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I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and forced the sudden tears back. It was stupid and I knew it. It wasn’t like the cat was being shipped off to the moon on some rocket. He was just going home where he belonged, and I could visit him anytime I wanted to.

Something about the whole thing wasn’t sitting right with me though.

Nothing seemed right to me anymore.

Up was down.

Down was up.

And who the fuck knew what was in between?

I cleared my throat and bravely asked, “He’s running out of time, isn’t he?”

I refused to look at him. I didn’t want to see the horrible truth in Dash’s eyes. For once in my life, I actually wanted a man to lie to me.

“I can’t know these things for certain, but I’d advise you to make sure you spend some time with him within the next few weeks. Just to be safe.”

I nodded, acknowledging that I understood him, but I refused to verbally recognize anything he was saying to me. I didn’t think I could actually speak around the lump forming in the center of my throat, threatening to choke me.

Dash walked into the room. He carefully sidestepped multiple packages to get to me, then he bent down, cupped my cheek, and kissed me on the forehead.

“Love you, beautiful,” he murmured, and then he was gone.

I wanted to fucking cry, but I didn’t. I choked down my tears and swallowed back my emotions.

Then I hauled my ass up off the floor. I walked through the apartment and down the stairs where I stopped. I placed my palms flat against the door and closed my eyes so I could concentrate.

It took less than a minute to place the spell on the door, and then when I was done, I went back upstairs. Dash would be allowed entrance because he lived here. The only other people who’d be let in for the next twenty-four hours would be the salt and pepper twins.

Quinton was going to go bat shit, and Tyson was lucky he wasn’t being barred for the rest of the month. Everybody else would just have to get the hell over it.

I hoped Rain didn’t show up, because that could get a whole lot of messy. I wouldn’t put it past Quinton to call my dad just to stick it to me. He was cool like that.

I decided to set everything up before I started cooking, that way I had nothing to worry about at the last minute. Dash leaving was really quite perfect for my evening plans for tonight. I had wondered what to do with him. It wasn’t like I could ask him to leave his own apartment, and I hadn’t been planning on asking him to join us. Thankfully he’d solved my problem for me without even knowing it.

I dug through the boxes until I found everything I needed for the table. I’d gone with black, white, and yellow for the theme for the night. Clearly, in a moment of what had been insanity, I’d thought it would be cute if I mixed all of our colors together. Now I thought it was super cheesy, and I hoped neither of my twins noticed just how ridiculous I had become in my need to be romantic.

The table runner I spread across the length of the table was gauzy, white, delicate, and very pretty. It was super freaking girly, and if the twins took notice, they were probably going to laugh their crazy asses off at my expense.

I set up several tall, glass cylinder vases on the table runner and placed black and yellow pillar candles inside them.

I placed a vase twice the size of the ones that held candles in the center of the table after filling half of it with water from the sink, and then I placed a matching vase on the kitchen counter after filling the bottom half with water as well.

I filled the vases with a mix of white and light purple roses I’d ordered online. I knew the guys wouldn’t care about the roses either, but I thought they were beautiful, and once I found out I could buy them on the internet without leaving my house, I couldn’t say no, and now I worried I’d be buying myself a bunch of flowers at least once a week. Unless some stupid boy got a clue and bought them for me. I’d much rather pick them out for myself, though, because then I’d get exactly what I wanted.

So far, the place looked great, if a little girly. I ignored that little fact and got back to work.

I set three places at the table with new china that had come today. I put out water glasses and wine glasses at each space. I filled my two fancy little ice buckets with ice and placed them on the table. I placed a bottle of wine inside one and a glass bottle of sparkling water inside the other.

I set cloth napkins beside the plates, which had taken me forever to fold just right, and I placed the silverware on top of them. The silverware was the only thing I hadn’t bought brand new and decided to just use what we already had here in the apartment.

The table was pure perfection, and the only time I had ever eaten with a table so pretty before had been that insane dinner the Council hosted behind the motel.

If it didn’t make the twins feel special, at least I knew I’d enjoy eating here.

I turned my phone on, hooked the Bluetooth up to the speakers in the living room, and hit shuffle on myNashvilleplaylist. It was the latest television show I had become obsessed with, and the soundtrack for each season was incredible.

I heard shouting coming from the bottom of the stairs and turned the volume up even louder.