Blonde With a Wand (25 page)

“No problemo. I’ll wait right here.” Lily twirled the end of the red belt hanging from her trench coat.

Ellen took her change from Anica and dropped some coins in the tip jar. Then she leaned forward. “Glad to hear you have a boyfriend, dear. I hope he’s a sweetheart, like you.”

“He’s great,” Lily piped up, uninvited. “In fact, he’s a real pussycat, isn’t he, Anica?”

Anica took a brownie out of the case and congratulated herself on handing it to her sister instead of throwing it at her. “You could say that.” As she turned to make the two drinks, she wondered why she’d been so happy to see Lily, who was such a total pain in the ass. How could she make fun of such a serious thing?

But by the time Anica’s besotted employees returned and she was free to join Lily, she realized what Lily had been doing when she’d deliberately joked about the situation with Jasper. She was daring Anica to maintain a sense of humor in the face of potential disaster. Anica needed to be reminded of that. A sense of humor would most likely save her sanity.

“Did he change again?” Lily asked the minute Anica sat down.

“Yes. For three hours this time.”

“Ooh la la!”

Anica felt herself blush for the second time in ten minutes. How irritating. So what if they’d spent three hours in bed and she started to burn all over again when she thought about what she’d done to awaken her inner bad girl? Lily wouldn’t let herself blush over a little thing like that.

“That good, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Lily seemed to have forgotten all about her espresso as she leaned forward. “So what else?”

“We had a fight.”

“My, you two were busy little bunnies, weren’t you? Does he know that breaking the curse is up to him?”

“He does now.”

Lily nodded and picked up her espresso. “Given three hours to work with, I would hope you’d get that settled and not spend the whole time boinking. But I’m proud of you for grabbing the opportunity when it was offered, sis.” She lifted her cup in a toast.

“Thanks. Oh, and I called Dorcas to check out a technicality. She’d said I could confirm the cure if Jasper guessed it, but I didn’t know if he had a limited number of tries.”

“I’m thinking yes.” Lily took a sip of her coffee.

“Three tries. I already told him we couldn’t play twenty questions, but now I can clarify that.”

“Dear Zeus, yes. At this point, you don’t want something going wrong on a technicality.”

“Sure don’t.” Anica sighed and did a modified neck roll to loosen up the tight muscles of her neck.

“Poor baby.” Lily reached over and patted her arm.

“I’m just trying to figure out what the heck he did that took him from one hour to three hours.”

“Hm.” Lily drank more coffee. “It must have been a big-ass act of kindness to get him that much time. He saved the mother cat and kittens and only got fifty minutes more.”

“He’s been giving Orion some of his dinner.”

“Yeah, that’s worth about three minutes each. It has to be something bigger.” Lily gazed at her. “Was he doing acts of kindness in bed that first time?”

Anica wasn’t sure she could discuss oral sex in the confines of Wicked Brew, with customers and her two employees milling about. “I . . . uh, I’m not really comfortable talking about—”

“I’m just sayin’ that if he got another two hours while he was doing you, I’m going to be consumed with jealousy.”

Anica shook her head. “He was good, but compared to saving the mother cat and her kittens . . . not another two hours’ worth of good.”

“I still think I’m jealous, considering that I’m currently alone with only a vibrator to keep me company.”

“TMI, Lily.”

“Oh, I keep forgetting that you’re the prudish sister. Pretend I never mentioned the vibrator. We were discussing Jasper, who obviously is better than any old vibrator. So how does he do it?”

“Lily.”

“I mean
acts of kindness,
Anica. How does he do acts of kindness when he’s so limited by his circumstances?”

“I don’t know.”

Lily tapped the side of her cup with a manicured finger. “Let’s look at the facts. This is like one of those locked-room mysteries. He was in the apartment all day, by himself except for Orion, correct?”

“Correct. And Orion sleeps all day. I don’t see how Jasper could accomplish any acts of kindness for a sleeping cat.”

“And no visitors, right?”

“No visitors,” Anica said. “Nobody has a key except you, and thank you, by the way, for putting that protection spell in place yesterday morning. I was so upset when I came home after seeing Dorcas and Ambrose that I didn’t notice at first.”

