Page 34 of Rafael

Lana came to a halt in front of the counter and swung the young man around to stand beside her. “This is what your poison did.” She yanked the hoodie down and pointed to the teenage boy’s face.

The boy’s cheeks flushed a mottled red as he stood before them. He looked like any teenage boy with a smattering of whiskers not yet thick enough to form a beard. It was his lips that had Gisele concerned. They were swollen to over three times puffier than normal.

“Oh, sweetie.” Gisele came around the counter. “What’s your name?”

“Dewek,” he said, his words garbled by the size of his lips.

Gisele spoke to the young man in a calm and soothing voice. “How much of the potion did you use?

“I didn’t use it,” he said. “Not intentionawy.” He glared at Lana. “She put it on my wip bawm.”

“Your lip balm?” Gisele asked.

He nodded. “I had chapped wips.”

Gisele frowned at Lana. “When we sell this, wevery specifically tell the purchaser not to use it on chapped lips.” She turned a gentle smile on Derek. “How many times did you apply the lip plumper?”

“Lip plumper?” Lana said, her gaze going from Gisele to Lena and back to Gisele. “What lip plumper?”

Gisele’s brow dipped low. “LP#9 is lip plumper. You knew that, right?” She pointed to the back label again. “Lip Plumper #9. Right above the instructions.”

Lana leaned closer, her eyes widening. “No way. That wasn’t there. I swear it wasn’t.”

Lena pulled another bottle out from beneath the counter and showed her the back label. “It’s on every bottle of LP#9 that goes out of the shop.”

Lana shook her head.

Gisele turned her attention back to Derek. “How many times did you apply the balm?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Thwee or fo times...evewy houwa unti my wips swelled wike dis.” He pointed to his swollen mouth and then glared at Lana. “Why would you spike my wip bawm with wip pwumpa?”

All the anger leached out of Lana’s face, leaving it pale and drawn. “I thought it was a love potion,” she whispered with a stricken expression.

“Wuv potion?” Derek’s frown deepened. “What da fuck, Wana?”

Lana shrank back. “I thought that if you loved me, you’d finally ask me out. We’ve been friends for solong. I didn’t want to be just friends anymore. I wanted you to love me as more than a friend. I wanted you to be my first date. My first kiss.”

Derek’s frown softened. “You did?” He reached for her hand.

Lana took it. “I love you.”

“I wuv you, too.”

Lana’s eyes widened. “You do?”

He nodded.

“It wasn’t the love potion?” she asked and then shook her head. “No, wait, it wasn’t a love potion.” Her face brightened into awatery smile. “It was lip plumper.” She lifted his hand to her cheek. “You really love me?”

Derek nodded. “I ahways have.”

Lana turned to Gisele. “Thank you. This place is truly magical. He loves me.”

Lena frowned. “It wasn’t a love po?—”

Gisele elbowed her assistant gently in the side. “My potions bring out the truth that’s already inside,” Gisele said.

“Yes, yes, of course.” Lana leaned into the teenager and stared up into his eyes. A frown sent her eyebrows back down, forming a V over the bridge of her nose. “Do you have a potion to counteract the lip plumper?”

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