Jim and Connie hailed a cab, and Marcia linked her arm through mine. "Want to walk home?" she asked. "I need to work off that dinner."
I wasn't wearing the best shoes for walking, and I'd already had two long walks that day, but walking through the Village at night is almost magical—but not in the real magic way, with spells and illusions and all that. Though come to think of it, I'd seen more than the expected amount of weirdness in the Village at night and written it off as just another New York thing. It would be interesting to see how much of it really was magical.
Marcia and I headed off down Bleecker toward our side of the island. The whole time we walked, Marcia complained about her date. "Could you believe him? All he could talk about was work."
"Y'all talked about more than work. You were arguing a lot."
"About work. He questioned everything I said."
"He's a lawyer. He's used to having toanalyze and interpret everything."
"Don't tell me you're defending him," she said with a laugh.
"No, not really. He was just more interesting than my date. At least he actually spoke."
"You do have a point there."
"And he didn't think of you as an annoying little sister."
She winced. "So, you heard that."
"I came back from the bathroom at a very good time."
"If it makes you feel better, he did say you were okay, cute, even."
"But he's just not interested in that way." I couldn't fight back a sigh. Was it too much to ask to make a man's heart beat faster, just once?
She gave my arm a squeeze. "Don't worry about it. Your time will come. You just have to meet the right guy who appreciates you for what you are."
"Marce, I'm your age, remember. You don't have to treat me like your kid sister."
"Sorry about that. But look on the bright side. A few years from now you'll be glad for people to think you're younger. And like I said, you have to find the right guy.
You're the kind of girl men go for when they're ready to settle down."
"So I'm not the kind of girl they want to go out with when they want a good time?"
"Is that so bad?"
"I don't know." To be honest with myself, I wasn't anyone's idea of a good-time girl.
I was the kind of woman who made people think of things like apple pie and picket fences. That didn't make me very popular in a place like New York, where people came to get away from picket fences.
"I guess those are two guys we can cross off our lists of Mr. Right potentials,"
Marcia said, interrupting my musings.
"How many million does that leave in the city?"
"It can't be a million, not if we exclude men who are gay, married, or seriously involved, or that we've gone out with before. We've got to be down to the thousands."
I had another category to add to that: men who weren't quite human, and I wasn't sure where men who could make things appear and disappear at will fit on the scale of eligibility. I was pretty sure that apple pie and picket fences weren't what they were looking for in a woman. If my degree of ordinary was boring for normal men, I'd send magical men straight into a coma.
SIX
Tuesday morning came a lot more quickly than I expected. After dressing in my second-best suit, I took the subway to work, and I was relieved to see Owen standing on the platform at the Union Square station. It meant I wouldn't have to walk into the building by myself. "Hi there!" I greeted him.
He turned his usual shade of pink before responding. "Good morning, Katie. I'm glad you're joining us."
"So am I. I'm excited about it. And a little nervous." I figured that he, of all people, should be able to understand some nervousness about a new situation.
He gave me one of his mischievous grins, and my knees went just a bit weak. "Want to get to work early?"
"Oh, why not?" Still smiling, he did something with his left hand, and sure enough, a train hurried out of the tunnel to stop in front of us. "After you," he said with a gallant gesture. There weren't any empty seats, but we found an empty pole to cling to. "Want to make it an express trip?" he whispered to me.
"I don't think that's necessary," I whispered back. "Let's not inconvenience everyone else."
He turned crimson. "I did summon another train right behind ours so they weren't inconvenienced that much."
"That was awfully sweet of you." I wondered what he'd do if I kissed him on the cheek, but I was rusty on CPR, and I doubted it would be an appropriate way to interact with a coworker even if he didn't have a heart attack.