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She shook her head. “Spending time together will only solidify the feelings from the spell.”
“That’s okay. I enjoyed my time with you. Didn’t you enjoy your time with me?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. After a moment, she said, “Yes, I did,” in a soft voice.
It was a small but sweet victory. “Good. Then let’s do more of it.”
“But how will we know if it’s real? What if it’s just the spell?”
“We won’t know if we don’t try. Please. Come out with me tonight.”
“I’m not…who I said I was at the gala. But you know that already.”
“Yeah, I met your sister. I don’t want her;I want you. And I want to spend more time together so I can get to know the real you, not you when you’re pretending to be Iris. Although I don’t think you were pretending to be her when you were with me later, were you?”
She shook her head, then looked around and lowered her voice even more. “You don’t understand. Iris was supposed to have found her special someone at the event, not me. The fortune teller was positive of that. But my sister didn’t want to get tied down, so I went instead. This whole thing is a mess. I’m not the one you’re meant to be with.”
I frowned. “I don’t care what some random fortune teller said. I felt it even before that spell hit.Didn’t you?”
She didn’t meet my eyes, but the way she fidgeted with her hair told me enough. She’d felt it too.
She plucked a book from the shelf and handed it to me. “It’s chapter three you want,” she said. “I already looked it up. A love spell can’t replace real love. It can only simulate it for a while. Of course, the stronger the spell, the longer it lasts.
“Some love spells only affect the person that it lands on or is directed at; other, more hastily made ones, affect everyone in a general radius, though it is strongest for the person it hits. I think that’s the type that hit us, because I felt something, too.
“The next chapter lists some famous cases where the love spell faded but the two people stayed together, as well as other cases where they didn’t. Love spells result in both happy endings and tragedies.”
“Well, I’m willing to do anything in my power to give our case a happily ever after.”
I took the book from her as she picked up a second, thinner volume. “You’ll want to read this one, too. I…may have left a few sticky notes in there marking the important stuff.”Her cheeks reddened a bit.
I read the cover. Sex and Love: A Deep Dive into Magic. I took the book from her.
She still hadn’t actually agreed to dinner. “If you prefer to stay in instead, we could do that too. I make a mean Spaghetti Bolognese…”
She looked around for a moment, then met my eyes. “Either is fine. Surprise me.”
I grinned. “Great, when should I pick you up?”
“How about seven at my place?”
“Sounds perfect.”
We exchanged contact information, and I made my way to the checkout counter with my two books in hand. When I got into my car and tossed them into the front passenger seat, the second book opened to a page with a bright pink sticky note. Curious, I leaned over and read the paragraph it pointed to.
Apparently, love spells couldn’t create sexual attraction out of nothing; they only augmented what was there to begin with. If there was zero attraction, the caster would need to perform a separate spell for that and link the two together.
It confirmed what I’d known all along. Even without the spell, Ivy was a match for me, at least physically. And she already knew it, having marked that passage in the book. Now all I had to do was convince her we were a match in every other way too. Other option, I could just keep her so deliriously happy that she couldn’t even imagine being without me.
Hmm. Yeah. That was a good plan B.
Chapter 11
Ivy
I checked myself over in the mirror one last time, trying to settle the butterflies in my belly. I’d never been so excited for a date before. Maybe it was because I knew I was guaranteed a good time, and I didn’t just mean in bed later. I already knew we got along, so although this was kind of a first date, it really wasn’t.
Shane had sent me a message earlier, saying he’d made reservations at a restaurant, and promised to cook for me next time.
