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I shook my head. “No, not really. It would probably be better if I got a chance to wind down after that.”
“You need a drink or three,” Ari declared, her jaw set and stubborn. “And then maybe a really hot guy to make it all better.”
“Dinner it is,” Isabel said, then turned to the driver and gave him an address.
“You must really be closing in on that spy if they’re attacking you like that,” Trix said, patting my shoulder maternally.
I gave a shaky laugh. “How little they know. I have no clue whatsoever.”
“Really?” Ari asked. “I thought you’d be closer than that.”
“Nope. I have some ideas, but that’s it.”
“And you’ve come up with some pretty good countermeasures,” Ari added reassuringly. “Or maybe whether you realize it or not, you’ve gotten too close for comfort.”
We stopped on a narrow street somewhere in Greenwich Village and went into a nearby restaurant. As soon as we were seated, Isabel ordered a cup of tea for me. “We’ll get you a drink later, but you need strong, sweet tea after a shock like that,” she said.
I didn’t like feeling so helpless, as though everyone else had to look out for me, but I knew I pretty much was helpless, so I gave in and let them look after me.
Once they had drinks and Isabel had made me drink tea sweet enough even to please my sweet-toothed Southern grandmother, Ari made an obvious effort to change the subject to lighter things. “So now that Katie and Trix are both single once more, it’s time to come up with a strategy,” she said.
“Leave me out of it,” Trix muttered. “I’m not ready to give up yet.”
“And I don’t think I’m ready to bounce into another relationship,” I added. Especially not while I was still so disconcerted from having lost my magical immunity. What if the guy I hooked up with turned out to be like Rod, hiding behind spells?
“What are you talking about?” Ari teased. “You’ve already got one phone number, and it’s not like you two were together long enough for it to count as a real breakup. You need to show him by getting out there again and snagging a man right away. Make him know what he’s missing.”
“It took me a year in New York to find him. I doubt I’ll have anyone else within the next couple of weeks,” I said with a sigh. I had to blink back tears at the thought. The champagne earlier, then the shock of that attack, and now all the sympathy were combining to make me especially emotional.
“What about Owen?” Isabel asked. “He seems to really like you.”
“Yeah, you do spend a lot of time together,” Ari said. “What’s the deal with you two?”
“We’re just friends.”
“But he talks to you,” Ari said. “I’ve been trying for years, and I haven’t managed to get him to say two words to me that weren’t about work.”
“Most of what we talk about is work,” I insisted. “We only commute together because he has bodyguard duty. We’ve had maybe a couple of conversations that were even remotely personal.”
“That’s two more than anyone else in the company has had,” Ari muttered, rolling her eyes. “I swear, that boy’s hopeless. Cute, rich, and powerful, but utterly hopeless.”
“I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve been told I’m easy to talk to, so I probably make him comfortable. Trust me, that’s not generally a good thing with a guy. It usually leads to the ‘you’re such a good friend, like a sister’ speech.”
Isabel took the garnish off the rim of her glass and chewed on it, then said, “Well, if you don’t think Owen’s interested, I know someone else who might very well be.”
The others giggled, and I felt like they could use my face to direct ships in the harbor. We needed to move the topic of conversation over to someone else’s love life, pronto.
“Who might that be?” Ari mused.
“I think Rod has a teeny little crush on you himself,” Isabel told me.
“You have got to be kidding.” I wasn’t the sort of woman men had crushes on. The only way I ever met guys was by being set up on blind dates. It was inconceivable that I would have two men showing enough interest in me to stir up office gossip. Though, come to think of it, Rod had been eyeing me in his office earlier, and he had warned me off Owen, which was a possible sign of jealousy.
“He wears an illusion, doesn’t he?” Ari asked. “You see something totally different than we do when you look at him.”
“Ooh, what does he really look like?” Isabel asked, leaning forward across the table. Trix leaned closer, too.
Now that I knew the full impact of the difference between Rod’s reality and his illusion, I better understood their curiosity. Even though the illusion was undeniably attractive, I preferred the reality, simply because it was real. He didn’t look like Rod to me when I could see the illusion. “He’s not that bad, really,” I said, feeling mean for talking about him behind his back. “He’s not particularly handsome, but he has the kind of face that’s really affected by his personality, so he can be pretty cute when he smiles. He’d be better off if he quit hiding behind that illusion and made some effort to work with what he’s got.” I shrugged. “I don’t like artifice that much.” Alarmed at the looks on their faces, I hurried to add, “And don’t you dare tell him I said so.”
