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“He does seem to like the top-secret dates,” I admitted. “I think he enjoys surprising me.”
“Well, he can surprise you with someplace very, very nice,” Gemma said.
Jeff, staring at me like he used to when he was under the enchantment that made him obsessed with me, said, “Even if he isn’t planning that, he’ll change his plans once he sees her. A girl looks like that, she’s going to be taken someplace special.”
“I would have to agree,” Philip said softly. “When a lady has made that obvious an effort with her appearance, she deserves a certain level of treatment.”
I shot my mom a triumphant look. It was nice to have validation from actual men. Maybe that’s what I’d been doing wrong all along. I’d been so worried about being practical that I’d forgotten about making myself special. If I didn’t think I was special, why should anyone else?
And I was special, I reminded myself. I was immune to magic, a trait that was extremely rare. I had an important job because of that. I might as well dress like it.
Mom sighed and shook her head. “A lady should be a lady no matter how fancy she’s dressed,” she said. She went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and took out a can of soda.
“I think that a lady who attires herself well is complimenting the gentleman she’s with, showing him that she values his company,” Philip argued. That totally stunned me. He seldom said much of anything. I halfway suspected he’d spent too much time as a frog and had forgotten how to communicate as a human. Gemma never seemed to notice or mind.
“He’s right,” Dad said. “You hush, Lois. Don’t bring the girl down. She looks nice. She is all grown-up, you know, and if you ever want to throw that wedding you’ve been daydreaming about, she’s going to have to dress herself up to land a man.”
I was glad he was on my side, but I wasn’t sure I liked the implication that I had to dress up to get a man. Then again, I hadn’t had dramatic success up to that point, other than with Ethan.
“Well, fashion show’s over. Time for me to turn back into Cinderella,” I said, then went into the bedroom and shut the door. I admired myself in the mirror one last time. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the hottest of them all?” I said softly. Then I took the dress off and hung it up. I put my sweater back on before I finally forced myself to take off the red shoes and put on my jeans. I carefully wrapped the shoes in tissue and replaced them in their box, then stashed the box on a shelf in the closet. Fortunately, neither Gemma nor Marcia wore the same size shoes as I did. We could share tops and sometimes even skirts, but they were taller than I was and wore bigger shoes. Before, I’d always regretted that because Gemma had a fantastic shoe wardrobe. Now, though, I was glad because it meant those shoes were all mine.
I went back out into the living room and asked, “Is there any pumpkin pie left?”
“I made an extra just for leftovers,” Mom said.
“Anyone else want some?” I offered. They all nodded or raised their hands. I went into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water before I got out the pie and cut slices for everyone, then topped them with whipped cream and passed them out.
I stood at the kitchen counter, eating pie and sipping water, while I listened to the hum of conversation. I’d dreaded my parents coming to visit, but I was glad they had. It was good having them around again.
“So, Katie, what are you going to show us tomorrow?” Mom asked, startling me out of my thoughts when she brought her plate to the kitchen.
“Is there anything you’d like to see?”
“We were hoping we could see where you work.” She held up her hand to quiet my protest before I could get a word out. “I know we won’t be able to go inside, especially not on a Saturday, but I want to see the building. That way, when you talk about going to work, I’ll be able to picture it.”
“That’s a great idea,” Marcia said. “You work near City Hall, don’t you, Katie?”
“Yeah, and near the Woolworth Building.”
“Okay, then,” Gemma said, “tomorrow it’s downtown. We’ll come along, too. Katie hasn’t shown us her office, either.”
“It should be relatively quiet down there on a Saturday,” Marcia added. “We can show you Wall Street, the Stock Exchange, and Battery Park, too.”
It felt nothing short of inevitable. I had no good reason why we shouldn’t go downtown and see where I worked—at least, no good reason I could share with the others. I had plenty of reasons I had to keep to myself. For one thing, the office building was on a street that didn’t appear on any maps, and it tended to be the kind of place you didn’t notice unless you were looking for it. It also didn’t fit in at all. It looked like a medieval castle transplanted into Lower Manhattan. Those alone were reasons I didn’t particularly want to parade my friends and family by my office. Then there was the fact that the security guard was a talking gargoyle. I crossed my fingers and hoped Sam would be off moonlighting at a church over the weekend. He could probably pick up some extra cash filling in for a gargoyle at St. Patrick’s.
“Downtown it is, then,” I said, trying to force more enthusiasm than I felt into my voice. If I sounded like I was trying to hide something, the folks would get suspicious, and there were enough reasons for suspicion without me adding to them. I sincerely hoped Idris had something better to do on a Saturday than keep stalking me.
The next morning, Gemma, Marcia, and I guided my parents onto a city bus. Gemma insisted on the bus instead of the subway because it was the best way to see the changing neighborhoods of the city. We got off in front of the Woolworth Building, where we peered through the front doors into the ornate lobby.
“Now do we see your office?” Mom asked. “Didn’t you say it was near here?”
Actually, you could see it from there, if you knew what to look for, but I preferred to prolong the inevitable. “Why don’t we come back by there after we’ve seen everything else?” I suggested.
I let Marcia lead the way once we entered the financial district, since that was more her domain than mine. While she rattled off facts and figures about the buildings we passed, I kept my eyes open for potential magical strangeness. In the days before I learned about magic, I frequently saw odd sights in this part of town, probably because of the proximity to MSI headquarters, where a large portion of the magical community was employed. They all seemed to have stayed away during the holiday weekend, much to my relief. I saw nothing with wings, nothing moving that wasn’t supposed to, nobody making anything disappear or appear out of thin air. This was probably the most normal I’d seen New York since I’d moved here.
We made a side trip by the Ground Zero site, then went all the way down to Battery Park, where we looked out across the water to the Statue of Liberty. Marcia led us down Wall Street, and we paused to take pictures in front of the Stock Exchange. By the time we reached the South Street Seaport, we were ready for lunch.
All that walking had left everyone tired, so conversation was muted. I hoped that meant they would all be too tired to ask many questions once we reached my bizarro office building. With luck, they’d be so tired they’d just want to hit the subway station and go home.
