Page 102 of Love At First Fright
“Okay, what is it? Why are you being so weird?” Jennaleant over to peer at him. “You’re being all sad. Where’s Rosemary?”
“She’s not here,” Ellis ground out. “I fucked up. Make sure you don’t put a man like me in one of your rom-coms, when it comes down to it, we’re all selfish idiots.”
“What did you do? Don’t tell me this is because of what happened on theTheo Drake Show? Ellis, you’re an idiot if you put me before her.”
Ellis realised how strange this whole situation was. Discussing his breakup with the woman he’d fake dated, who was so much younger than him yet seemed to be much more put together. Well, maybe she was precisely the right person to discuss it with. She knew what Brody was like.
“Did you know I’m bi?” he began. And Ellis told Jenna all of it. The threats that Brody had made, the reasons he’d taken part in the fake dating scheme, and finally, the footage.
“But what I don’t get is why he didn’t show it to me,” he said.
“He would have, he loves to showboat his manipulations,” Jenna agreed. “Unless…there was no footage.”
Ellis’s world sharpened. “No footage.”
“A bluff, to keep you onside.”
“Shit.” He swallowed the rest of his drink in one go. The alcohol burned down his throat, and anger clenched his muscles. Ellis didn’t feel cold anymore. He had a chance, if he was brave enough to take it.
“Isn’t your brother a lawyer?”
37
“Way too small, where wouldyou keep all your books?” Dina peered at the laptop screen over Rosemary’s shoulder as she made her a cup of rose tea in the small kitchen of Rosemary’s London Airbnb.
“But it’s near a park, and it allows pets. Those are my non-negotiables.” Rosemary sighed. Dina was right, she’d end up drowning in her book collection if she leased that apartment. She closed the tab, clicked on the next one.
“This is the apartment I’m seeing with Immy this afternoon.”
Dina looked it over but didn’t say anything.
“You hate it.”
“No…”
“I do. It looks so cold and clinical. But maybe that’s just the décor.” Rosemary shut the laptop and slumped back on the sofa. “It’s been nearly a week and I haven’t found anywhere. And I know why.” She grimaced.
Dina set the teacup before her and looked up expectantly.
“None of these places come with Ellis. I’ve been so stupid,Dina. I thought he was being selfish, but the more I think about it, the more I understand why he did what he did. I’m still mad about it, but it wasn’t unforgiveable. I flew off the handle, but we should have worked through it.”
“It’s not too late,” Dina said, and squeezed her hand.
“It is. I messed up. I hurt him, and I think it’s too late to repair it. I wish I could.”
Dina offered her a small, secretive smile and poured their tea. The scent of the rosebud tea carried through the air.
“You’ll get through this. You’ve got me and Immy, and that little darling over there.” Dina gestured at Bee, who was busy attacking one of Rosemary’s socks—the sock was winning. Dina couldn’t see her, but beside Bee was her mama, whom Rosemary had affectionately named Cherry. As she’d been packing up her things in Blossom Ridge, she’d noticed that Cherry didn’t watch her other kittens, who had all graduated to farm cats now, as carefully as she watched Bee. Perhaps because Bee was the runt of the litter, her mama needed to make sure she made it through.
Rosemary didn’t have a firm grasp on how animal ghost magic worked, even after Hank, but Cherry seemed to be connected to Bee, so that when Rosemary had brought the ginger kitten over to the UK, Cherry had come along to look after her baby.
Even with her support network, Rosemary still felt unmoored and hollow.
“Is the tea magic?” she asked, hopeful. She needed something to boost her spirits.
“Oh yes, it’s a very powerful love spell.”
“Dina.”
