his response.

Cold realizations from last night were hitting me like snowballs to the face. I had misunderstood Orion that night. Taken his words as a rejection.

But it wasn’t all my fault. He had left me behind; walked away to go live a destiny he didn’t even want. My hurt had coalesced into hate, and his fury towards me … well, I didn’t know what it was any more. It couldn’t matter though. Orion and I clearly weren’t meant to be. It hadn’t worked then and it wouldn’t work now.

The urge to cry rolled through me again, but I glanced down at my watch – thirty minutes till I needed to be at Silas’s house. My musings were interrupted moments later when my doorbell went off.

‘Go away,’ I groaned to myself, and paused in the hopes that it was a parcel someone could just leave outside. But no, the doorbell went off again.

I rushed down the stairs, my bag on my shoulder, and saw mint tea cooling on the counter. Jinx was stretched out in a patch of sunlight.

‘Morning, Jinx,’ I said, quickly approaching the door.

Jinx barely lifted his head to look at me. He probably saw the video too and decided I wasn’t worth a morning acknowledgement.

I swung open the front door, feeling only a little breathless. But then, all the air was knocked out of my lungs. Because standing on my front porch was Silas.

The morning sunlight made the gold in his hair stand out and the blue of his eyes brighter. He was dressed in a white shirt, a letterman jacket and denim jeans. Tucked under his arm was something I couldn’t make out.

‘Hi,’ Silas said, like it was perfectly normal for him to be standing on my porch.

‘H-Hi,’ I stuttered out, clutching the door. ‘Wha … what are you doing here?’

I winced internally. That sounded harsh. Like I didn’t want him on my doorstep. Of course I did.

‘Yesterday, at the party,’ Silas began, and I closed my eyes as if it could stave off this conversation. ‘Hey, hey, no it’s totally fine, Maya!’

‘I am so sorry,’ I replied, looking at him once more. ‘I acted so stupidly, and I was so embarrassing. And Orion! Oh gosh, he was so rude to you –’

Silas waved off my explanation. ‘It’s fine. Raven came back and found out that Everly and Trent paid the person who gave us our punch to spike your drink. Raven promptly informed the school, and they’re both suspended by the way. You won’t even have to see them on Monday morning. And Orion –’ Some of the light in Silas’s eyes dimmed a little, replaced with that hint of steel I’d seen last night. ‘He was just acting in your best interest. And he got you home safe, right?’

I nodded quickly. ‘Yeah, yes, of course. Orion’s a stickler for rules.’

Or at least he used to be.

‘That’s good,’ Silas said, a tad awkwardly. ‘Well, I wanted to check in on you, make sure you got home safe. I didn’t want you to drag yourself to my place – we don’t need to study this week, really.’

Affection at his thoughtfulness thrummed through me, and I reminded myself what I intended to do last night.

‘I just feel bad,’ I replied, psyching myself up for what I was going to say next; the risk I was about to take. But the Fallen Leaves Festival was next week, and I was running out of time.

‘We …’ I coughed a little, feeling my cheeks go redder. ‘We didn’t even get to finish our conversation at the party.’

I braced myself for his laugh at my attempt at something, anything, really. But it didn’t come, because Silas wasn’t that kind of guy. Instead, his grin widened, and his hands found their way to his jacket pockets.

‘You’re right,’ Silas acknowledged, and tipped his head back like he was thinking before he came to a conclusion. ‘We should probably continue it, because I, personally, was enjoying myself. Though, most of it was me giving you compliments.’