Once Upon Stilettos

Page 74

“No, no problems there. In fact, I’m having fun with work, and it’s generally easy to get on people’s calendars.”
I leaned back in the booth and crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay, then, what is it? I have to be back at work in about twenty minutes, so I don’t have time for guessing games.” I was surprised by how firm and assertive my voice sounded.
He finished clearing his plate, then shoved it aside. “I wanted to talk to you about something,” he said.
“Yes?”
“You sometimes seem a little unnerved about the magic stuff.”
“Do I? I don’t think so, not at work. I’ll admit that I don’t really like it affecting my personal life, especially where my friends and my parents are concerned. It’s not like I’m an anti-magic bigot.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. But yeah, I have noticed that you don’t seem to like it in your personal life that much.”
“If you’d seen the way it’s affected my personal life, you’d understand. Wait until you have someone under the influence of a spell show up while you’re on a date with someone else and sing arias to you—off-key.”
He laughed. “Really? That must have been hysterical.”
“In retrospect, maybe, but at the time it wasn’t funny at all. My date didn’t think so, either. I never heard from him again.”
“Then you didn’t belong together.”
I frowned at him. “What would you think if that happened to someone you were out with?”
“I’d probably figure that it had something to do with a spell.”
“But you know about magic. That poor guy didn’t.”
“The thing is, though, you and I both know about it. We don’t have to keep the secret from each other, so it should be fun.”
What little food I’d managed to eat threatened to come back up. I had a feeling I knew exactly what he was going to say next.
And I was right. “Katie, I don’t really know how to say this, so I guess I’d better be direct. I think you’re a great girl, but I don’t think we’re going to work out together.”
This would have been the perfect time for a witty comeback, but all I could do was stare at him in shock. “Not work out together?” I repeated.
He looked intensely uncomfortable, which I couldn’t help but enjoy. The more he had to squirm, the better. “I guess this is when I should say it’s not you, it’s me, but the thing is, it is you, and it is me.”
“Do you think you could diagram that sentence for me? I don’t quite follow it.”
“Okay, then, like we were just saying, you want things to be as normal as possible. I don’t, really. I’ve discovered this whole other world and I want to explore it as fully as possible, take every advantage of it. But you don’t want magic intruding on your regular life. That means ultimately we’d be incompatible. I’d enjoy something that was your idea of a disastrous date.”
“So you like being ambushed by the minions of evil on our way to a party?”
“We got away okay, didn’t we?”
“That time, yeah. But it still wasn’t my idea of a good time. I don’t even really have anything against magic or magical people. If I were dating a wizard or a sprite, elf, or gnome, I’d still want it to be a regularly normal date. They’re just people with different abilities, you know. They’re not a freak show for your amusement.”
He groaned and shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that I want to explore the differences right now, and you don’t strike me as wanting that.”
“So I’m too normal for you?” It was the story of my life.
“Like I said, you’re a great girl, and if I’d never learned about the whole magic thing, then I probably would have been very happy with you. But the more I learn about other things, the more I want to learn about them.”
“You want to try going out with chicks with wings,” I clarified.
“No!” He shook his head, but the redness rising from his collar was a pretty good sign I’d hit close to the mark. “Well, maybe, but it’s not only that.” He looked down at the table and fiddled with his silverware. “I have a feeling I’m not really what you’re looking for, either. And I’m fairly certain I’m not your first choice.”
There wasn’t much I could say to that, since I’d just been thinking about telling him he’d been my second choice, anyway, and I’d only gone out with him because I’d convinced myself that I could never have the man I really wanted. But although I knew that was true, I couldn’t bring myself to admit it now. “Wait a second, are you taking what Idris said seriously? You know that’s one of his things, where he tries to get under Owen’s skin by saying I’m his girlfriend. My mom misunderstood. It’s not like I’ve been two-timing you.”