Page 63 of Fated

“Are you nervous?” she asked.

“I honestly haven’t had much time to think about it.”

She nodded, understanding. “And you, Sebastian? How are you holding up?”

“I feel … hopeful,” he said, appearing as if the word felt almost foreign as it left his mouth.

Madam Pearl grinned widely. “Splendid.” Then, turning to me, her expression softened. “I could always reschedule my business, Areya, if you’d feel better to have me stay here tonight.”

“No, of course not. I’ll be fine,” I assured her, trying to sound braver than I felt.

“I just don’t want you to feel alone on such a big night,”

Before I could say anything, Ash spoke up. “Areya won’t be alone—I’ll be with her.”

Those pesky butterflies were back.

Madam Pearl’s smile widened as she looked between us. “Very well, then, if everything is in order, I’ll let you two get on with your day.”

She stood and walked us to the door, patting us both on the back as we left.

I tossed my empty coffee cup into the trash bin and followed Ash out the front door of the manor to be greeted by a beautiful, warm sunny day. As we walked toward the street, something shiny caught my eye, glinting in the sunlight.

Squinting, I thought I could make out a bicycle. No, it was …

“Um, what is that?”

Ash grinned from ear to ear. “This is our ride.”

Standing a few feet in front of us was an absurdly long yellow bicycle. But instead of just one seat, one set of pedals, and a single handlebar, this contraption had two of each. One set was positioned in front of the other, making it look like it’d been stretched to comedic proportions.

My hand clamped over my mouth to keep from laughing. “Stop, you can’t be serious.” I giggled, looking on in disbelief. “What even is that thing?”

My own laughter caused Ash to laugh too. “What do you mean? It’s a bicycle, of course.”

“We are seriously going to ride that contraption? Together?” I planted my hands on my hips.

“We really are.” Ash mounted the front of the bicycle.

“Have you ridden one of these before?” I asked him.

“Of course not.”

“Then how do you know you can?” I was still struggling to hold back my laughter.

He gave me a look that said, please,what kind of question is that?

He motioned for me to get on.

“And before you ask—yes, I checked. The only helmets they have are child sized.” He was doing a poor job of hiding his smile now.

Shaking my head, I climbed onto the back, settling my feet on the pedals.

Something told me this was going to end disastrously.

“All you have to do is pedal,” he called over his shoulder. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

I bit my lip, doing my best to ignore the many ways this could go horribly wrong.

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