Kiss and Spell

“I thought your assignment was clear,” he said to her, and I moved behind a display so I could eavesdrop without being seen. What assignment could he possibly mean?

“Hey, I’m just the sassy best friend in this scenario,” she said. “If you knew the source material, you’d know she’s supposed to ignore my advice. I’m the person she’s supposed to resist, and I’ve been giving her plenty to resist, trust me. I can’t help it if you aren’t holding up your end of the script.”

“Not holding up my end? What more do I have to do? I brought flowers!”

“I wouldn’t call telling her that she might as well give up finding a job and marry you a good campaign for Mr. Right. That’s Mr. Wrong behavior.”

“That wasn’t my idea. That was in the scenario.”

“Then you’ve got a lot to overcome. Someone set you up for failure.”

This made no sense. It sounded like they were in on some kind of plan together. I slowly backed away, heading toward the stairs, as Josh said, “I guess I’ll just have to reset things. Supposedly, this shouldn’t have worked on either of them, especially on her, but it has, so it looks like we had bad information. We can still fix it, and then no harm done.”

I’d just reached the stairs and was ready to flee when Josh left the counter and strode over to me. “Hey, there you are, darling,” he said with a smile. “How’d your contest go?”

I tried to get away from him, but he moved faster than I did and caught my wrist. “Don’t touch me!” I cried out and jerked away from him. I lost my balance and would have fallen down the stairs, but he caught me, and I was too stunned and shaken to get out of his grip. He held me tightly, staring into my eyes, and then I got dizzy. Everything went blurry and dim.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself still staring into his eyes, but I couldn’t quite recall what I was doing on the stairs. All I knew was that my heart felt like it would burst from love as I looked at him. “You saved me,” I whispered.

He smiled in what looked like great relief and released his iron grip on me to brush my cheek with his fingers and sweep my hair away from my forehead. “Of course I did. Are you okay?”

“I–I think so,” I said. “I’m a little dizzy, though.”

With his arms around me, he supported me as he led me to the nearest seat. “Maybe you should bring her something to drink,” he shouted at Florence, who shot him a glare before pouring a cup of coffee and adding a generous dose of sugar to it. He took it from her and handed it to me, kneeling by my side as I drank it.

“What happened?” I looked up to see Owen standing there, looking alarmed. My head swam again, and the impression I’d had of him as a good friend who’d sparked magic in me shifted. I didn’t know where that had come from, but now I knew him as the skeevy boss who’d been making passes at me. I’d nearly fallen on the stairs while trying to get away from him and back to Josh.

“She’s fine,” Josh said curtly. “I’ll take care of her.”

“Katie?” Owen asked warily.

I shied away from him. “I’m fine,” I snapped. The hurt in his eyes gave me that weird dizzy feeling again, like I was the center of a tug-of-war between two versions of reality. He didn’t look like the kind of boss who’d make unwanted passes at his employees during business hours, and he certainly didn’t seem like someone I’d be so desperate to flee that I’d trip on the stairs and nearly fall, but that was how I remembered it.

“Okay, then,” Owen said with a nod, and he turned away and headed down the stairs.

“I’d better stay with you for a while,” Josh said, “just to be sure.”

“I’ll look after her,” Florence said.

“No, I think I’ll stay.”

I got the impression of conflict between them, but I wasn’t sure what it could be. I recalled her warning me about the boss and how I shouldn’t get my head turned by his good looks while I had a nice, solid man like Josh around.

I forced myself out of the chair. “I’m fine. I didn’t actually fall, so no harm done. And now I have to get back to work.” With what I hoped came across as a saucy wink and not a nervous twitch, I said, “You’re welcome to hang around awhile, but you’ll have to buy some coffee first. Don’t worry, it’s much better than it used to be.”

Without waiting for his response, I headed back to the counter and put on my apron. “Do you want the usual house blend or the special of the day?” I asked him.