Chapter 24 Rosie
Rosie
Upon bringing it home, I set the bag with the bark on my desk alongside all of the other ingredients, including the hair I had gotten two days earlier.
I had gone to the barber shop with some treats from Violet’s, lying that I was just delivering a neighborly gift.
After flirting a bit with Tom, I said hello to the mayor, who was already halfway through his trim, hair clippings scattered about on the floor.
While chatting, I clumsily dropped my phone right over a lock of his hair, then swiped both up, securing the goods.
Now we have all the ingredients for the potion to help Phillip cross to the other side. And I…
I am miserable.
Even more so because for the last item on our list, I went alone. When I woke up this morning in Jack’s bed and told him I was going to Fair Meadow after I closed the shop early to grab the last item, he told me I could go alone because he had an appointment of some kind.
Alone.
After weeks of him insisting he join me on every task, he lets me go on the last one alone.
I’d rolled over onto him, giving him a small smile that felt fake. “So you trust me?” I asked. His hand lifted, sliding up my back and to my face, tucking my hair behind my ear slowly and softly, almost reverently.
“More than you could know,” he said low, and something about it settled in my gut.
If I’m being honest, I can’t quite tell if it’s in a good way or not.
We walked to Vi’s together to get coffee before separating for the day.
When I closed up shop and glanced across the street, the lights were off in his shop, the sign flipped to closed, and it was the same when I returned.
Now it’s nearly seven and I’m still waiting for Jack to text and beginning to wonder if he will at all. Maybe his appointment went long. Maybe he doesn’t feel well. Maybe he just wanted some alone time.
He technically never promised he would get in touch with me after he was done, and really, he doesn’t owe that to me. He owes me nothing.
We aren’t that after all.
Inevitably, my mind moves to other possibilities, as is my curse. Not of the magical variety, but of the anxiety variety.
Maybe now that we have everything, he’s over hanging out with me.
Maybe this was much more temporary than even I thought.
Maybe he didn’t even like me, only saw the opportunity to get some while we completed our adventure.
Maybe this is just one last reminder of why I desperately need this curse lifted: men suck.
Maybe—
But then I hear it as I lie in bed, overthinking.
The tiniest clink. I sit up, looking around and trying to see what it was.
When I see nothing nearby, I think it must have been in my head, or Percy may have knocked something off a counter.
Yes, that must be it. Meddling Percy is constantly getting into trouble.
But when he lets out a little meow, probably thinking that my sitting up might mean a second dinner for him, I realize it couldn’t have been him.
It was in my head. I start to lie back down to fall into my thoughts again, but I hear it once more, and this time I manage to catch the direction it’s coming from.
My window.
A tree branch? A bird? A—
A third hits, and then I stand, both anxious and curious. Phillip moves through a wall until he’s in my room with me.
“What did I tell you about not using the door to my bedroom?” I haven’t put a permanent enchantment on my room for fear Phillip will accidentally get caught in here, but now I’m wondering if maybe I should.
“There’s hubbub going on in here. I thought that meant the rules were off. What if it were someone trying to attack you?” I give him a look.
“And what would you do about it, oh incorporeal figure?” I deadpan.
“Tell Percy so he could attack,” Phillip says matter-of-factly, almost like he and Percy have long had this conversation and come to a conclusion about what to do if an intruder comes in.
I give him another confused look and open my mouth to argue, but another something hits the window.
It’s too much happening at once, so I shake my head to clear it before deciding to deal with Phillip—and possibly Percy—later, before moving to my window.
I’m not sure what I expected to see in the grass beside my building, but it surely wasn’t Jack.
My heart pounds, and his wide smile gleams in the dim light.
“Jack? Is that you?”
“Who else would it be, Rosie?” I blink because he has a great point, but still…
“What are you doing out there?” I look around the side of my building and realize slowly what’s happening, though none of the pieces are falling into place.
Maybe he’s losing it because he’s standing outside of my apartment, in the fall cold in just a T-shirt, his phone raised high in the air while it plays music.
And he’s smiling. The man is smiling, like he just got a home run or won one of those games he loves.
“Throwing rocks at your window and playing music. Turns out, it’s hard to find a boombox these days. The only one I could find needed ten of those giant batteries, so I figured I’d just modernize it.”
