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I e, then went back to Union Square, where I sat in the park to eat od back to work until I’d taken care of this

I didn’t have to wait long She appeared within eons ahen she suddenly popped into existence next to me on the park bench Today’s outfit looked a lot like Scarlett O’Hara’s famous dressfor decades and a few generations of moths had h the holes clashed horribly with the green of the outer dress A strip of the tasseled border at the he the tassels to trail on the ground

"Oh, I’lad you called s fluttering hopefully "Now, you have to tell ht"

"So, it was you You changed the reservations, got the lied our clothes, and all that?"

"Of course! I don’t knohat that boy was thinking, taking you to an ordinary place like that when he’s supposed to be courting you He should be wining and dining you, showing you the finer things He should bean effort But that’s where I step in, to correct those little "

"It was…" I started to go by habit and say "okay," but instead I decided to be honest "Quite frankly, it bos wilted "No rouess it was fun, in a way, but it wasn’t the least bit romantic"

"But it was supposed to be rone, the rose, the nice restaurant That’s what young ladies these days want"

I got the sinking feeling that she’d studied up on non-dragon-slaying paths to roht about it, the whole date sounded like the kind of thing you’d see on The Bachelor It was a fake, made-for-TV date

"Ro," I tried to explain, realizing the irony of od up Cinderella with her handsome prince "I’m sure there are some people ould have found all that very ro pretty well for us that night He held my hand on the way to the restaurant, and he never see stuff like that I liked the restaurant he chose It was coood uard down, and we s didn’t work out It just so happened that one of our enemies was there, too, and that created so that happened to even reht"

She didn’t look convinced "Have you considered that my efforts to inspire romance haven’t worked for you because you’re not suited for each other?"

I had, but only deep down inside, and I wasn’t ready to go there yet "We haven’t even been dating for thole weeks Isn’t that too soon to tell?"

"Cinderella knew after three nights at a ball"

I’d actually alondered how she could have known so quickly that this was the guy for her, and how he could have based his choice of wife on her shoe size, but I didn’t want to get into that with Ethelinda right now "Aren’t we supposed to be destined for each other?"

"Perhaps you were only ether and it was that kind of partnership" She drew herself up straighter "My o back centuries If I can’t get a couple together, then they have no roons don’t do it for you, you don’t stand a chance," I ave entle pat "Don’t take this too hard, e would be? I can’t believe I ever allowed myself to think that a wizard of his caliber was meant for an immune like yourself You two see the world in entirely different ways I know he tries to act normal, but do you understand what it’s like to have that kind of power? And if you don’t understand that, there’s no way you could ever really understand him"