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“Sorry to interrupt,” Phillip says. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“Sure.”

Dani is already gone by the time I look back. I hope she chokes on a piece of that disgusting licorice candy corn she loves so much.

Phillip gestures toward the conference rooms. “Would you mind walking with me?”

I stand, and my fingers brush the bracelet again as I follow him.

No. We’re not doing this.

The reversal isn’t a summoning spell. The Third Fairy has been very clear that I am supposed to be doing things, not waiting around for the universe to rearrange itself on my behalf.

Still, the timing is objectively suspicious.

Phillip slows when I catch up to him. “How are you?”

“Good.”

“Just good?”

There’s a smile pulling at one corner of his mouth, and for a moment I wonder if I’m supposed to hear something in the question that isn’t technically there.

“Actually, really good. I had a great weekend.” I fail spectacularly at keeping the stupid smile off my face. “And I’m excited for fall.”

Phillip glances toward the windows at the end of the hallway. The sky outside is the same miserable gray it has been since I woke up, and the rain has been alternating all morning between a drizzle and the kind that comes down sideways.

“Really? In Seattle? We haven’t seen the sun in at least ten days.”

“I like fall.”

He laughs softly. “I like your commitment.”

Admittedly, my enthusiasm may have less to do with the given atmospheric conditions of our geographical location and more to do with the fact that fall has recently included kissing Flora at a Halloween party, holding Flora’s hand through wet Capitol Hill streets, and waking up on Sunday morning with her warm beside me.

So.

Fall is doing very well for itself.

And maybe that’s the part I keep forgetting whenever Phillip appears, and my brain immediately reaches for the spell and the inevitable reversal that I’m working so hard on.

I’ve been doing what The Third Fairy asked. I figured out some of the things I wanted and, more importantly, started asking for them. And the universe has responded with an extremely hot barista who likes me enough to spend the night in my bed and a witch who may or may not be flirting with me.

Honestly, I’m doing great.

Phillip showing up now feels less like evidence that the reversal is malfunctioning and more like the universe has developed a slightly excessive commitment to the bit.

I glance at him, and he catches me looking. “Yes?”

“Nothing,” I say incredibly fast, and I fear that my cheeks are starting to flush. And now I definitely need to throw a curse up into the universe because what if⁠—

He laughs, and I have to admit that doesn’t help.

Because this is still Phillip. He is still a kind, nice, wonderful man. He is still the CEO of the company where I work, and he is still walking next to me when he could have sent an email or asked Helena to call me upstairs to his royal palace.

The fact that I spent Saturday night very enthusiastically wanting someone else doesn't make me incapable of recognizing when someone is paying attention to me.

It just makes the attention feel different than it did a few weeks ago. Less like an answer to my hopes and dreams. And more like a question I haven’t figured out yet.