Page 98 of Magical Melee

I chuckled and shook my head.

No. I was growing as a human being. I wouldn’t stoop to magical shenanigans. Like some of the passages I read overnight, I couldn’t get caught up in the lives of people who no longer got caught up in mine.

With that thought, I drew a deep breath, stared at the keyboard, and punched in the first few letters.

I have a favor to ask. Can you please include our daughter in your Thanksgiving plans? My lifeis a little uncertain, and I want her to feel like life is normal for her or as normal as it can be when her two parents divorce at a big moment in her life.

He wrote back almost instantly.

I’m headed to Hawaii.

I rolled my eyes.

“Of course you are,” I muttered and wrote back the obvious.

Then take her with you. I don’t want to have to remind you that you didn’t help to move her on her big day at college.

A few seconds later, I received his text.

Fine. I’ll be in touch with her this afternoon once my assistant gives me the flight details for her.

See? We can be civil. I slid over the emojis, picked the perfect one, and smiled as my thumb quickly accepted and sent it.

An instant message appeared from him.

Nice, Maeve. Grow up.

I gasped at his response.

Grow up?

I’d been the mature one in the relationship our entire marriage.

Grow up?

Who the heck did he think he was?

And then I saw it. My traitor of a thumb sent him the one-finger salute.

But that was impossible. That emoji wasn’t in my recently used. I never sent that to anyone.

I stood and walked over to the pedestal, trying to catch the light to see my screen better. That emoji wasn’t in my current rotation. It was at least four pages back in the emoji bin.

I chuckled, feeling an odd sense of accomplishment.

Was it magic?

No, it couldn’t be that simple…could it?

I keep thinking about things and other things happen.

Although I thought long and hard about Nova and Stella last night, and they showed up.

Maybe I was onto something.

I quickly responded with a quick apology, saying that I never meant to send that particular emoji and hoped for the best.

But it got me thinking.