Chapter 6
Troy
I WENT HOME TO THE Supernatural marathon, like I had planned. Thinly sliced cured salmon sat on my plate. Normal people ate it on sandwiches, but I just wanted the fish.
With my work area set up, I opened my laptop to the file I had started for my newest client. She suspected her husband of cheating and wanted me to do some digging, which I had started to do yesterday when I followed him to the doomed storefront.
Rumors had it that the place was cursed. All I knew was that any business that opened there always shut down within a few months. So, Mister Falken better not be renting it, or his wife would have other things besides cheating to worry about. Like bankruptcy, for example. The clock would already be ticking on that business.
My eyes drifted to the bottom of the screen where the time read one in the afternoon. Mira would be on her date in an hour. Good for her, assuming she got matched with a decent guy.
Thinking back to everyone I got matched with, I was forced to ask myself a very important question—how many decent single guys were there in Whynot? I could name quite a few assholes. My job required me to know all the assholes, so maybe I was biased, but the chances of Mira having a good date suddenly didn’t seem so high.
It was none of my business. I never planned on seeing her again. Not that her disappointed face when I told her I wasn't the one she was meeting today didn’t appear in front of me every time I closed my eyes.
That face seemed weirdly familiar. I knew I had never met her before, but now that I had met her in person instead of on the picture, I couldn’t shake this feeling I’d seen her before.
Realistically, I’ve seen plenty of mermaids. I grew up on a mer island so that was a given. Maybe she was related to someone from back home? Yeah, that had to be it.
Whoever she was, her date was none of my business. I had a cheating husband to catch.
With that thought, I opened the pictures I had taken yesterday featuring the husband in question with another woman. Nothing compromising happened, if I didn’t count the disastrous location of their meeting.
Oh, wait, I’ve seen her before. That was Selena from Because. Weird. They better not have been matched by Love Bites.
Maybe this was the reason they harassed me into signing up. Somehow, they had found out I was investigating the husband and decided to match me with Selena so I could dig up some dirt during our date. If that were the case, I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Then again, they were really persistent I go on a date with Mira.
My eyes went back to the tiny clock in the corner of my monitor. Half an hour until her date. What if the crones knew something bad would happen on the date and wanted me to be there to save Mira?
It could be any number of things, but what I did know was that the crones did a lot for my friends. Without them, who even knew if Dylan would’ve ever found his missing wife.
Seaweed on sticks, being the good guy was annoying.
I closed my laptop, slipped it into the bag, and went for the door. If something happened to the little mermaid, and I could’ve stopped it, I’d never forgive myself.
A quick drive got me to the coffee shop fifteen minutes early. Mira wasn’t here yet, and I didn’t see any single men milling around. Good. They wouldn’t think I was stalking them. I’d better grab a drink, a table and pretend I had been sitting here for a while.
“Hi,” I said to the barista. “Can I have a caramel latte with a clarity potion?”
“One usual for Troy,” the girl answered. Heather, that was her name. She was older and wiser than the one who flirted with me this morning.
I thanked her, paid for my order, and moved to the side. My luck held and Mira didn’t show up while I waited for my drink. Frank Keller, on the other hand, walked in all swagger and the overwhelming stench of expensive cologne.
And just like that, I knew who Mira’s date was.
The moment my drink hit the counter, I grabbed it and rushed to my corner. As I opened my laptop and clicked on the file I needed to review, the door to the coffee shop swung open and...
Those legs. Damn. Mira shouldn’t be allowed to wear skirts, tights, shorts, or anything else that revealed those weapons of brain destruction. She could cause car accidents, maybe even a few plane crashes, if the pilot had really good eyesight.
The crop top didn’t make things any better. She looked hot in the morning, but in the morning, she didn’t rob me of all common sense by simply existing.
Wasn’t I supposed to be working or something?
“Hey, you hot little thing,” Frank put his arm around Mira’s waist and pulled her flush to his body as if they’d known each other for ages instead of it being their blind date. He shouldn’t even know that Mira was here for him. “I ordered you a drink.”
