Page 85 of Best Hex Ever
“I had hexed myself without realizing it. The universe was out to get you, because of me. All those years, I was so afraid and insecure and that’s how it manifested. But I’m learning to love myself. It will take some time, and it’ll be hard, but if you could wait for me—”
“I don’t need to wait.” Scott pulled her into his arms, running his fingers along the small of her back. “Dina, I love you. I’m mad for you, surely you know that.”
Dina looked up at him, tears shining in her beautiful brown eyes.
“Everything was real between us, wasn’t it? You still…you still want to be with me?”
“Dina, I could live for a million years and that still wouldn’t be enough time with you. Fuck, I was willing to risk it for only a few days when I thought the universe was going to murder me.”
He laughed, tilting his face down to meet hers. Their lips met, arms wrapping tightly around each other like they were one body.
He would hold her like this, each day, for the rest of his life. He knew it then, knew it as firmly as he breathed in and out, his lips finding Dina’s again and again.
“I should never have offered to make you forget me the other day. I promise never to use magic on you unless you ask me to.” Dina looked up at him from the cradle of his arms, her curls flying in all directions, her cheeks stained with drying tears.
“No, don’t say that. I love every part of you, Dina. And that includes your magic. Remember how you helped me in the maze? Who knows, we might have a few more mazes to go through.”
She must have seen the sureness in his gaze, because she grinned, jumping up and hooking her legs around him. Scott’s hands immediately found her ass, and he gripped her there firmly, a promise of what was to come later that evening.
He kissed along the length of Dina’s neck and up to the curve of her ear.
“I forgot to ask, how did you get in without a ticket? Not that I mind you gatecrashing,” he laughed, relishing the feeling of her body pressed against his once more.
“Oh, I put a spell on an old cinema stub so the security guard at the entrance thought it was a ticket for tonight.”
They held each other for a while longer, until Eric popped his head around the corner of the gallery to let them know it was time to open the exhibition. The grin on his face told them he knew exactly what they’d been upto.
“You two look fucking adorable,” he said, as they strode hand-in-hand back into the atrium. Immy high-fived Eric, both of them no doubt immensely proud of their successful matchmaking.
Dr. MacDougall smiled knowingly at them both too, glancing down at their entwined hands, as they walked into the exhibition gallery.
“You’ll have to bring her round for dinner soon, so I can meet her properly!” she said to Scott, waving them inside.
The night was perfect, and the exhibition went down a storm. As they were getting ready to leave, a reporter from theGuardianfound them, and congratulated Scott again, assuring him that he could look forward to a rave review in the paper.
When they climbed into a taxi, Dina turned to him. “Do you want to go home?” she asked. He nodded and gave the driver directions to Dina’s flat.
When he sat back in the seat she was staring at him with a perplexed expression.
“What?” Scott asked.
“I thought you’d want to go back to your apartment,” she replied.
“If I never have to set foot in that flat again I’ll be a happy man. My home is where you are, Dina, and wherever that angry little cat of yours is too.”
She tucked herself into his side, his arm shielding her from the chill in the air.
“Heebie isn’t angry. She just knows what she likes,” Dina mumbled.
When Scott looked down a few minutes later she had fallen asleep, a serene expression on her face. A fierce feeling of protectiveness flooded his senses, and he pulled her closer, draping his scarf over her lap to keep her as warm as possible. Lights glimmered outside the taxi window and all of London slipped into a gentle quiet as the snow began to fall.
Epilogue
The switching-on of the Little Hathering Christmas lights was not a sight to be missed. People from all the surrounding towns and villages flocked to the busy high street of Little Hathering for the lantern parade, and later for the grand switching-on of the lights, which began with the village Christmas tree and spread all the way down the street.
It was one of Dina’s favorite nights of the year. The spiced scent of mulled wine and mince pies in the air, the slightly out-of-tune carol singers, and the glee of the small children showing off the lanterns they’d made at school. England was so dark in the winter; they needed these twinkling lights to keep them from falling into the gloom of the colder months and shorter days. All around her, people walked up and down the high street, stopping at the bakery to buy freshly baked gingerbread or cheering as they won a teddy bear at the “hook a goldfish” stand.
But Dina was a woman on a mission. In each hand she was precariously carrying two paper cups of hot chocolate from Mrs.Bailey’s booth. It was the best in town—made from the good stuff: real shavings of dark chocolate with generous helpings of sugar.
