Page 23 of A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love

Until the Store Closes

Christina

While I haven’t been as committed to my fitness routine lately, my mind won’t stop racing with thoughts about the old teacher, those little flowers, the haunted house and everything that needs to be done, and of course what my sister and I talked about—Pepper.

Emily wants me to invite her to her engagement party, which feels like a giant step.

Sure, we’d been out a couple of times, but meeting the entire family?

Which is why I find myself shoving my duffle bag into a locker at Soul Sweat Wellness Center this morning before work—to get my sweat on and to (hopefully) take my mind off all of this, at least for a little while.

It was the reason I got the membership to begin with—to attempt to disconnect from things.

And since they take money out of my account every month for this place anyway, I might as well use it more often than I have, too.

One good thing about being here this early is that there isn’t any waiting to use the machines.

My first stop is the ellipticals to warm up, and there on one of them is Pepper.

Her dark hair pulled up into a high ponytail, swinging back and forth with the movement of the machine.

She’s in bright pink leggings and a sports bra, and she has already worked up a nice sweat, which glistens on her body like glitter under the gym lights.

I am 100 percent not mentally prepared to see her—not that I don’t want to see her.

Did she notice me when I walked in? Should I risk it and leave now?

My sister’s voice echoes through my head—ask her—and I’m definitely not ready for that.

But I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t nice to see her.

Soul Sweat isn’t a very large gym, and she’ll for sure notice me just standing around, so I carefully climb onto the machine next to hers and lean forward to catch her eye.

She pulls out one of her earbuds. “Oh, hey. Working out before work?” It’s the first time I’ve seen her fresh-faced—meaning without any makeup—and even without the eye shadow and perfectly tinted bronzer, she is stunning.

“Yeah. I used to be better about it, but lately…” I grimace. This is the first time she is seeing me without makeup, too. And unlike her, I need help in the eyebrows and eyelashes department. Being blonde has its drawbacks in that regard for sure.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you in here before.” She holds up her earbud. “Then again, I kind of just tune out.” Her legs are still moving at a good pace, but she isn’t even remotely breathless.

“I do whatever I can to distract myself from being on this thing.” I click a few buttons on the machine and get it going. “I’ve thought about taking up yoga.”

“I don’t really love cardio either.”

“You could’ve fooled me. You make this look easy.” I laugh, or try to. I’m already feeling it in my legs, and I just got started. Ugh. Kill me now.

“So tell me something. To keep our minds off of this.” She glances down at the display. She must’ve gotten here right when they opened.

“About what?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “You’re a teacher, right? I’m sure there are stories that go along with that.”

I nod. “That’s very true.” But the only story that races to the front of my mind is the one that Eli told the other night—the one that has to do with where she works.

Will Pepper see the humor in it? If she doesn’t, I risk her avoiding me for the rest of time—which means I wouldn’t be able to ask her to my sister’s party.

Call it a risk or self-sabotage, but either way I launch into the tale.

I don’t do nearly as good a job explaining it, but Pepper has a smile on her face as I go on, which has to be a good thing.

And when I get to the part about them all being demons, she straight up bursts out laughing—the sound of it buzzing through me like electricity.

A shot of caffeine straight to my soul, and I’m already addicted and need to hear it again.

“I’d heard the store was run by demons, but that we’re all demons is kind of hysterical. I can’t wait to share this with the team.”

“It is funny, isn’t it?” The resistance level on my machine kicks up, and I have to push harder with my legs.

Pretty soon I won’t even be able to speak; I’ll be breathing too hard.

At least the exercise is making my heart race and helps keep my anxiety about talking to Pepper at bay—like my body can’t recognize it as anxiety anymore, just as physical activity.

“Do you believe at all in anything supernatural?” Pepper asks. “I promise I’m not a demon if you think that’s where this is going.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Wouldn’t only a demon say something like that?”

“It’s possible.” She plays along with my joke, which is nice in that she seems to really get my humor even though we barely know each other. Not everyone does.

I’ve never actually thought long and hard about it. “I don’t believe in vampires or werewolves or anything like that. Mostly just because the idea that they could be real is terrifying.”

“That’s fair.” She nods.

“But I suppose I’m open to the idea of, like, loved ones watching over you, and fur babies crossing a rainbow bridge somewhere. What about you?”

She takes a moment—her head tipping side to side like she’s considering her answer.

“I believe there are things that happen that we can’t always explain, things that seem impossible,” she says.