“What?” I start, so confused, but his smile somehow widens.
“Come down here. I’m freezing.”
“Come up here!” I say.
“No, we’re going to my place, come on.” A million butterflies flit around my stomach before I smile and shake my head, slipping on my cozy shoes and grabbing my phone.
“Watch Percy, okay?” I tell Phillip, whose ghostly smile is wide and knowing, though I don’t have the mental capacity to question that. He nods, and before he can say anything else, I’m out the door and running down the stairs, feeling giddy for some reason.
Jack is at the door when I get to the bottom of the stairs, and he smiles wide at me, a reflection of what I know is the look on my face. Then he reaches for my hand, twining his fingers with mine and tugging me across the cobblestones that separate our businesses.
“What’s going on?” I ask as he unlocks the door to his shop, despite the fact that he clearly just left. We couldn’t be two more opposite people, and I like that about us.
“I have a surprise,” he says with a nervous smile.
“Jack Haggerty, you have a surprise for me?” I say with a gasp, hand going to my chest.
“Okay, don’t get too wild with it,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s not a big deal. It’s just… a fun night.
” I look at him skeptically before he leads me up the stairs to his apartment, where he unlocks yet another door.
I smile and shake my head at him, and he gives me a bashful one back over his shoulder before pushing it open, and I stare… confused.
“What is this?” I ask, looking at his living room. There are bags and boxes all over, and the room is a mix of different smells.
“We’re traveling tonight,” he says, and the look I give him, wide eyes and raised brows, must be humorous because he laughs, pulling me into his side and pressing a kiss to my hair like he can’t help it. “From the comfort of my living room.”
“I don’t—”
“There are only three stops on the agenda today, but each one has some kind of food, a movie, or an activity, and some music.” I blink, still confused, and he must take it the wrong way before he’s taking my hand and leading me to one spot.
“For an appetizer, we’ve got Japan. I thought it could be fun to make our own sushi.
I went to the local Japanese restaurant, and they gave me all the food we needed, and I grabbed the mats at the store.
I queued up a video for the how-to, but if it’s a mess, I also got us salads.
” A lump forms in my throat as the reality hits me.
“Next is Mexico, and I got elote, chips, and salsa from that place in Diamond Ridge that’s been on TV a bunch.
I’ve had it before and it’s wildly good, but that green one is deceptively spicy.
For dinner, we’ve got Indian, and I googled a bit to find a good Bollywood movie, though I’m open to suggestions if you have one.
Then we’ll end in Italy with cannoli.” He smiles wide. “Mostly because I love cannoli.”
After his speech, he stands there seemingly awkwardly, staring at what he’s set up for us—for me—but all I can do is stare at him, looking at him in a different light.
“Did you have an appointment today?” I ask low and then I see that blush move over his cheeks. Finally, he turns to me and shakes his head.
“No,” he answers, then his face goes nervous. “You said you had it covered, though, that it was easy. Was it not? Shit, Rosie, I—” Panic and guilt start to take over his face, and I cut in before it gets worse.
“No, no. It was. It was just a trip to the store.” I stare at him, trying to put pieces together, to understand what this means, and I… can’t. I can’t seem to make it make sense. “You lied so you could…” My brow furrows.
“So I could set this up. Yeah. I mean, I probably could have gone with you, but I wanted to make sure it was all… perfect. You said you wanted to travel, and I can’t afford or make time for us both to run off to another country, but I could bring a small piece of it here, you know?
” I do, but I’m still baffled by the move.
“You did all of this because I mentioned I wanted to travel?” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but to me, it is.
To me, it’s the biggest deal.
“You deserve to know what a grand gesture looks like.” That telltale blush moves over his cheeks and it warms my belly in response.
“You know, before the curse is lifted. So you know what to look for. We don’t want you, uh…
” he rubs a hand over the back of his neck, suddenly looking embarrassed, “… settling.” He looks around the room again as if not sure what to do, but I grab his hand and force him to look at me.
“Thank you, Jack. I can’t tell you what this means to me,” I say low, hoping he understands just how deeply I mean it. He gives me a small, gentle smile, pushing my hair behind my ear before dipping and pressing the softest, sweetest kiss I’ve ever experienced to my lips.