“No problem. It was perfect timing. I was in the magic mood after jerking Jasper’s chain a little.”

“What?”

Lily waved a hand. “No biggie. I just worked a little spell to convince him that if he messed with you, he’d have to deal with me.”

“What in the world did you—” Then she stopped herself. “You know what? I don’t even want to know. But thank you for sticking up for me.” Lily’s sisterly concern settled like a warm blanket around Anica’s tense shoulders.

“Sure. No problem. But this mystery of Jasper getting extra time somehow is going to drive me crazy if I don’t figure it out.” Lily stared out the window at people hurrying along the windy sidewalk. “The computer,” she said at last, glancing back at Anica. “It’s his only way of reaching the outside world. Could he accomplish acts of kindness on the computer?”

“Maybe. It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I just hope he’s able to figure out that whatever he did, whether it was on the computer or not, is what he needs to keep doing to gain more time.”

“He’s a smart man. I’m betting he’ll come up with the answer.” Lily popped the last of the brownie into her mouth.

“So what’s up with you?”

“Nothing compared to your life, sis.” Lily rolled her cup between her palms. “There’s this guy . . .”

“The customer at the Bubbling Cauldron.”

“Yeah. His name’s Griffin. Griffin Taylor. He’s a divorce lawyer.”

“Mm.” Anica wasn’t going to say it, but she had a hard time imagining a serious professional guy being interested in Lily. Lily tended to attract the professional gamblers, the musicians, the nightclub owners. People like her, in other words. “So what do you like about this Griffin guy?”

“He’s hot.”

Anica laughed. “I’m sure. You wouldn’t look twice at him otherwise.”

“But he’s hot in a cool way. Not obvious, you know? Low-key. I like the way he jokes around with the other lawyers who come in for happy hour. He has a nice smile, a great laugh.”

Anica could read the signs. Lily was crushing on this divorce lawyer with the great smile. “Have you had any conversations with him?”

Lily gazed into her coffee. “Not so much. I’ve tried to catch his eye, get him interested, but he just . . . isn’t. He’s polite and everything, but there’s no flirting on his part. Only on mine.”

“That must be rough, particularly if you’re really attracted to him.” Anica was thinking it would be especially rough on Lily, who usually got any guy she went after.

Lily shrugged. “I’ll get over it.” Then she looked up and gave Anica a high-wattage smile. “When do you want another dance lesson?”

Anica thought of her complicated life. “Well, I’m not sure if I—”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a busy time, a strange time. That’s okay. Never mind.”

Anica picked up on the disappointment Lily quickly tried to hide. For the first time Anica wondered if Lily might need her more than she’d let on. She might be lonely. “The shop’s closed on Saturday. How about Saturday afternoon?”

“You’re sure?” Lily looked cautiously hopeful.

“Yep, I’m sure.”

“This deal with Jasper could bust wide open, and then you might not want to.”

“If that happens we’ll talk about it,” Anica said. “But for now let’s plan on Saturday afternoon.”

“Cool. I’ve been practicing some more moves I want to show you. We’ll have margaritas again.”

“What’s a dance lesson without margaritas?”

“Way too boring. Well, sis, I gotta go.” Lily stood. “Keep me informed of any developments.”

“I will.” Anica stood, too. Then Anica did something that she hadn’t done in a while. She hugged Lily good-bye.

“Oh, I see we’re getting all touchy-feely, now,” Lily said. But she hugged Anica back really tight, and when she left, she was smiling.

 

Jasper could tell Anica was in a better mood when she came home from work. He was in a pretty good mood, too. He was working on a theory about the spell, and if it panned out . . . but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up too high.

He’d typed a message to Anica on the computer, so he sat—sort of patiently—on the desk chair while she took off her coat and hung it in the closet. He waited—not quite as patiently—for her to greet Orion. But he refused to be jealous that she’d petted Orion first.

After all, Orion was only a cat. And Orion would be here long after Jasper was gone. She should love him up before she moved on to Jasper.

Yet when she stood next to the desk chair and stroked his head, when she rubbed that spot on his chin that made him feel so great, he purred louder than ever before. He admitted it—he was glad to see her.

