Oliver is sitting on the sofa when I get home. He’s staring at a blank Word document. I watch as he glances up at me, leaps out of his seat and grabs something behind the sofa. He thrusts a bunch of tulips at me. ‘Nelly, I’m sorry about last night.’
‘You didn’t have to get me flowers.’
He bows his head. ‘I keep waking you up. I also smashed your mum’s vase. Jamie had a go at me earlier. It wasn’t pleasant.’
‘Oliver, this flat share arrangement isn’t working.’
He blinks, and his jaw tightens. ‘Not working?’
I nod. ‘You wake me up every night when you come home in the early hours. I am so tired all the time.’
He puts his head in his hands. ‘Oh, God, I’m sorry, Nelly.’
‘I love it that you’ve got a great social life here…’
Lifting his face from his hands, he casts me a bewildered look. ‘Is that what you think I am doing… socialising?’
I shrug.
He stands and runs a hand through his hair. ‘Please give me one more chance?’
Those dark and intense eyes of his have found mine. They are hard to ignore. It’s only the second week. Perhaps I’m being harsh?
‘One more chance – okay?’
A boyish smile sweeps across his face. ‘Great. I want to mend your mum’s vase.’
I blink and wonder whether I heard him correctly. ‘You want to mend my mum’s vase?’
A smile spreads across his face. ‘If you get me the pieces, I will put them back together.’
‘You don’t have to do that.’
He shakes his head. ‘I want to.’
As I retrieve the box filled with broken vase pieces from my room, I think back to what Jamie said about Oliver and this Molly person. Is there something going on between him and Molly that is causing his erratic behaviour? Now that my curse has returned, I could use my curse to find out how his love for Molly ends.
As I hand him the box, I make sure our fingers touch.
My body flinches. I wait for the flash of white light.
Nothing.
‘Nelly, why are you closing your eyes?’
I flick them open. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise they were shut.’
‘This can be fixed, Nelly,’ he says, taking the box from me as my mind once again goes into freefall. My curse has stopped working again. The living room starts to spin. What’s going on? Reaching out, I steady myself by gripping onto the arms of the sofa. Why does it keep glitching? Maybe it’s losing power? None of the books on curses mention a period of a curse acting like faulty Wi-Fi, but then again, I have always wondered whether the authors have ever experienced a curse. J.K. Fielding’s book springs to mind.
‘Nelly, are you okay? You look deathly white.’ Oliver comes over to me.
‘I’m fine,’ I mumble. ‘Just a little dizzy.’
He goes to make me a sugary cup of tea, and I sit in my chair in the living room.
Lenny comes to sit on my lap. He senses I might need emotional support. Have I been given another chance at a curse-free life?
‘We’re missing a piece,’ Oliver says after handing me a mug of tea. ‘I’ll go look for it.’ He studies my face. ‘You’ve got your colour back.’
