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“You want to hang out with my family?” Kirian’s eyes widen like saucers, and he stares at me as if I’ve just crashed through the roof with the subtlety of a hippo trying to teach itself to fly by climbing on top of the house and then falling through the roof right into the middle of the room.
I giggle at that, and it feels foreign to me because I can’t say I ever giggle, let alone break into full-on belly-busting laughter, but it’s nice. I don’t mind the sound, even if it is a little girly for me. “Maybe not all of them together, but a few at a time? They seem nice. Really.”
“Even Granny?”
“Yes, of course. She might have very strange methods, but I’m sure she means well.”
“Okay, yes. They’d like that. Ash and Ellis, and Toren and Luna and Milo are probably up for doing some couples stuff. I’ll leave my skeptical cousins for you to get to know last.”
“I’m sure they’re fine too. Even if they’re against the curse.”
“They’re more against Granny meddling in their lives, but yes. That’s why they don’t want to admit it’s very much real or find out it’s claimed another one of us. Before, at least, it was just two out of all of us. Now that it’s three, the curse is winning.”
“That sounds very dire.”
“No, no, I didn’t mean—”
“Do you want a piece of cake? It smelled delicious.”
Kirian relaxes. “I’d like that. One can never eat too much cake in a day. That should be a thing. I think all dieticians need to get on board with this.”
He leans against the counter like he means to stay awhile, and even though I feel grimy, sweaty, wrinkled, and messy, my house is a piece of crap, I have almost no furniture, I’m a lonely person with four cats, and I don’t as a rule let people into my life, I’m not freaking out. Surprisingly, I feel pretty good.
“I’ll make you a deal. You open the tuna and feed the cats as a distraction, and I’ll cut the cake. We’ll probably end up with minimal cat hairs that way.”
Kirian nods, and it’s on. Whatever it is that we’re doing. The curse? It’s so on. The cats stampeding over when I open a drawer to pull out the can opener, and they freaking hear the sound? That’s on too. And through all of it, even with four hungry cats bearing down on him, and even after a crazy disaster of a day where I broke into his house, stole his cursed necklace, and we found out we were cursed, Kirian still manages to smile.
A soft, dorky, and gummy one, which I’m pretty sure is just for me.
I have never been a lucky person. Actually, my whole life has kind of just been a string of pretty shitty things happening one after another, and then when the shit dialed down, it was still unlucky. But right now? I feel like the luckiest person…no, make that the luckiest cursed person in the entire universe.
CHAPTER 13
Kirian
It’s been a great week. Lindy has been a rockstar at work. She’s gone over our software and programming, even for some existing computer security software, and she found some bugs that she worked out. Aside from that, she helped two different techs and one programmer with work they were stumped on. She’s a killer at writing codes, but she’s always so humble about it. Shy and quiet, she lets her work speak for itself. She never tells anyone they made a mistake or that they did something wrong. Instead, she just points out the glitch or bugs and gets right to brainstorming how to fix them. She also accepts that there could be ideas better than hers, and she’s not afraid to have anyone go over her work to check it for errors.
I can tell that half the building is in love with her already, even after a week. Well, technically, it’s after three days because she only comes in on those three afternoons. The other half of the building who isn’t in love with her? They haven’t met her yet.
I feel a little silly about standing on Lindy’s doorstep with a bouquet of flowers in my hands. It feels ridiculously old-fashioned. I do feel kind of funny until Lindy opens the door, sees the flowers, and smiles so wide that it makes her teeth glisten and her eyes flash. She looks happy—happy to see the flowers and, most importantly, me.
Which literally makes every minute I spent sweating this exact moment worth it. It was pretty much all the minutes of the day and probably all the minutes of yesterday. I haven’t been here since we talked after I brought the cake the other day.
“Kirian.” Lindy opens the door wider and lets me step in. “I was just finishing up getting ready. I’ve never been…you know this is my first official, real date ever. I want to look good.”