He had? Well, that was dumb.
“Well, that’s dumb,” Mira echoed my thoughts. “You don’t even know what I like or if I might have food sensitivities.”
Frank waved it away. “I asked them to make it gluten-free.”
Mira looked at him like he was an idiot, then she looked away and that’s when her eyes fell on me. Busted.
I pointed at my laptop that had already gone dark and mouthed, “Working.”
Something that looked a lot like disappointment and a little like relief flashed in her eyes. How she could look like she had so many contradicting emotions was beyond me, but that was Mira. Brave but cautious. Sweet and innocent but hardened and experienced. Young but so unfucking believably hot. Someone this young shouldn’t be hot, not to me, at least.
Frank followed Mira’s gaze and sneered at me. “What are you looking at?”
“At you making an ass of yourself,” I answered calmly.
He opened his mouth to answer me when he heard Mira calmly ordering herself a drink she actually wanted.
“Babe, I told you, I already ordered for you.”
First date and he was already calling her babe. If I didn’t know it was a blind date, I might’ve been concerned that they were actually an item, but he was only doing it because he didn’t know her name.
Mira gave the two iced coffees he was holding a pointed look. “How do I know you didn’t slip a roofie in it? Besides, I’d like to have my coffee the way I want it, not the way some guy I just met thinks I should want it.”
I shifted to try to alleviate the pressure in my pants. Did she have to come in here looking like that, being all confident and knowing how to put assholes in their place?
“Honey lavender with a premonition for Mira,” Heather called out.
Frank made a face. “You agreed to have a potion added to your drink? They only ruin the taste and don’t actually do what they’re supposed to. What a waste.”
Mira looked at me again and asked, “Do you think these potions work?”
I lifted my mostly full cup. “I always use clarity, and sometimes good luck. My friend swears by their premonition potions.” Then I pointed with my cup at Frank. “But if I were you, I’d be asking myself why Franky here doesn’t want you to have any.”
“What, you’re gonna believe that guy over me?” Frank looked genuinely shocked. Not surprising, considering the guy thought the sun rose and set just for him. “You don’t even know him, and I’m your date.”
People were starting to stare. We didn’t have enough entertainment in this town, so this was prime time.
“I don’t know you either, and how do I know you’re my date? This was supposed to be a blind date, last I checked,” Mira answered, her voice even like this was just another boring day.
The older gentleman two tables down looked away after realizing this was a Love Bites type of situation. A couple fighting in a coffee shop was new and exciting. A Love Bite date going wrong was the same old nonsense.
“We matched on the app. Who else would I be meeting here?” Franky tried to wave his arms to encompass the coffee shop but only succeeded in spilling his coffee. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Look what you did.”
Mira gave him a bored look. “Well, I also matched with Troy, so...”
She maneuvered around Frank, giving him a wide berth, then came to my table. I closed the laptop and put it away to give Mira plenty of space for her one meager cup of coffee.
“Not hungry?” I asked her. “Their apple pie is really good.”
Mira sighed and gave the counted a wistful look. “I love apple pie.”
“No way, Mimmy White likes apple pie? I’m shocked.” I moved to get up. “Let me get you a slice.”
“No, don’t. I just ate a small mountain of shrimp. If I eat the pie, shrimp might come crawling out of my ears as an overflow.”
I laughed at the absurd image. “You’ll be in town for a few days, right? You’ll have time to try it another day. Their apple charlotte is pretty good, too.”
“I’ve never had an apple charlotte,” she admitted.
“It’s like apple pie but better.” I had to fight the urge to get it for her right that moment.
“Nothing can be better than apple pie.” She nodded her head sagely, like she was giving me a universal truth.
“You say that now.”
Mira flashed me a smile and sipped her latte, then leaned forward and whispered, “Thank you for letting me use you to get out of that date.”
“You can use me anytime.”
Mira’s smile slipped, and her eyes went unfocused for a moment. I started to ask if she was alright, then remembered the potion in her drink.