to keep my thoughts from spilling out of my mouth.
Finally, I removed my hand from my mouth and immediately blurted, “Does anyone know how to fix this?”
“It seems like a spell to me. Get a witch to check you out,” Magnus grunted out from over in the corner.
I looked over at Neve. The moment we made eye contact, it was like I could feel the tension between us, and when she moved closer, I wasn’t sure whether it was intentional or not, but having her closer made me happy. “You can’t leave without fixing this. Whatever you did needs to be reversed. I can’t stay like this forever. I need to have some privacy for my thoughts, or I’m just going to offend everyone and lose my job and you won’t want to fuck a homeless guy. Dammit! Ignore that. I just mean I need you to help, please, I don’t know who else—”
Neve stuffed a macaron in my mouth, which I continued to mumble around until I’d finished whatever it was my mouth was saying, and then I bit down, relishing the delicate flavors of lavender and earl gray and the way the thing seemed to melt on my tongue. Apparently, my half-sister was a damn good baker. I tried to communicate as much with the groan I let slip as I finished the macaron. As I opened my mouth to say as much, Neve shoved another macaron in, and I was left chewing on an equally delicious lemony one.
“Just listen and eat. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have meddled, but you were being so awkward and had seemed so genuine outside that I couldn’t help myself. I should have known better. For that, I apologize. I am glad that Buttercup is aware of you now though, and I’m sure once this spell wears off, you guys will have a nice, normal conversation and can get to know one another. Fortunately for you, my spells never usually last that long. One of the side effects of being a bad witch. I would like to make it up to you though. Come to the ice hockey game with me tonight. The Silver Springs Blades are playing, and I’m already taking a couple people. Plus, I think it would be fun to have you along.”
I went to say something and found my mouth full of yet another macaron, this one a decadent salted caramel and chocolate flavor.
“Just shake your head or nod,” Neve said.
I nodded, because what else was I going to do? The thought of Neve walking out of the bakery and out of my life sent a spike of anxiety through me, almost like I got before I went on stage, but tenfold. Asking me to an ice hockey game was a lifeline that I hadn’t even known I needed, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste it, even if I was sticking my foot in my mouth every few seconds.
12
Neve
Arriving at the game later that day, my stomach was full of too many donuts and my mind was full of too many worries. I couldn’t remember ever being this stressed before. Not only did I have to figure out how to make the paper profitable, which, fingers crossed, I had, but I had to figure out how to reverse this spell on Colden. I’d told him that it would wear off, but that probably wasn’t true. I hated that I’d lied to him, but I’d needed to buy myself some time to figure out what I had done wrong, and having him freaking out in front of me wasn’t the way to do that. So I’d gone back to the paper, dropped off the donuts, and then gone back to my apartment so I could focus.
What had I come up with?
Bupkis.
Nothing.
Nada.
I needed to fix this, but I had no idea how to go about that. A small part of me suggested calling my father, but that had to be a last resort. The devil only knew how pissed off my father would be if he found out about this.
My father could not be taking up real estate in my mind if I was going to figure this out. I had the length of the game to do it, then things were going to get awkward. I’d purposely avoided Seren at the paper and had ignored a few texts from Rory. I hadn’t even told Colden when or where to meet me, just that I’d be there for