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“Well, thanks for lunch,” I said, fighting for control. My hand shook as I took my napkin off my lap and threw it on the table. “I have to get back to work now. Oh, and the lunch idea was quite the stroke of genius. No time for prolonged conversation or fighting. But for the future, have some mercy and remember that the poor girl has to face her office again after you’ve dumped her. At least do it at the end of the day so she can go straight home and eat ice cream instead of having to pretend to work.” I slid off the booth seat, adjusted my skirt, collected my coat, and turned to go.
“Katie!” he called after me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that.”
I couldn’t turn back. The tears had already started to fall and I didn’t want him to see them. Instead, I ignored him and kept on walking. I wasn’t even sure why I was crying. It wasn’t like I’d really fallen in love with him. Deep down inside, I had to admit to myself that he was right, in a way. I did want normal, as much as I’d hated being so utterly ordinary before I joined MSI. I didn’t see how normal and the magical world were necessarily mutually exclusive. The time I’d had dinner with Owen flashed into my brain. That had been such a delightfully normal, ordinary evening, even though Owen was about as magical as you could get. And Ethan was also right about where my heart really was. That didn’t make me feel any less heartbroken. Not only did I not have Owen as anything more than a friend, but I didn’t have Ethan, either.
I paused on the sidewalk to find a tissue in my purse so I could wipe away the tears, and that’s when I felt the tingle. I might not have been able to see anything veiled by magic, but I’d learned to recognize the sensation of magic in use. And magic was in use very close by me, but without my magical immunity I had no idea what was happening. I was as good as blind, and more vulnerable than I’d ever been.
Unfortunately, the magical tingle wasn’t a directional thing. I got the same sense of the little hairs at the back of my neck standing on end no matter where the magic came from. The best I could manage was to play “hot or cold” and see if the tingle got stronger in a particular direction. But I was not up to playing games at that moment. Instead, I stood my ground, facing straight ahead the way I would have even if I could have seen what magical mischief was afoot. “Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, but this really is not the time,” I said to no one in particular. “I’m tired and I’m pissed off, so get the hell out of my way and leave me alone.”
Even a magical creature must have known better than to mess with a woman who’d just been dumped, for the tingle quickly faded. Not wanting to take any chances, I hurried forward to get to the safety of the office before my invisible stalker had second thoughts about letting me go.
I paused before I turned the corner to approach the MSI building and found a clean tissue in my purse. Then I dabbed at my eyes, blew my nose, and checked my reflection in my compact mirror. I didn’t look great, but there was no mascara running down my face, and any redness around my eyes could have come from being out in the cold. With a deep breath, I forced myself to hold my head high and walk toward the entrance with my most confident stride.
I gave a passing nod to the guardian gargoyle—not one I knew, thank goodness—then hurried up to my office. The reigning paranoia meant I didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to strike up a conversation with me along the way. I didn’t even have to worry about anyone making eye contact. I managed to hold myself together until I got to Merlin’s office suite, where Trix cheerfully asked, “So, how was the hot lunch date?” without looking up from her computer.
Then I lost it utterly. The tears came once more, and I couldn’t shut them off. “He broke up with me,” I sobbed.
She immediately jumped up, flew over the top of her desk, and grabbed me by the shoulders. “You poor thing,” she said as she hustled me into my office, where she shut the door behind us and pushed me into my desk chair. Then she conjured up a cup of tea, a box of tissues, and a tray of chocolates. “Now, tell me all about it,” she said, sitting in the chair next to my desk. “Why did he break up with you? Things seemed to be going so well, even when he picked you up today.”
I tried to shrug, but it was difficult because my shoulders were shaking so badly. “Because I’m boring.” I grabbed a tissue out of the box and blew my nose loudly.
“Did he actually say that?”
“Well, he did say I was too ‘normal,’ but he meant boring.” I adopted a mocking tone. “Apparently, he wants to explore and experience this new world he’s discovered, and he thinks I want things to be too normal, so we have totally opposite ideas of a good time.” I bit a chocolate in two, then licked the caramel filling off my lips.
The light on my phone indicating a call coming in to Trix’s line flashed. “Hold that thought,” Trix said, leaning over my desk to grab the phone. “Mr. Mervyn’s office,” she said briskly, then after a pause said, “One moment, please. Let me connect you.” She pushed a few buttons, hung up the phone, then picked it up again and pushed more buttons. “Ari, emergency summit meeting, Katie’s office, now. Get Isabel.”
When she hung up and returned to her chair, I asked, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
She waved a hand, dismissing my concern. “I wouldn’t take her romantic advice, but there’s no one better for venting when you’re mad at a guy. Once we get past that, then we can strategize about what to do next. It should be easy enough to convince him that you’re not too normal for him.”
“But he’s right. I do like things normal. Don’t get me wrong, I like magical people, but for fun I like to do normal stuff. When magic intrudes on my personal life, everything always goes horribly wrong.”
“If he’s looking for magical excitement, he’s going to be unpleasantly surprised. Most of us aren’t usually off doing wild and crazy magical things. Magic is a convenience, not a lifestyle, except among certain fringe groups.” She giggled, a sound like tinkling bells. “And I can’t picture him in any of those groups. They’d kick him out for being too normal.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Talk about irony!”
There was a knock at my door and Trix called out, “Come in.” The door opened and Isabel and Ari spilled into my office.
“What’s up?” Ari asked, then she got a good look at me. “Don’t tell me, he ditched you already?”
I nodded sadly while Trix got them up to speed. “If you can believe it, he made a lunch date with her, took her out, then dumped her at the restaurant. He said she wanted things too normal while he wanted to really get into the whole magical world.”
Ari licked her lips slyly. “So, what exactly did he want that you thought was too out there?”
Isabel smacked her lightly on the shoulder, which sent her reeling. “Really, Ari. Please!”
“It wasn’t like that,” I explained wearily. “I don’t like it when weird, magical stuff gets in the way of my personal life, and he finds that exciting.”
“Too bad you didn’t find that out earlier,” Ari said. “You could have used that as a great seduction technique.”
“That was kind of the plan for this weekend,” I admitted. “But not the using-magic-to-get-him-excited part. I had this really hot pair of red shoes.”
Trix clapped her hands delightedly. “You bought them!”
Isabel put her arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze, nearly suffocating me in the process. “Oh, honey, no wonder you were so disappointed. I hate it when guys do that. Why is it that just when you’re ready to take things to the next level, they decide they want out?”
“Though normally they back out right after that particular next level, rather than before it,” Ari put in. “So, what do we have planned for revenge?”
