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That re me to be home I was supposed to have come back the next day I needed an explanation for why I was already ho day And I needed it fast, considering I heard a key turning in the lock

Ge in behind her, dropped the bags she was carrying and assumed a defensive posture at Gemma’s yell

"Gee, I didn’t knoas that scary," I said

"We weren’t expecting anyone to be here," Gemma said "Why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to be with the hottie’s folks until to, did it?"

I followed thes back to the closet to unpack "No, nothing rong The visit was fine I was apparently a big hit with the folks"

"Of course you were," Marcia said "You’re a irlfriend for her son, unless she’s one of those controllingher baby boy over to another woman"

"There was just a work crisis," I continued my story, "and he had to coo in for a while tomorrow because the executive I work for is part of it"

"What kind of business crisis comes up on Christmas?" Marcia asked

"It’s the perfect time for a business crisis Don’t they often plan sneak attacks during wartiuard will be down?"

Even Marcia didn’t have a good response to that After they dus in the bedroom, Gemma ordered Chinese food, then we settled down to chat about our respective holidays while watching the last of the Christmas specials on TV until a commercial came on that almost made me spit rice across the room

Eleven

Phelan Idris’s face filled the TV screen, which in and of itself wasn’t a pleasant sight, but the i beyond that He’d definitely launched a serious ad caic users to try new and different spells to help the like that The aveThe real surprise was the announce the next day on Fifth Avenue

Iinto a coughing fit and sputtering, "Oops, that went down the wrong way," but I watched my roommates for their reactions at the same time I doubted they’d seen what I saw, or surely they’d have co to sell actual spells It would have been nice if they’d donethat would have hinted at the cover ad non like, "Hey, sale at Victoria’s Secret!" or "Yeah, like a body spray really has that effect" Unfortunately, whatever they used to mask the ad for nor or snarking about Once they were sure I wasn’t going to choke to death,

The ad was the first thing I told Owen about when Ithe next"I wish I could tell you what the rest of the world sees," I finished, "but I couldn’t think of a way to asklike I’d losthis head He looked tired If I knew hi

"No, it’s not good," I agreed, "but hey, at least we knohat he’s up to now" He didn’t rally to ot deeper "Okay, is there soto interpret his mood

It took him a while to answer, and I’d just started to think he hadn’t heard me when he said, "No, not that I know of" And that, apparently, was that He didn’t say another word on the entire walk to the subway station, and I decided against pressing the point Oasn’t the kind of person you could make talk

Most people had a holiday, so the croere a little lighter than norot seats Thatthat ran overhead I blinked, then elboen Spellworks had blanketed the entire car He closed his eyes and groaned

As alked from the subway station to the office, he finally spoke to ’s been so messed up," he said "Every date we’ve tried to have, the holiday I guess we haven’t h "In fact, I couldn’t blame you at all if you decided to cut your losses because this isn’t working"