Page 47 of One Life to Loathe

“Is this some weird Salem ritual?” I asked as I eyed the alley with trepidation. “Is this how I’m initiated into the cult?”

He laughed as he motioned for me to follow him. We stopped at the ticket booth long enough to eye the kid playing on his Switch inside. “I need two wristbands, Graham,” he said.

Graham looked bored when he raised his eyes. “Daisy already paid for you.” He waved off the money Jax was shoving in his direction.

“I have my friend, too,” Jax said.

Graham remained blasé. “She paid for him, too.”

I was understandably confused. “How did she even know I was coming?”

Jax might’ve been a good actor when it came to business, but I’d been reading people for years. It was impossible to miss the discomfort that rolled across his features. “She’s just magic that way.”

Jax clearly believed his future wife was magical. That wasn’t what was happening here, though. I had to think about it—hard—for several seconds. Then realization dawned on me. “You were waiting for me.”

“Daisy might have brought up that she thought you needed a night out,” he hedged, clearly uncomfortable.

“And you’re about the only one I can stand in the entire hotel,” I muttered.

He rested his hand on my shoulder and fixed me with a serious look. “Your attitude is going to get you in trouble. You say that’s the last thing you want.”

“I need this to go well,” I admitted.

“Then unclench. This place … this place will make you laugh if you let it.”

I was dubious as I looked around. There were buildings billed as haunted houses. Another that touted a wax museum. Therewere food trucks and touristy shops. None of it made me want to laugh. “I don’t understand.”

“Just trust me. Have a little faith.”

I remained dubious. Even I—with my bad attitude and rampant mistrust—could recognize when I was shooting myself in the foot, though. That’s exactly what was happening here.

“Fine.” I took the plastic wristband Graham handed me and slid it over my hand. “If this is some weird hazing ritual, though, I’m going to be really mad.”

“This place is simply part of the wonder that is Salem,” Jax replied.

“It looks like a tourist trap.”

Jax chuckled. “It is, but it’s one of those places you can’t help but love.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.” Just as the words escaped, my gaze was drawn to the food truck in the middle of everything. That’s where I saw a hint of pink flashing as Sam twirled in her dress. She looked to be eating fried dough and dancing with Daisy, who had a cocktail in one hand and her own fried dough in the other.

My heart was threatening to burst at the sight of them. The smile on Sam’s face was so big and so bright that it made my breath come out in a ragged gust. It took me a full thirty seconds to remember I was with Jax, and when I finally dragged my gaze away from Sam and Daisy, I found him watching me with a knowing look.

“What?” I demanded, suddenly self-conscious.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “I just think that maybe you have cracks that you need filled, too.”

“That’s not exactly rocket science,” I shot back. “Everybody who has ever met me says I’m a mess.”

“Maybe stop trying to be a mess.”

“I don’t try. It just happens.”

“I think you do try.” Jax wasn’t being mean as much as honest. “Stop worrying about everything outside of yourself and start worrying about what’s inside. You can’t control the narrative regarding your career right now. You can try to be happy, though.”

“And then what?”

“Then you keep being happy.”

---