Page 20 of Clinically Bewitched
I clicked to the next slide, and the doors at the back of the conference room opened.
I barely noticed. People came and went during presentations all the time. Late arrivals, early departures, bathroom breaks.
But something made me look up.
And there she was.
The lost gypsy from the lobby.
She was scanning the room, her eyes wide and searching, as if she were looking for someone. Or something. Her bag was still slung over her shoulder, and she was wearing the same flowing skirt that had nearly tripped me earlier.
She looked completely out of place in a room full of medical professionals in business attire.
She looked as if she’d wandered into the wrong conference entirely.
And she was walking down the center aisle, still looking around, apparently oblivious to the fact that I was mid-sentence.
I stopped talking.
Two hundred pairs of eyes turned to look at her.
She froze, finally seeming to realize that she’d just walked into the middle of a presentation.
“Oh,” she said, her voice carrying in the sudden silence. “Sorry. I’m just... I’m looking for...”
She looked up at the stage.
Our eyes met.
And I watched, with a sinking feeling of inevitability, as her face broke into a smile of absolute delight.
“It’syou!” she said.
Chapter Six
Julien
I opened my mouth to respond.
Nothing came out.
Not a word. Not a sound. Not even a confused grunt of acknowledgment.
I just stood there, frozen on stage in front of two hundred medical professionals, my clicker still raised mid-air, my brain completely and utterly offline.
“Oh my Goddess, it’syou!” she said again, louder this time, as if I might not have heard her the first time. “From the lobby! My sisters called, and theyknew! Phoebe did a reading, and Freyja talked to Lucille, and they both said I’d already met you, and I was like, ‘No way, I haven’t met anyone,’ but then I realized it wasyou! The grumpy suit guy! You’re my...”
She was walking towards the stage.
Actually,walking toward the stage.
While I was giving a presentation.
To two hundred people.
About neurosurgery.
My brain finally rebooted, but only partially. Enough to register what was happening, but not enough to formulate an actual response beyond internal screaming.
