Jennifer Crusie - The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes

‘Yes, Mare,’ Jude said and went back to the office.

Mare turned and crooked her finger at Dreama.

‘What?’ Dreama said as she got closer.

‘So you told Jude about William and the rope,’ Mare said.

Dreama flushed again. She put her hands behind her back and stuck her chin out, trying for innocence and missing by a mile. ‘He was asking me things and I just told him. It slipped out. He’s so gorgeous, Mare, don’t you just want to tell him everything?’

‘No,’ Mare said. And neither do you. You almost got William fired.’

‘Yes, but then you could be manager,’ Dreama said.

‘So you had a long talk with Jude,’ Mare said severely.

Dreama leaned closer. ‘You’d be a much better manager, Mare. You really would. William hates being manager.’

‘So would I. Listen to me.’ Mare fixed her with a steely gaze. ‘Do not tell Jude anything else. Ever. We are us and they are them. Got it?’

Dreama looked annoyed. ‘Then how are you ever going to get a promotion? You said you were gonna be queen of Value Video!! Well, you’re gonna need a promotion for-’

‘I changed my mind,’ Mare said, equally annoyed because she didn’t know what the hell she was doing, either. ‘Queens of the Universe do not get into ruts, Dreama. They stay fluid and unpredictable-’

The door chime rang and Mare turned to smile and then sucked in her breath, like a punch to the stomach. He stood there, tall and dark and blue-eyed as ever, the dusty Tuscan sunlight behind him, and Mare thought he was a hallucination and almost had words with her frontal lobe until Dreama said, ‘Oh, my,’ and then she put up her hand to ward him off and knocked over the stack of DVDs, scattering them all over her nice, tidy desktop.

‘Hello, Mare,’ he said and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking pretty much exactly the way he’d looked five years before when she’d been so in love with him that the world had tilted sideways every time she’d looked at him. ‘Uh, I’m back.’ He waited a minute while she stood breathless, speechless, and then he said, ‘You gonna say anything?’

‘Hello, Crash,’ Mare said, hating it that her voice cracked, and then she went toward him and all that sunlight, which wasn’t easy because the world was tilting again.

Xan put the shallow silver bowl in front of the see glass, now a mirror on her silver-paneled wall. As she reached to take down a gilded box from the shelf beside it, the angle of light changed and she caught her own reflection. The light of day wasn’t kind to a woman at midlife, she thought.

She looked closer. Even with magic and plastic surgery, the skin lost elasticity. Last night Vincent had leaned close to her, his tux immaculate in the low light of the restaurant, his white hair perfectly styled, and said, ‘We should always dine by candlelight,’ and she’d been fairly sure there’d been a snicker in his voice.

But then, Vincent was such a bastard. A gorgeous one if you liked graying distinguished men who could have headed the cast of an eighties television show, and adequately talented in bed if you liked choreography and a man who kept looking in the mirror admiring his own technique, but his charm was wearing thin. Thank God she was almost done with him. She was going to take a great deal of pleasure in casting Vincent aside, especially in front of everyone in their social circle, all those smirkers who’d watched last night while he’d flirted with a very young brown-haired witch named Jennifer, whose weight seemed to be entirely concentrated in her bust and her behind, which was evidently where she kept her brains if she thought Vincent was a catch. Xan had smiled, outwardly amused but inwardly seething that the moron would humiliate her in her own circle. It shouldn’t matter what any of them thought, she was the most powerful of all of them, they were just her court…

She had been the most powerful of all of them.

Age, she thought. Age brings wisdom. Who the hell wants wisdom?

Youth and power. That was-

Somebody sneezed behind her and she jerked back. ‘Sweet hell, Maxine, how did you get in here again?’

‘The portal-’

‘I closed the portal.’

‘Well, there was a little crack of light and I kind of-’ I’m going to have you killed and stuffed. ‘What do you want, Maxine?’

‘Oh. Right. Well, it’s coming up on Friday night. Martinis would really sell-’

‘Maxine, you will do nothing to call attention to yourself or the diner until Monday.’ Xan put down the gilt box and began to wave her hand.

‘No!’ Maxine said, waving both of hers. ‘Wait! I have news! There’s a new video store guy named Jude. He’s your guy for Mare, right?’

‘Yes?’ Xan said, stopping in mid-wave.

‘Well, he’s really cute,’ Maxine said. ‘Looks just like Jude Law. But the one everybody is talking about is the writer guy on the motorcycle. Ohmigod. Dee won the hottie lottery with that one.’

‘Thank you,’ Xan said icily.

‘Haven’t seen the third one. Lizzie’s.’

Elric. He made Vincent look like a roadie for a boy band. ‘He’s there.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ Maxine hesitated.

Xan sighed. ‘What is it, Maxine?’

‘Well, I really don’t know what’s good stuff to tell you and what isn’t. It would help if I knew what these guys were doing in town.’

Xan thought about turning Maxine into a rabbit now, but she needed her. ‘All right.’

Maxine came closer, glancing at the silver bowl and the liquid simmering there, probably avid to ask what it was but wisely keeping her mouth shut. Even Maxine has a learning curve.

Xan smiled at her. ‘I am concerned about my nieces, so I have cast a spell to bring them their True Loves.’

Maxine’s mouth dropped open. ‘You can do that?’ Xan looked at her, and Maxine nodded like a bobble-head doll. ‘Of course you can do that, you can do anything, but I mean, geez, do you know what kind of money you could make doing that for real? I mean, people would pay hundreds of dollars for that kind of stuff’

‘Right, Maxine,’ Xan said. ‘Hundreds of dollars. May I go on?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Maxine said. ‘This is good stuff.’

‘I’m afraid that just bringing the men into Salem’s Fork won’t be enough. The girls are very stubborn. So I have to keep an eye on the way their romances are going.’ I have to make sure that Dee knows Danny hates magic so that she’ll give her power up to me. I have to make sure that Elric takes Lizzie’s power from her because she’s too dangerous and gives it to me. And I have to make sure that Mare discards her magic for earthly power so that I can take it for myself. ‘You know how easily young girls can throw away good men through inexperience.’

‘I know.’ Maxine’s face crumpled. ‘My Boyd. If I could do it all over again-’

‘I’m sure,’ Xan said. ‘So we’re keeping an eye on Dee and Danny, Lizzie and Elric, and Mare and Jude.’

‘Lizzie and who?’

‘Elric,’ Xan said. ‘He’s probably not going to be outside much. Tall, blond, beautiful, you’ll know him if you see him.’

‘Wow,’ Maxine said. ‘You sure are good to your nieces.’

‘Yes,’ Xan said. ‘I sure am.’

She turned back to the see glass where Danny was heading for the bank; inside Dee was bent over her desk. Lizzie was at the kitchen sink, doing dishes; Xan sighed for a woman so lacking in passion that she’d do dishes alone in a house with Elric. And Mare was heading for the diner, probably meeting Jude there for lunch; who could resist a movie-star-handsome boss who’d just offered her the promotion of her dreams?