AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hey, now, don’t go gettin’ all existential on me, doll,” he said, patting my shoulder. “And don’t you have a wedding to be planning?”
I did, and that was difficult to do when I was afraid of being seen in public with Owen—or him being seen in public with me. Even though it didn’t seem as though the magic watchers were really watching me, I worried about hanging around with a wizard when I might be under surveillance. If another big magical incident happened around me and Owen was there, it wouldn’t look good for him with the magical authorities.
Fortunately, the way he worked, I didn’t have to try too hard to avoid seeing him in public. We had lunch together at the office most days, and that allowed us to see each other. Otherwise, I could head home at five while he was still busy in his lab, and he didn’t seem to notice a thing.
Or so I thought, until a few days later when I was changing into my commuting shoes at my desk and looked up to see him standing in my office doorway. I paused to contemplate the sight. I’d grown accustomed to him by now, but every so often it struck me just how gorgeous he was. Like now. His dark suit and white shirt were perfect for his striking coloring, with dark hair, fair skin, and dark blue eyes. He was like a male version of Snow White, and any magic mirror would have to declare him the fairest of them all.
I must have stared at him longer than I realized because he started blushing, a wash of pink rising from his collar to his hairline. That made him even cuter. If he’d had an ego, he might have been a bit too much, but his bashfulness brought him back to the realm of mere mortals. “I, um, wanted to see if you wanted to try tasting some possible dinners tonight,” he said. He raised an eyebrow. “Or have you been avoiding me?”
I winced. “Am I that obvious? It’s not because I don’t want to be with you.”
“You’re protecting me.”
It was rather sweet that the conclusion he’d jumped to was the positive one. “Yes, because we know the powers that be are already after you, and I’m still not sure if I’m being watched by these anti-magic people.”
“But didn’t we decide that you were being paranoid, that you weren’t being followed and watched?”
“We discussed it,” I hedged.
“How many magical incidents have happened around you in the last couple of days?”
“None,” I admitted.
“So I don’t think you have to worry about me getting blamed for something that happens because they’re staging magical incidents in front of you.”
“Well, when you put it that way . . . Where did you want to go to try meals?”
“There’s that Italian place we like in the Village. I thought we could start there, and if we find something we like, I can come up with a spell to duplicate it, in whatever form we want.”
“For food, wouldn’t it be safer to do it the normal way?”
“Don’t tell me you’re buying into this anti-magic stuff.” His tone was light and teasing, but I could see the concern in his eyes. “Has magical food ever gone wrong for you? I conjure lunch for us every day. Or are you rethinking a magical wedding altogether?”
“Whoa, hey, I never said that.” I sighed. “I guess maybe I am getting a bit paranoid. I spend way too much of my day scouring the Internet for reports of magic. That’s probably got me overestimating the impact of these groups. And I suspect I’d just have to look at the cost of a real wedding caterer to be totally okay with a magical one. Not to mention, we wouldn’t stand a chance of booking a caterer so late, especially not one we could let in this building.”
Even though I’d reassured him, I couldn’t help but be on high alert as we left the building. I wore the necklace that amplified the sensation of magic around me so I’d know exactly what was going on, and I kept my eyes peeled for signs of anything unusual. Nobody levitated a bus or reversed a subway train, and there were no strange riots on the subway, or any other weirdness that I’d experienced. Come to think of it, it was so normal as to be odd, probably because most magical people were lying low right now. Aside from those who seemed to be trying to get attention, no one was using magic in public.
Which meant we had an uneventful dinner, during which we discussed what I knew of my mother’s plans for the reception back home. I felt a slight hint of magic as he evaluated the lasagna, like he was trying to figure out how to create it magically. When my necklace tingled, I went on alert, making sure no one noticed him using magic, but he wasn’t actually doing anything for anyone to notice, unless they’d learned to recognize what magic felt like. Most people dismissed the sensation as a shiver up their spine or goosebumps.
“You can relax now,” he said dryly as he looked across the table at me. “I’m done, and no one would notice anything unless they saw you jumping out of your skin.”
“Sorry,” I said with a wince. “I guess I’m on edge.”
“Maybe Sam should rotate who’s on the assignment. Being on high alert for so long can’t be good for you. You need a break. And don’t tell me you’re the only one who can do it.”
I was about to respond, but I looked up at the television on the wall and saw Carmen Hernandez reporting. “That’s the reporter,” I whispered to Owen, who turned to look. The sound was down, but the closed captioning was on, and after I read a few lines, I let myself relax. She was reporting on a school bus accident—a nice, normal event that didn’t have the slightest whiff of magic about it. And if she was busy on that assignment, that meant she wasn’t digging into magic today.
Feeling much better, I reached across the table with my fork to taste Owen’s lasagna. “Mm
m, you know, I like the chicken parmesan, but this has something to be said for it,” I said.
“We can have more than one entree,” he said with an indulgent smile. “And this wedding won’t be the only time you can ever have Italian food. I will feed you Italian food every night for the rest of our lives, if you like.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet. Is that part of your wedding vows?”
“If you want me to put it in, I will.”
“Well, every night might be excessive. It wouldn’t be special anymore. And I’d have to start seriously exercising.”
