Page 6 of Witchful Thinking

Chapter Three

Shock hit Lucy like a quick, sharp pain when their eyes connected by the fortune-telling booth. It was like getting a paper cut, a quick slash to her senses, followed by a hurtful throbbing that kept her present. She’d accepted a long time ago that Alex Dwyer wasn’t made for life in the Grove, and she wasn’t seeing him again except for in her dreams. Once in a blue moon, she had one. She’d find herself magically transported into the middle of the ocean on a rowboat and surrounded by nothing but water and sky. There were no oars to help her row to shore. Just when she started to scream for help, Alex would pop up from under the surface. He’d peer at her, his face and chest covered in shimmering scales and shells. He’d look at her with a mixture of interest and wariness. It matched the look he was giving her right now, in real life. Unlike the dream, Lucy was very aware of the heat of his body and the subtle sea-salt scent of his skin. Stupid dream. She stepped to the side, away from the fortune-telling machine. Alex followed her.

“Thanks for helping me out,” Lucy said. “I didn’t want to be the person who broke Madame Zora.”

“No problem.” Alex waved her words away as if it were no big deal. He considered the machine for a moment. “I’m sure she’s seen worse.”

She opened her mouth but then closed it. Her mind ping-ponged thoughts. Is he talking about the senior prank? No, he probably doesn’t ever think of the Grove. Neither of them moved. Lucy came up with various dismissals. It was nice seeing you. Have a good life. See you next lifetime. She wanted to snap those words at him, but good manners and the thought of Nana coming back and haunting her for being rude kept her quiet. Even so, being near him reminded her of the hurt she’d felt when he’d left town mere minutes after graduation ended. She’d eaten a whole bag of fun-sizepeanut butter cups with Ursula and sang to some indie heartbreak songs she heard on MTV. How did the song go? The first cut is the deepest. She’d written countless pages in her notebook and knew there were many words to describe Alexander Owen Dwyer.

Social media demigod. Adventurer. Merman.

But the one she found most fitting was “heartbreaker.”

They’d never officially dated. Being sweet naive teenagers at the time, they weren’t brave enough to put out their bait. It was all the possibilities she saw in Alex that broke her heart. Much like the tea leaves in a cup, Lucy saw fluid visions of the romance that could have been if she had taken a risk with him. Sometimes, he stayed for a week. Other times he stayed until the end of the summer. She always ended up hurt when he left town, which he always did in the visions in her mind. What did Nana tell her constantly? You can’t keep a merman in a fishbowl. This wasn’t the night for regrets, so she pushed them out of her mind. She fixed a polite smile.

“How have you been?” she asked.

“Fine. How long has it been?”

“It’s been a while.”

Eleven years, but who was counting? Another silent, strained pause stretched on between them. They studied each other underneath the neon lights. His once boyish face was now rugged from being outside and in the sun chasing the perfect shot. Alex’s hazel eyes were still piercing, but now they held the coldness of the ocean depths. There were crinkles around them from where he probably squinted behind a camera or into a lens.

His once-recognizable dark-green hair was now dyed black.

His summer suit outlined his solid form, a body that was carved by the ocean’s waves.

Her mind spun in quiet concern. What brought the merman home after all this time?

The last news she’d heard about Alex—via a social media posting—a year ago, he was engaged to be married. The engagement photo had been the typical kiss and hug “she said yes” that populated her feed these days. Back then the news had shocked her. The merman who’d proudly declared to his entire senior class that he wasn’t meant for an ordinary, boring life like everyone else got engaged. Just like everyone else. She scanned his hands, then snapped her eyes up to his face. There was no wedding ring. There wasn’t even a tan line or indentation. Hmm. Apparently, no one had captured the slippery merman yet. He met her stare. Alex watched her carefully, as if he worried she’d disappear into thin air. Ha. She knew that he was probably the one who’d disappear. Mermen could swim an ocean’s length in a matter of a day.

A flash of humor lit his eyes. “If you keep looking at me like that, I might think you like me,” he drawled.

“Can’t have that.” Lucy waved her hand at his words. “Your ego is big enough. How many followers do you have now? Ten million?”

“If only. The last time I checked it was reaching one million.”

Lucy held back a groan. She didn’t have one million of anything—unless you were counting wishes. The gold flecks in his eyes caught the electric lights of the rides. He looked otherworldly, like a flashlight fish using bioluminescence to light its path in the darkness of the ocean. How had he grown more gorgeous over time? Lucky merman.

She must have made an odd expression because Alex asked, “What’s going on in that mind of yours?”

“Nothing.”

“For some reason, I don’t believe you.”

“Believe whatever you want,” she said.

A strained pause went by. “So, how about this weather?” he asked.

What kind of weak sauce was that? Her eyes twitched. “Really, Dwyer? You can do better than that. I believe in you.”

“So, what should we talk about?” Alex asked, his brow furrowed. It was clear from the annoyed vibe he gave off that he wasn’t used to small talk.

“Are you going to the alumni reunion?” she asked.

His face went blank. His mouth opened and closed like a beached fish. He had no clue what the hell she was talking about. Lucy held up her phone, the alumni update email still open.

“Alumni reunion? Quentin’s been sending, like, a dozen emails for the last two months about it.” Alex barely scanned the screen, then looked back at her.

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