Eddie fidgeted in his chair, pen poised over the dotted line. Once he signed the paperwork, he’d have nothing left to distract him from the young woman on the other side of the desk.
Which meant a conversation would happen.
Why oh why had he let their mutual friend talk him into testing this new love potion?
Jacob nudged the Joint Venture’s harvesting controls, unable to hide his grin of triumph. “Fifteen. I win!”
“Cheater. Four of those were clustered together.” Seelia’s scowl didn’t hold, and her matching grin prompted a warm glow somewhere between his clavicle and navel. She sprang up from her control chair
The last wild guitar note faded from the hall. I let my leafy green shoulders relax, glad to be done with rehearsal for the day.
“Hey, nice work today, Tommo,” I said to my turnip drummer.
He clicked his drumsticks together and pointed them at me. “You too, buddy.”
“We’ve got this,” my guitarist Johnny Broccoli said. “We’re totally ready!”
Fading sunlight tinged the clouds vivid orange and pink as I settled down upon the rock.
To wait.
However long it took.
The blue moon had come again, and I was determined. This time, I would find her. This time, I wouldn’t let her slip away without me.
He didn’t see me watching him. Even if he’d noticed, he would have assumed I was flirting rather than reading his mind.
I climbed off the bar stool and followed him. I couldn’t allow him to make it back to his apartment. Once he crossed the threshold of his hallowed abode, I’d have to be welcomed inside.
It was a beautiful day on the shore. The sun was shining bright, the waves were gently tumbling, gulls were staying at a pleasant distance, and I was having an ideal time sunbathing, when it was all rudely interrupted by a loud, “Hey look. It’s a mermaid!”
I pushed myself up onto my tail and scanned the beach.
2491.5.31
Ship status: green
Biodome status: green
Pods status: green
Current database scan: Botany and biochemistry
Estimated remaining time: 27,392,520 days to planetfall.
Water laps under the pier. It’s a new moon, leaving the night dark. Ropes chafe my wrists—like guitar strings against my fingers, but harsh as the bad memory of yesterday, when this all began.
Busking on the corner near Brown’s Bar, I was getting good Saturday-afternoon tips from sailors off some freighters that’d just come in.
“Francis, I’m trying to work. Can’t this whole groom thing wait until I’ve finished this project?” Doctor Stein rubbed his forehead, then looked up at Francis, who still stood in front of him, her hands clenched together.
“Oh, please!” Francis raised her lopsided eyebrows and drooped her lower lip.
Lorraine banged on the witch’s front door until her fists hurt, crying and calling her name. It finally flew open, and Jessamine jerked her inside.
“You have to give me more!” Lorraine sobbed. “It’s wearing off!”
“Child, I told you, love spells are temporary. You can’t bend the heart forever, and you can’t stop true love.”
There’s this girl who gets on the same bus as me. She sits in the second seat from the door. She makes every morning beautiful, whether it is or not. And she turns my world into music.
Boom ba-doh badoodle-ay—the bus slows to a stop and the doors open—shhhh-boom—then close—shhh-boom—again.
“If you don’t mind, Ellie,” Mr. Hill smiled pleasantly, again. “I’d rather not say anything more unless you’ve signed the non-disclosure agreement.”
An NDA seemed extreme as a requirement for a nannying job. But then, many things about this position were odd.
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