I sighed and shook my head. "The muse only had to be in my vicinity. It's gone."
"When will you get it back?" She refilled both of our glasses and popped a pizza roll in her mouth.
"I don't actually know. It would be nice to find out. I'll have to ask Anne if she knows. Or maybe she could ask him to release it?" I shrugged. "I think he ate it, though, which is just so gross."
She opened her mouth to reply when a bell dinged from her laptop. "Weird." Roma sat up and tapped the mousepad on her computer. "That's my camera at the end of the hall."
Someone banged on her door just as she pulled up the view of who it was. "Oh, thank goodness. I've been so worried." She jumped up and ran for the door. When she flung it open, her sister ran into the room and flung her arms around Roma.
"Cassandra, where have you been?" Roma pulled away and looked her sister over. "Are you injured?"
"No, but boy do I have a story to tell you if you'll even believe it." Cassie had the same sun-kissed skin as her sister, but her hair was a much lighter brown, and her eyes were so dark you couldn't tell iris from pupil at a distance. She was taller than her sister, too, and willowy. She used to accuse Roma jokingly of stealing all the boobs and hips she should have had.
She turned to come deeper into the apartment while Roma shut the door, but then froze when she saw me. I waved in greeting.
"Don't worry," I said. "I've had my own fantastical tale to tell today. I'll probably believe about anything you tell me."
"My husband has had me under a love spell."
The day had officially become horrible. The existence of a magical roofie that lasted for years didn’t fill me with joy.
"Yep. That'll do it." Pretending calm, I handed her my wine glass and ran to the kitchen for another. She needed it more than I did. While I was there, I grabbed another bottle. It felt like it was going to be that kind of evening.
"So, then what happened?" Roma asked, and as Cassandra started to tell her story I opened the new bottle of wine, popping the cork with a quiet grunt of effort.
"Well, okay. So, I woke up in the grocery store parking lot. I’d been passed out in my car. I remember shopping, which, by the way, I just threw a bunch of perishables away in your dumpster, because they'd been in the car for more than a day."
"Thank goodness it's not blazing hot or freezing cold out there right now," Roma said and put her arm around Cassie. I was not going to point out that it was eventually going to smell disgusting anyway, because that was not helpful.
"No joke." I filled all of our glasses to the brim and Cassie took a thankful gulp. "How did nobody see you?"
"I don't know, but I hightailed it out of there, checked my cell, and realized I'd passed out more than a day ago." She picked up the plate of pizza rolls and began devouring them. "Sorry, I'm starving."
"No, go ahead." Roma leaned back and gave me a wide-eyed glance behind Cassie's back. "You were saying?"
I got up and filled a large glass of water and set it next to Cassie. After a day without water, she needed it more than wine.
"I haven't tried to contact Franklin yet, and I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I can remember everything." She shuddered and crammed two more pizza rolls in, then gulped water. "Several years ago," she swallowed another roll then took a sip of wine, "I told Franklin I wanted a divorce. I figured out he was having affairs. He forced me to drink a love potion and even told me what it was. After I drank, I didn’t care, though, because love. I'm pretty sure he was putting it in my food ever since then. All the memories are coming back, but it's kind of a jumbled mess."
Another big mouthful of food let me, and Roma exchange another meaningful glance. That absolute slimeball. After the way he'd treated Roma, he'd held her sister hostage for years. I was glad the guy was gone. Whether he was dead or not, he was still out of their lives, and they were all the better for it.
"He wanted Roma to stay in the business. It was never about me." Her shoulders slumped. All of a sudden, she looked fragile rather than angry. "It was always about you and about money."
"Oh, Cassie." Tears filled Roma’s eyes as she rubbed her sister's back. "I'm so sorry, but I have to tell you, Franklin is dead."
Cassie froze, then turned her head slowly in Roma’s direction. "Seriously?"
"Yes. Well, I'm assuming he's dead. I sent him to some sort of prison alternate reality. From what Bran has told me it’s very dangerous in the dimensions near ours." Roma winced. "Sorry."
"Sorry? Sorry?" Cassie set the plate of pizza rolls down on the coffee table and flung herself into Roma's arms. Roma rocked back with a startled huff of surprise. “That’s amazing. You saved me. I don’t have to divorce him now. And I get his business and his money. This is great.”
From the way her voice wobbled, she was a little conflicted. Probably about being glad someone was dead.
“I guess I did.” Roma smiled and hugged her back, then pulled away and offered Cassie the plate of pizza rolls again. “Let’s toast to freedom, shall we?”
We all clinked our glasses together, then Cassie jumped to her feet. "I want to work at the firm. Teach me everything you know." She pointed her glass at us. "I went to college too. I was a business major, and I'm smart!"
"You are smart." I nodded vigorously. "I'm glad he's dead." It felt wrong to say I was happy someone was dead, but if anyone in this world deserved to die, it was Franklin. He’d treated both of them so badly, and I was sure they’d both feel guilty after the initial rush of rage died down.