“People will sometimes call things fate, or karma, or say that the universe has its way, but they are all in some way saying that they believe in magic. So I guess that’s the long way of saying that I guess I do believe. ”

“I’d never thought of it like that before, but I think you’re right. Someone cuts us off in traffic and then a couple minutes later we end up passing them and think, karma. But it is kind of like magic, isn’t it?”

“Are you, Christina Loring, saying that you believe in magic?” Pepper raises her brows at me.

“I suppose I’m saying that if you would’ve asked me that before, I would’ve said no, but the way you’ve put it now, I’d say that it’s something I’d consider is all.”

Pepper smiles. “I’m getting you to come over to the dark side, aren’t I? Soon you’re going to be saying how you love Halloween.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself now. I’m just saying I would entertain the idea of nice magic.” But definitely not the dark kind—again, too scary.

“Wait, so now there’s nice and not nice magic?”

“You’re the demon; you tell me.”

And then we’re both laughing, which is really hard to do on an elliptical machine. Sweat creeps down the side of my face, and I use my towel to brush it away.

“Now it’s your turn,” I tell her.

“What?”

“To tell me a story. Or not a story. Just anything.” Now the incline on the machine rattles upward, and my quads start to scream at me. “This is brutal.”

“My fiancé died,” Pepper says, and I almost fall off the elliptical.

“Oh my—”

“Not recently or anything. It’s been”—she glances up at the ceiling—“wow, it’s been a while now. And I’m fine. We’d had a great time together, and part of me will always miss him, but I’ve never really talked about it. Which is weird, right? It’s weird.”

“Grief is a weird thing.” For the past few years right before the holidays, I think that’s what I’ve been feeling, although my gram just passed away this year. Could the universe—or magic—have been trying to prepare me before I have to deal with this upcoming holiday season without her?

“That it is. My mom…she just lost it when it happened, and then I think I felt the need to be strong for her. Like she was crying so much, I thought if I cried, it would make it worse for her—so I didn’t.”

“You didn’t cry?”

“Maybe a little.” Pepper shrugs. “But she was devastated, and I had to hold it together for her,” she says. “Too deep for an elliptical conversation?”

“No. This is good. I barely even notice that I’m working out anymore.

” I lean on my machine and let my tongue hang out of my mouth for a minute, which makes Pepper chuckle.

“I know I’ve already mentioned my family to you before, and they’re…

complicated, too. So I get it. It’s kind of why I moved.

I had this great job and it paid me a lot, but I hated it and my family doesn’t understand how I could walk away from something I worked so hard for. ”

“Yeah, it seems like the more okay I was, the less okay my mom was. Like she took it personally.” Pepper shakes her head. “Why do parents do this? Can’t they let us live our own lives?”

“It would be nice if they did, wouldn’t it?”

“For sure.”

“When I have kids one day, I swear I’m not going to do this to them.”

She tips her head to the side. “You want to have kids?”

For a long time I didn’t think I wanted to, but maybe since I’m getting older, or maybe because of all the time I’ve been spending around teens, I’ve been warming up to the idea a little. “Maybe. If I meet the right person.”

She nods but doesn’t say anything. The thrum of the machines and the music playing overhead fill the space between us.

It’s not the usual comfortable silence that sits between us but something a little tenser.

Did I say something wrong? I’ve never asked her if she has any kids.

Maybe she did and they died with her fiancé? Oh shit.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped.”

“Oh, no.” She shakes her head. “Nothing like that. Was I being weird?”

“No. You just kind of had this look.”

She grimaces. “Sorry.”

“If I had a dollar for every time I felt like I was acting weird…Well, I’d have a lot of dollars.” Finally the resistance and the incline let up, and my pace increases for a moment before I slow myself down.

“If it means anything, I don’t think you’re weird at all. At least not in a bad way. Everyone is a little weird,” she says.

“So there’s a good way to be weird?” I ask.

“I think so.”

“This I have to see.”

Pepper raises her brows at me. “Challenge accepted. When you’re free next, let me take you somewhere.”

“You want to take me out?”

She nods. “I do.”

My heart speeds up again even though my workout isn’t as hard. “It won’t be scary, will it?”

“Do you trust me?”

I slow down so much, I’m barely moving. Pepper’s gaze is locked on mine like she isn’t worried that she could fall off that machine at any moment even though she’s not paying attention.

It’s not like I know her very well, but she makes me feel relaxed.

I can talk to her in a way I’m not usually able to talk to anyone.

As weird as it may seem, she makes me feel safe.

“Okay, then. You’re going to take me somewhere, and I’m just going to trust you. ”

She smiles—the simple act lighting up her entire face. “Don’t worry, I got you.”