Page 16 of Witch Please

In fact, they were descended from Aradia, a goddess who gave magic to her followers, different gifts for different lines. Mundanes had managed to get a glimmer of the truth, but they always dragged Lucifer into it, possibly because the idea that a goddess could have accomplished anything on her own troubled them.

Sighing, Danica took a bite and stole a look at Titus’s unbelievably perfect profile. The slope of his nose was a thing of beauty, such a weird trait for her to notice.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

Danica nodded. To keep from lying to him, she chose an alternate truth. “Remember the day we met?”

“It would be hard to forget. The blender you were working on betrayed you.”

That was my magic. But yeah.

“Probably because I was a bit hungover.” Quickly she explained the circumstances—about Raquel and Darryl and the bachelorette party. “It’s not that Iwanteda future with him, but he spent two years telling me how much of a free spirit he was. A few months later, he proposes to someone else? Yikes.”

Titus had been eating silently, listening. “Are you…not over him?”

“I was never under him,” Danica said quickly. “I mean, Iwas, but—”

“Why don’t I stop you there? I’m asking if your heart still belongs to him and that’s why you were upset to hear he’s marrying someone else.”

She laughed. “Oh hell no. It’s a hundred percent a smudge on my pride.”

“Okay, but you were frowning hard just now, when I asked what was bothering you. And if you’re still thinking about this—”

“Mostly, I wish I wasn’t this petty. A truly enlightened person would’ve skipped the bachelorette party entirely.”

“Whereas you went and drank too much to prove how little you care,” he guessed.

“You already know me so well.” That was alarming.

Titus smiled, an expression so sweet that it made her breath catch. That look was irresistible; she wanted to kiss the hell out of him. Instead, she held eye contact a little too long, felt heat in her cheeks, and ducked her head to finish her sandwich in embarrassed bites.

“I’d like to know you better,” he said, low.

Yes. No.

That was a wonderful, terrible idea. All the reasons she shouldn’t go further raced through her head. Gram’s disapproval and Clem’s disappointment, not to mention risking her magic… Then she recalled how the coven seemed to support some low-key rebound action.Don’t I deserve a reward? Something just for me.

Her mouth went off like a fire alarm. “I’d love that. What did you have in mind?”

Titus shotgunned the green juice as if it were tequila to give him liquid courage, and then he said in a rush, “Would you go out with me? On a proper date.”

“How proper are we talking? Do I need a corset? Stockings with lines on the back?”

His nervous look eased into genuine amusement. “Wear whatever you want. The important bit is that you agree to have dinner with me. Or a movie. Or bowling. Or—”

“Dinner and bowling,” she cut in.

Oh crap, I’m really doing this. Why aren’t you from a witch family?But even knowing that this had to end couldn’t keep Danica from wading into dangerous waters. The heart had no common sense at all.

“Friday night?”

That was in two days, long enough for her to fret over the decision but not back out.Hell, it’s one date. I should worry less and live in the moment.

Belatedly, she realized Titus was waiting for a response. “Yes, I think I’m free. I’ll text you my address. How was the juice?”

“Good,” he said so quickly that she suspected he hadn’t tasted it at all, just swallowed it like medicine.

She peeled the orange she had brought with her today, focused on keeping the skin in one piece. She had read that if she did this, it would make her lucky in love. The peeling ripped before she got it off entirely, and she tried not to take it as a dire omen.

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