Page 76 of Should Our Stars Collide

He turns to Zeke. “Two years ago, you and I were here, together.”

Gabe gasps, clutching his pearls. “Together?”

“Not like that!” Kieran screams. “Jesus. You need help, Gabe.”

“Tell that to Mr. Jealous over here.” He nods at Ash, who is watching Zeke like he’s about to turn him into a carpet.

“Stop it,” Kieran hisses and pokes him in the ribs. Somehow, it works, so he just shakes his head and picks up where he left off. “Sunday, two years ago. The café was closed. We ran into each other. You made me coffee and gave me a bullshit tarot reading, spewed a lot of crap about fate and soulmates. Threatened to cast a love spell on me.”

Zeke’s dumb expression gradually sharpens, realization dawning on him. “Oh.Oh.” He shows his palms. “Oopsie.”

“Oopsie,” Kieran echoes, feeling his blood starting to boil again.

“You know a love spell?” Ellis manages to fixate on the wrong part of the story.

“It’s in my grandma’s grimoire,” Zeke says proudly.

“That’s what he calls a bunch of pages with would-be spells downloaded from the internet and stapled together,” Gabe cuts in.

“Not true!” Zeke protests. “I mean, I did thatbefore.But after Nanna passed away three years ago, I was helping Mum clean out her house and found the grimoire.”

“Wait. You’re a witch?” Ellissqueals.

“He is not,” Gabe says.

“Yes, I am! I cast spells all the time. My garden is blooming?—”

“That’s the fertilizer.”

“—and the summer before last, when we had that extreme drought, I summoned a week of rain!”

“That was cyclone Alfred, which was forecasted.”

“Unfortunately,” Ash cuts in, “Zeke’s right.”

“I am?” Zeke blinks. “I mean, yeah, I am!” Enthusiasm evaporating, he looks at Kieran. “So, what exactly happened?”

“Three days ago, I woke up…here. In the future. And I received a video that I—as in, my future self—recorded for me to explain what happened.”

“And he said that you time-traveled. And that Zeke is the one who caused it,” Gabe double-checks.

“Essentially.”

Zeke decides this is the perfect moment to give himself a pat on the back. “I’m awesome. This is so cool.” He deflates when met with tense silence. “Um…”

“So you sent him to the future?” Ellis asks.

“That wasn’t the plan!” Zeke defends. “I had no idea it would happen like this. It’s just…” He turns to Kieran. “You were so adamant that soulmates don’t exist and that you don’t have one, I wanted to prove you wrong. But the spell must have a mind of its own.”

“So you did cast a love spell.”

“Kinda? I just took that cup you drank from. You know, for DNA.”

“Gross.”

“And when casting the spell, I wished for you to learn the truth.”

Oh no, this doesn’t sound good. “What truth?”