Page 35 of Wicked Love
“Yeah. I can’t wait to get my shit sorted. Sorry,” she looked up. “Is there anything else you need?”
I shook my head.
“Then I’m going to go home and… well, whatever,” Nadia said. With a wave of her hand, she left.
Every night, I went to Melasina’s. By some unspoken agreement, we didn’t go out. We didn’t meet at a café for coffee. We didn’t go grab a bite for dinner. We met at her house. And every night, something happened. We hadn’t been able to be with one another since the first time. There weren’t even any crazy neighbors with chickens.
It was just life.
Which to me was fate.
Which meant I needed to face my fear.
I called her. “I have to work,” I said. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” I needed a break. The hope of being with her, of being able to take our relationship further, and then seeing my hopes dashed, was wearing.
Not to mention, I was keeping a secret.
“My fear,” I said out loud.
I spent the rest of the night figuring out which fear was bigger, and how I was going to make this right.
I needed my magic back to normal. I needed to tell the truth.
And I needed Melasina.
We hadn’t spent that much time together, but I knew. This was the woman I was supposed to be with. I’d known it since she’d opened the door and shaken my hand the first time I met her.
The next morning, I was up early, and I called her.
“Hi!” Melasina sounded cheerful.
“I have to go out of town,” I said. “I’ll be a couple of days at the most. Then I want to talk to you when I get back.”
She sighed, and I heard an entire conversation in that sigh. “Jasper, if you don’t want to see me anymore, just tell me. There’s no need for an elaborate thing.”
“That’s not it at all, Mel,” I said.
“Why do you call me that?” she asked.
“What?” I replied.
“Mel, when did you start calling me Mel?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just fits you. Why?”
“I haven’t heard you call me that before. So. You were saying? A couple of days?”
“Yes. I have something I need to check out, and it’s out of town.”
Mel sighed again. “All right. I’ll hopefully see you when you get back.”
“You will,” I promised.
“OK,” she said.
Mel hung up.
OK. That felt bad. But I had to do this. I had to see this through, no matter what happened. If I wanted a future in this coven, as a witch, with Mel—this had to be done.
