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No, thank you! At least I knew where I was now.

"Good thing I have my purse and phone with me—I'll have to call an Uber," I told Bartleby.

But before I could get my phone out, the front door of Natalie's house suddenly flew open.

"Celeste? Oh my God, is that you?" Natalie demanded, rushing out onto her front porch with her eyes wide. "I thought you were dead or sucked into Hell or something!"

She was wearing a pair of black work pants and a pink blouse, but her hair was still wrapped in a towel, so apparently she was getting ready for work, too. She stood there staring at me as though I'd just crawled out of a grave, which I supposed wasn't too surprising considering the last time she'd seen me, I'd been disappearing through a magical doorway at her Halloween party.

"No, not exactly," I hedged, feeling strangely uncomfortable. "Actually, I went to a little magical town called Hidden Hollow. It was really nice."

"You did?" Natalie's eyes flashed with something that looked an awful lot like envy. "And you took my cat along just for fun?"

Before I could answer, Bartleby spoke up.

"I went of my own accord. I'm Celeste's familiar now," he said calmly.

Natalie's jaw dropped. For a moment, she simply stared at him, her eyes so wide I thought they might pop right out of her head. Then she looked at me.

"You did a spell on him to make him speak?"

"She most certainly did not—I've always been able to speak. I'm just selective about who I speak to," Bartleby sniffed.

Natalie looked absolutely flabbergasted.

"But…but you're my cat! Why didn't you ever talk to me?" she demanded.

"Because you never have anything interesting to say."

And with that, Bartleby settled himself on the warm sidewalk, lifted one hind leg into the air, and began enthusiastically licking his own butt.

I stared at him. Oh my God! I knew cats groomed themselves, of course, but there was something about the way Bartleby was doing it that seemed incredibly deliberate. He had his hind leg sticking straight up like a flagpole, and he was completely ignoring Natalie while he went to work on his nether regions. Honestly, it was like the feline equivalent of giving someone the middle finger!

I pressed my lips together, desperately trying not to laugh.

But Natalie obviously didn't think it was funny at all. In fact, she looked absolutely outraged.

"Well!" she exclaimed, folding her arms across her chest. "I can't believe this! Five years I've been feeding you and taking care of you, and this is the thanks I get?"

Bartleby didn't even bother looking up from his butthole bath. Which somehow made the whole thing even funnier. I had to turn away for a moment so Natalie wouldn't see me smiling.

"Um, listen," I said quickly, trying to change the subject before things got any worse. "I was trying to get back to work on time, since I missed yesterday. Can you tell me what Angie said? Did you tell her how I got pulled into Hidden Hollow?"

"Of course not—do you think I'm an idiot?" Natalie snapped. "Phyllis and Tamara and I made a pact to never speak of it. We told Angie you were sick, that's all."

"Oh, good!" I exclaimed, feeling an enormous rush of relief. "I managed to call her and that's what I said, too—that I had the flu."

"Well, if I were you, I'd get my butt to work today," Natalie told me, giving me a meaningful look. "She was talking about 'letting people go who couldn't fulfill their duties' yesterday."

My stomach sank. Oh, no—I'd been afraid of something like that! Angie was the kind of boss who acted as though every employee ought to consider herself lucky to have a job at all. She expected everyone to come in early, stay late, and practically thank her for the privilege of working overtime without extra pay. And missing an important presentation was exactly the kind of thing she would hold against someone forever.

I could just imagine her sitting behind her enormous desk, making a list of all the reasons I was an unreliable employee who ought to be replaced by someone younger and more energetic. Which, considering my age, was a terrifying thought.

It wasn't easy to find a new job when you were nearly fifty, especially if you'd spent years working for the same company. And I had rent due at the end of the month, not to mention my car payment, electric bill, phone bill, and all the other little expenses which somehow managed to eat up every paycheck before I could even think about putting anything into savings. At this point my retirement plan was nonexistent—I literally would never be able to afford to retire.

The last thing I wanted was to end up having to move in with one of my children. Kevin had just gotten married the previous summer, and he and his new wife were still settling into married life. I certainly wasn't going to impose on them! And Kristie was in graduate school, trying to make ends meet herself. The poor girl had enough on her plate without having her mother move in and start taking up space. No, I needed to keep my job. There was simply no getting around it.

I pulled my phone out of my purse and looked at the time. Oh, crap—I had only thirty minutes before I was supposed to be at work! There was no way I could call an Uber, get all the way back to Carrollwood, change clothes, and then drive back into town in time. Not with Tampa traffic being what it was.