“‘Might be’ is all I can offer you,” Lucy told her. “It’s something you should think about.”
“Why?” Emmy asked. “Why would it trap me like that? If Will is here somewhere, and I’m destined to fall in love with him or whatever, why not just let me?”
“You ask good questions.” Lucy drank some water, the ice cubes clinking gently in the silence. “Let’s go with a hypothetical. Hypothetically, you never met me, never bought the book, never fell in love with Will in a fictional world. You’ve been going about your life as normal, andtoday, tomorrow, next week, you meet Will. He’s attractive and open to starting a relationship. How would you respond? Would you feel ready to take that step with him? To be vulnerable again?”
Emmy sat with that for a while, turning it over, trying to remember the person she’d been only a few days ago (in real time). If Will had reached out, tried to get close to her, would she have let him in? Or would she have run in the opposite direction?
“I guess it’s my turn to say, ‘I don’t know.’”
“Something to think over, then,” Lucy said with a decisive nod. “Do you want to keep the book? Or should I?”
Emmy looked down at the image of Jared and Bright on the cover. It wasn’t her book anymore, apparently. It had told her as much. And she didn’t see herself reading it. Not now, not ever.
“Can you keep it?” she asked Lucy. “But not in your store. Can you keep it up here?”
“Sure.” Lucy scooped it back off the table.
Emmy stood when Lucy did, then felt her eyes go wide as a thought struck her. “Don’t read it!”
Lucy laughed lightly. “Why not? What if I want to find true love?”
“I… I can’t explain it. It feels wrong to have someone else read it right now because I don’t know the ending yet. The real-world ending.”
“I’ll keep it safe and unread. Promise.”
“Thank you. For everything. I’m sorry for the way I treated you.”
“You’re forgiven,” Lucy said, and Emmy could tell she meant it. Just that easy. “Let me walk you out.”
They went back down the stairs and out into the store where Selene was restocking a shelf of multi-pronged sex toys. Emmy swore she saw four prongs on one of them. That was too many prongs, wasn’t it?
Lucy stepped outside with her and put a hand on her arm. “I hope you find your answers. I hope your love is waiting for you somewhere. But if you get frustrated, I want you to know you can come back here. I can try another reading. Pro bono, since the last one led to a little more chaos than I’m comfortable with.”
Emmy laughed at that. “Thanks for the offer. May’s wedding is right around the corner, and I’d like to concentrate on being happy for her. Afterwards, maybe I’ll take you up on the reading.”
“Deal. Enjoy the wedding. Tell May to come by sometime and tell me about it. I’d love to see pictures.”
“That won’t be a hardship for her. I’ll tell her.”
*
Work was gloriously boring. Emmy used her downtime to process her conversation with Lucy. She wanted to see Will again. She wanted to believe she would. But she hated thinking that her happiness depended entirely on whether a magical work of fiction was on the side of good or evil. Unfortunately, she leaned heavily toward the evil possibility. Hadn’t the damn thing put her face-to-face with true love and then spat her out without him? Andthen, as if it hadn’t already put her through enough, it had dumped her!
For someone else.
Not just evil, but rude. Childish. Petty. Conniving.
Emmy was still trying to think of more insulting words when the front doors slid open, meaning she had to put her customer service face back on. She returned to the front desk with a falsely cheerful smile that froze on her face. Her jaw dropped just a little and then she stayed like that, a deer in headlights. Apparently, the forces and energies in the world weren’t quite done screwing with her yet.
“Okay… you definitely know who I am,” said the blonde woman who approached the counter. “I don’t know if that makes this easier or harder.”
“I… um…”
Yes, she recognized her. Andrew’s girlfriend wasn’t wearing makeup, and she was in a comfy-looking black hoodie with her hair tied back in a messy bun. She looked quite different from the polished image Andrew had presented on social media, but Emmy recognized her just fine. The problem was, she had no idea what to say, couldn’t fathom why she was there.
“I’m going to admit to the creepy part first. I stalked you on social media to figure out where you worked. Andrew wouldn’t tell me.”
“That’s okay. I stalked him on social media, which is why I know who you are. I guess we’re even.”