She put a paper bag next to the computer. “I see you have another message for me, Jasper.” She leaned down and looked at what he’d typed while she continued to rub her finger along his chin.

WELCM HOM. HW MNY GESSES?

She answered without hesitation. “Three. I called Dorcas and that’s what she said.”

Three sounded about right to him, especially with what he’d been reading about magic on various Internet sites. That meant he needed to test his theory before he used up one guess. He’d spend some time with her magic books, too, and look for corroboration of what he thought might be the key to his escape.

He hadn’t found any clues until he’d gone back to old fairy tales about magic. There he’d found a common theme. If someone had been hexed, they could sometimes earn their way out of it by doing good works.

Jasper started putting together his recent activities—coming to Anica’s rescue when she’d faced the fairies, saving the mother cat and kittens, accidentally giving away two grand to animal rescue. Those things might have been what had awarded him extra time on the clock.

It was only a theory at this point, though, and he needed to test it through his actions tonight. If he extended his time significantly the following night, he’d ask Anica if he was on the right track.

He’d definitely decided to write e-mails of apology to his exes tonight, although he was still debating exactly what to say. His original intent had been to clear his conscience, but those e-mails might help his cause. Maybe he’d give more money to animal rescue while he was on the computer, too.

Besides those two things his theory had another angle, one that made it his absolutely favorite theory of all. Maybe he’d unknowingly earned minutes giving Anica great orgasms. If he concentrated on her pleasure in bed, that ought to count, right? It certainly would in his world, so he’d go with it. Tonight would be all about good works.

While Anica cooked dinner he paced the apartment, impatient for the twinges that would signal he was changing. He thought about the animal rescue site. Leaping up on the desk chair, he called it up and gave another five hundred bucks. If he knew for a fact that worked, he’d be willing to empty his bank account.

But he didn’t know, so he’d keep it reasonable until he was sure. The clock ticked with maddening slowness.

For the first time in years, Anica wished she had a television and cable. Once she’d cleaned up the kitchen after dinner she couldn’t settle down to anything. Jasper’s impending change hovered in the air, keeping her from enjoying the book she’d started a few days ago. Flipping through channels with a remote would have been the perfect distraction.

She tried putting on some calming music, but turned it off almost immediately because the insipid sound made her want to scream. Pulling out her favorite deck of tarot cards, she shuffled them and started to do a reading. Then she realized she didn’t want to know what the future held. Too scary.

Jasper’s pacing didn’t help matters. She knew he was antsy, too, but she wanted him to just
settle
for Hera’s sake. She wasn’t settling, either, but at least she hadn’t started to pace. When she caught herself walking back and forth in the living room, she knew something had to be done.

“I’m going up to see Julie and the kittens,” she said, knowing Julie would be there because Julie was always there, and now she’d be even
more
there because she had caretaking duties. “I’ll take my cell phone. In case you’ve forgotten the number, here it is.” She wrote it on a slip of paper and put it on the coffee table. “You can use the landline to call me . . . if you . . . well, just call.”

Anybody watching her say that to a black cat would think she was insane, but that cat would—she hoped—turn into a man sometime this evening. In the meantime she and the cat were driving each other bonkers, and she was the only one who could leave. She could be projecting, but she swore Jasper looked relieved as she went out the door.

Fleeing the apartment seemed right, but maybe she should have called Julie first. Thanks to the wonders of cell phones and having Julie’s number stored, she could. She sat on the stairs and made the call.

“Hi, Anica!” Julie sounded like a whole different person. “Did you get my message?”

“I did, and I was wondering if I could come up and see how Persephone and her babies are doing.”

“Absolutely. I’d love to show them off.” Julie sounded like the proud mother of a newborn.

Smiling, Anica climbed the stairs to Julie’s apartment. She’d been in it only once, and she remembered it being a dark and spooky place with dark paint on the walls and college-kid furniture—a futon that had seen better days, brick-and-board bookshelves, one rickety floor lamp and a scratched metal desk. Julie’s computer, flat-screen TV and sound system, though, had been state-of-the-art.