Page 39 of A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love

Until the Store Closes

Pepper

Outside, the wind whirled as if Dorothy herself would be careening by any moment, but inside Take It Cheesy, tucked in a corner booth, it felt as if the outside world didn’t exist at all.

While the place was packed, and the roar of conversations around us rose above the sound of the pop music playing overhead, it was just Christina sitting across from me, blonde hair hanging loose above her shoulders.

She tickled my knee with her fingers under the table.

I pressed my foot up against hers, wishing we had been that couple who sat on the same side of the booth instead of across from each other.

This—being with Christina—had become such an essential part of my life, and now that I’d talked to Mrs.Stein, I had a plan—there was a chance I’d get to stay.

So even with the approaching holiday, I didn’t worry about the after.

I thought about all the things that could be—not how it would all work since I’d essentially been suspended in time.

Those issues didn’t seem as important. There would be nothing we couldn’t overcome together.

If I let my mind wander into negative spaces—like the chance of not being with Christina—it was hard to breathe.

I hadn’t felt this way since even before Mitchell, because Christina was different.

No two relationships could ever be exactly the same, and they shouldn’t be.

They each had their own uniqueness—and with Christina, I had been more myself than I’d ever been before.

Like I’d finally gotten my wings and turned into the butterfly I’d always been underneath.

This was what it must mean to be your true authentic self.

“Have you decided?” I asked, quirking my brows up at Christina.

She shyly shook her head at me. “I really don’t think it’s necessary.”

I gasped—which, to be fair, was mostly for show. I wasn’t actually aghast at her response. “Christina Eleanor Loring, how could you possibly say such a thing? After all we’ve been through.” I clasped my hands over my heart to really push my performance over the top.

“It’s just…” she started. “Won’t it look silly if I dress up, too? Isn’t it the kids’ special day?” She had this adorable look on her face—lips pressed to one side, forehead slightly creased; I wanted to reach across the table and press them out with my thumb.

For a few days now, I’d been asking Christina what she planned to be for Halloween.

Most of the really good costumes at the store were long gone, but it wasn’t completely a lost cause for her.

Plus, it was just plain fun, and with all the hard work she’d been doing, she deserved a little of that.

“Yes, which is why you’re there to support them, and one way to do that is to join in on the festivities. ”

“What if I look silly?”

“That’s the point! It’s a day you can be anything you want to be.”

“I just want to be with you.” She reached across the table and took my hands in hers.

She had painted her nails a combination of orange and black, and I had to give her credit for taking a step in the right direction.

She’d come a long way from when I first met her—that was for sure.

She hadn’t watched any Halloween movies with me yet, but she would get there.

“And I will be there. Every night if you want me to,” I said.

“You have to work, too. I bet those last days before Halloween are your busiest.” She wasn’t wrong about that.

The store would be packed full of people who waited till the last minute to get their costumes or those looking for a deal—even though the deep discounts didn’t come until the day after Halloween.

“It doesn’t matter. I can still be there.” Which was true. As long as no one called out sick, the store was always staffed appropriately, and even if someone did, the store could always find someone else.

“Come over when you close. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And maybe stay the night with me after.” She chewed on her bottom lip, and I wished I could do that for her.

“Absolutely.” I squeezed her hands. “On one condition.”

She narrowed her eyes at me—suspicious as always. I suppressed a laugh.

“You at least wear a witch’s hat or something,” I said.

She tipped her head to the side like she was really considering the idea. “I could be a witch.” She smiled.

“You could.” I nodded.

“And I could get some ruby red shoes to go with my outfit.”

I nodded again. “Now you’re speaking my language. I might even have some you could borrow.”

She laughed. “Because of course you do.”

I had a thing for pretty shoes—like that was a bad thing. “Watch out. I might start rubbing off on you.”

“You’ll know it when I start buying shoes other than black.” Her smile was smug, but she’d come around one day. It would just take time.

“And when you do, I’ll buy you your first pair.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“I hope that’s not the only thing you’ll hold me to.” I winked, and her cheeks flushed red-hot again.

She took a long sip of her ice water and glanced to a table close by full of teens. “Do you think it’s going to rain?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject. Not because she wasn’t interested—those cheeks told me otherwise.

I took a drink of my cherry Coke before answering. “It might.” We were safe and warm, and if we had to hide away in this booth forever, I’d be okay with it. Although a little more privacy would also be nice. “Why do you ask?”

“It just smells like rain.”

I scrunched my brows. “What does that even mean? What does rain smell like?” It wasn’t that I was impervious to the idea that things had a certain odor—like after school, Christina always smelled a little like hand sanitizer, but usually she smelled like roses.

And the Halloween store always smelled a little like rubber from all the masks.

“Worms.” Christina’s voice was so firm, so sure, I almost couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.

“Wait. So is it the rain that smells like worms, or the worms that smell like rain?” I’d never heard this before in my life, and obviously Christina had strong opinions.

She bit her lip, as though pondering my question carefully. “Both.”

I laughed and shook my head. “How do you know this? Do you smell a lot of worms?”

“All the time.” She squeezed my knee, making my foot kick. “No, of course I don’t go around smelling creepy, crawly critters.” She laughed along with me.

“I don’t think you can say that worms crawl.”

“But I can say that they are creepy.”

“They might not be the cutest, but they’re harmless. Unless, of course, they were some kind of mutant worm.”

“That’s what I could be for Halloween. A mutant worm,” she said.

“Now, that’s the spirit.” Mutant worms made me think back to Dad’s favorite Halloween movie of all time. I really needed to watch it again.

She shook her head and laughed even harder. “No.” She kept laughing as the server set our order down in front of us.

With the weather outside so blustery, it was the perfect time for grilled cheese and soup—which was what both Christina and I had ordered.

The difference being the type of grilled cheese.

I went with their cheesy maple bacon, and Christina got the bruschetta grilled cheese.

Between us sat a bowl of tomato soup (which had cheesy croutons, of course) for dipping.

Christina glanced at my sandwich and then at her own.

“You’re having order FOMO, aren’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?”

I pulled my sandwich apart and offered her half. “We could do splitsies.”

She followed my lead, handing me half of her sandwich and then taking my half from me. Her whole face lit up as she took a bite.

“That good?” I asked.

She nodded, making that OMG-this-is-amazing moan. “How do you always know the best thing to order?” she asked around a mouthful.

“It’s my superpower.” I winked. Plus, I’d eaten at this restaurant long enough to have tried just about everything on the menu.

I stared at all the carvings in the booths—it was a time-honored tradition in this town to leave your mark behind—and practically memorized them all.

One day I’d be able to leave my mark without it being erased from existence—and maybe, just maybe, this year would be my last one tethered to that store.

“What are you looking at?” Christina asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I hadn’t even realized I’d been zoning out. “All the names,” I told her, which was true.

Christina bit her lip and smiled, quickly digging in her purse and pulling out a ballpoint pen. She leaned over and used the tip of it to dig into the wood, carving out a little CL + PW with a heart around it. “What do you think?” she asked.

I reached out my hand and took the pen from her, adding a little flower next to it—nothing fancy, just five petals and a swirl in the middle. My own kind of signature to mark the occasion with. “It’s perfect.”

Butterflies danced in my stomach. It was as if Christina had looked inside my soul and done the thing that I’d been dreaming about.

It had to mean that this would all work out.

And now this moment was immortalized—forever imprinted in this place—and that made it all the more real that this was truly it for me.

This had to be a sign that we were going to get our forever.

“I love you,” I said, because I did—it was my truth that I could tell her right now that had nothing to do with breaking curses.

“I love you, too.”