Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
DAPHNE
After being single for a while, this…fuck.
This hit me in the heart, weirdly. I couldn’t help it.
I know it was fake, but why do I only get proposed to in a fake way?
It’s not fair. How many years had I wasted with my ex and more?
No ring, so I left. It was relieving. But seeing a ring on my hand that I had wanted for years was heart-wrenching.
When I replayed it back, all his words were sweet and nice.
I wish he hadn’t been lying. Why couldn’t anyone choose me?
Ryder touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
I turned to him and grabbed my cup. Our fingers touched, and my heart pumped faster. “I’m perfect. This is beautiful.”
“It’s my great-great grandma’s.”
My eyes widened, and I tried to rip it off. “Uh, you shouldn’t give this to me.”
“No one would have believed this, anyway. And I need those girls to blow this up on the socials.”
“You have it all figured out?”
“Yes.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
Ryder smiled, and my heart fluttered. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy at all.
He gently nudged me to the couch, and we sat together.
Sipping my drink, I observed him taking out my phone, curious about what he would do next.
Then I realized he had fucked us over. No magic in the world would hide a cell phone ping.
I groaned as I realized he had messed up.
I leaned towards him, and the girls giggled over their phones.
“They could track us with that. Phones and magic aren’t screwing with each other, and I don’t want to blast magic in this cafe. ”
He passed the phone to me. “What did you want me to do?”
“I don’t know. You know all this tech stuff, you’d think you’d get a burner or something.”
I slipped it into my pocket but magicked it to my house. He touched my cheek softly and turned my head back to him. “I’m sorry.”
A smile spread across my face in response. “I might be too hard on you. I’m stressed.”
“If this plan works, they should drop this, right?”
“The plan is we pretend to date, and you always knew about magic because we’re dating?”
“And now we’re engaged. It’s perfect,” he whispered.
“Only if we can pull it off.”
“Why not?”
“I barely know you.”
“Let’s get to know each other. Can you mind-meld?”
I fell on the back of the couch and groaned. “You’re so embarrassing. I’m not a Vulcan, dammit. I’m just…” I realized my voice was too high, and I stopped my words. “Just me.”
He chuckled and put his arm around me as he sipped his coffee. “We’ll take Carter’s car and drive you to your mom's. It will be super simple.”
“Yeah, most definitely.”
“Tell me about yourself.”
“I like computers, and I play a computer game when I’m off.”
“You said you were single?” I asked.
“Yeah. Last girl said I was too nerdy.”
“That sounds sooo lame. I’m not like that.
So do you know what I like? I like to go on deep dives into plants.
That is good for me because of…ya know. I have a sort of dream to have a side business selling little dried plants and creating charming pouches.
Not full charms. Like a bit of luck. I’d called them ‘Charming Pouches.’”
“I don’t know enough about your practices to understand the difference.”
I sighed. “Sometimes magic is about intention. And if you combine enough dried herbs and flowers, you can create just a nudge. That’s what I want to do, but no time. And I cannot deal with the tech.”
“How do you deal with tech?”
“We have workarounds. Special phone cases can withstand being around us, but woo boy, I will be lucky if my TV or router works when I get home.”
“I can fix that for you.”
“How? They will be fried.”
“Well, what ‘bout I replace it for you?”
“You owe me. So you should. Let’s go,” I said as I stood up. He stood with me, and the giggling girlies snapped more pictures as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door.