Page 96 of Love Spells: And Other Non-Refundable Magic

I stop with my coffee halfway to my mouth.

Dani is standing on the other side of my desk with a small cardboard box tucked beneath one arm and an expression on her face that makes me worried she has somehow obtained security footage from my house.

I lower the cup slowly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, please.”

“Literally just got here.”

“Exactly. You just got here looking like that.”

I glance down at myself. I’m wearing black pants and a sweater. My hair is clean and styled, for once. I put on mascara on the bus this morning, which isn’t my proudest moment as an adult, but I don’t think the results are visibly criminal.

“Like what?”

Dani drops the box onto the corner of my desk, then leans against the partition to get a better look at me.

“Thoroughly fucked.”

My eyes dart automatically toward Helena’s office. “Jesus Christ, Dani,” I whisper, checking that my boss’s door is still closed. “We’re at work.”

Her grin widens. “I knew it.”

I take a drink of coffee, mostly because it gives me something to do with my mouth besides confess. Unfortunately for me, my body has decided to betray me independently of my intentions, because I can feel heat crawling up my neck.

Dani’s eyes widen. “You slept with the coffee girl?”

She looks so delighted that I briefly consider throwing my coffee at her, except I paid almost seven dollars for it and there are limits to what I’m willing to sacrifice for my dignity, love spell notwithstanding.

Besides, she’s right. Very right. Extremely, thoroughly⁠—

No.

We’re at work.

I turn to my monitor and wake it up, although the Briarwood sales dashboard does very little to erase the image that immediately appears in my head instead.

Flora in my bed, hair spread across my pillow. Flora leaning over me at dawn, already dressed in the previous night’s clothes, kissing me awake before she left.

I woke up properly a few minutes after the front door closed and spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at the empty side of the bed with a smile I could actually feel on my face. Then I’d found one of Flora’s earrings tangled in the sheets, which started the stupid smile all over again.

Apparently, there are limits to how many times a person can relive the same twelve hours before she becomes completely useless at her job, and I am rapidly approaching mine.

Dani taps one fingernail against the box.

The sound pulls me back.

“Anyway, before you disappear into whatever memory you were just having—and please know I want absolutely no details—Stephan from the mail room gave me this downstairs for you.”

I look at the package, then at her. The name of the company is written across the label, and my last name just below it. “Oh, thank you.”

I grab the box and pull it closer before she can inspect it any further.

“Why are you sending packages to the office, Merryweather?”

She lifts her eyebrows and stares at me for a second.

I don’t answer. Dani gets two steps away from my work area before stopping.