“Same,” I replied woodenly.
The server seemed not to notice my surly mood. Her eyes snagged on my mouth and not in an “I want to kiss you” way, but more of a “Do you have fangs, and are you going to bite me?” way.
The server jotted something down. “And any allergies?”
Faith and I exchanged confused glances.
“Allergies?” I repeated. “Are there peanuts in the lattes here or something?”
“No, but”— she scratched the back of her neck with a pencil—“you can never be too careful, you know? Especially in a town like this. It’s a recent policy change.”
“We’re new in town,” Faith said. “We just came from the Summer Camp for Upstanding Witches.”
“I thought it was called man-hating witches?” the server asked.
“Yeah, they had to change the name for legal reasons,” Faith said, dropping her voice to whisper. “You know how sensitive men are.”
“Ah, gotcha,” the server said. “Most of the witches I know are ill-tempered, fiery, adorably stubborn, hot. What’s the opposite of upstanding?—”
“Hey!” A brunette who was sitting at the counter swirled around on the stool, leaped down, and frowned at the server. “Maybe cool it on the adjectives, hmm?”
“Am I wrong?” the server asked with a smile, bending and kissing the brunette. She turned back to us. “I’m Harlow, by the way, and this is my girlfriend, Jordyn, a fellow member of your coven.”
“Oh yeah,” Jordyn said with a half wave. “Iris has told me all about you two! Welcome to Maple Hollow.”
“Thanks,” I said, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I’ll go get your drinks.” Harlow slung her arm over Jordyn’s shoulders and added, “And I’m pretty new to town too, so don’t worry. I’ll look out for you. A word of advice though: Stay away from any swamp monsters.”
Jordyn elbowed Harlow in the ribs, and Harlow barked out a rough laugh before she winked at us and wandered away with her girlfriend in tow.
The two of them still had that doe-eyed, moonstruck, honeymoon look in their eyes when they looked at each other.
It made my stomach curdle.
I’d had that, however briefly, with Sabine, and now it was gone. I toyed with my friendship bracelet beneath the table and decided, without thought, to rub the stones. My chest constricted when I remembered that Sabine had taken hers off, and even if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be coming to find me. It was a really pathetic thing to call for help on a magical bracelet when you knew no one was on the other end of the line.
When I looked back at Faith, she was frowning at me.
“What?”
“Yeah, we’re going to need some of those pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins too,” she said with a determined nod. “This is chocolate-level bad today. Be right back.”
She pushed out of the booth and went off toward the counter to fetch me some emergency support muffins.
37
Sabine
Walking up five flights of stairs multiple times per day gave me ample time to contemplate my life choices. On my third ascent of the day, I’d come to the conclusion that just because you thought you really, really wanted something, it didn’t mean that you’d actually enjoy that thing once you had it.
What had ten-year-old me been thinking?
I loved being in nature. The word “outdoorsy” had been bandied about since I’d been six. I went hiking for fun, dammit! I’d picked the wrong quarter-life crisis. I should’ve decided to pull aWildand hike the Pacific Crest Trail, not move to New York fucking City. And now I didn’t have enough money or magic to get out of my bad choices. The only options were to stay here and stick it out . . . or move home. And I couldnotmove home.
Delia had become unbearable to be around, but I’d gotten a part-time job at an REI, which meant I only needed to see her forabout an hour a day if she didn’t have plans between her shifts, partying, and sleeping. I’d gotten my first paycheck today and had the apartment all to myself for the next twelve hours, and the pint of Ben & Jerry’s in my bag was my reward for surviving this long without having a mental breakdown.
As I jogged up the last flight of steps, our neighbor came running down. He was a sweaty, middle-aged white man with more hair tumbling out of his unbuttoned V-neck than on his head. He didn’t greet me but rather stared pointedly at my chest, and I ran a little faster past him so he couldn’t turn around and pinch my ass.
