Once Upon Stilettos - Page 116/125

“You went out with Rod, didn’t you?” Ari asked.

“Yeah, but that’s not who I ended up with.” I took a deliberate bite of my sandwich as they all leaned forward with great interest.

“Who did you end up with?” Isabel prodded.

I finished chewing, swallowed, then took a sip of my drink. “Well, I left Rod pretty early, and as I was heading home, I ran right into Owen, and let me tell you, he really loosens up away from work.”

“Owen?” Ari blurted. I had to bite my tongue to keep from grinning. She’d taken the bait.

“Yeah, it was the weirdest thing. He’s so shy and reserved at work, but Friday night, well, he was very, very different. I don’t know what came over him. Anyway, let’s just say I now have a date for the party Friday night.”

The others congratulated me, but I thought I saw steam coming out of Ari’s ears. Round one seemed to have gone to the illustrious team of Palmer and Chandler.

On my way back from lunch, I ran into Rod in the hallway. Even though I knew the truth about what had happened, that didn’t make me any more eager to see him. It didn’t help that my immunity still wasn’t back, so I saw the illusion that played a central role in my most cringe-inducing flashbacks. He must not have felt much better about it than I did, for he merely nodded at me as he passed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his real face for a fraction of a second, and I was fairly sure he had a split, swollen lip. I suspected it had something to do with the bruises on Owen’s knuckles.

Then I reminded myself that it wasn’t his fault. I stopped, turned around, and said, “Rod?”

He stopped walking, stood motionless for a long moment, then finally turned around, his face totally still, like he was guarding his feelings.

I took a deep breath. “Look, about the other night. It wasn’t your fault. Both of us were under a spell.” I never thought I’d be in a situation where I’d have to give the “we were both drunk” speech, but he looked like his mood was lifting ever so slightly, so I kept going. “Even worse, I knew I was susceptible to being enchanted, which you didn’t know, so it’s probably more my fault than it is yours. I should have realized something was going on.”

He gave me a wry, sad smile. “I guess we were both pretty stupid. I should never have put us in that position. You’re my friend, and I shouldn’t have crossed that line.”

“So we’re still friends?”

“Yeah, we’re still friends—if you still want me as a friend.”

“I do,” I said, realizing that I truly meant it. Rod had his problems, but he was basically a good guy.

He gave me a goofy smile that would have been a lot more at home on his real face than it was on his illusion. “I’m glad. I really like you.” He winced, then clarified, “And by ‘like’ I mean like a friend, not anything else.”

“I know what you mean,” I hurried to assure him. “And I like you, too—in the same way.”

He stepped forward with his arms open to hug me, but just before we made contact, I felt the draw of his attraction spell and took a quick step back. “Uh, maybe we’d better not go there,” I said. “Not until I’m back to normal. We don’t want to risk going through this all over again.”

He took an even larger step backward. “Good idea.”

I felt like we still needed some way to seal the deal, so I stepped forward to where he was just within reach and gave him an awkward punch on his shoulder, like my brothers did to each other when they wanted to be affectionate but were too macho for bodily contact that didn’t look violent. “Well, see you around,” I said.

I turned to go, but he called after me. “Katie?” I looked back over my shoulder. “Thanks,” he said. “This makes me feel a lot better.”

“Me, too.” I fought for a carefree grin. “Give us a few weeks, and we’ll probably be laughing about it.”

Owen came to my office later that afternoon. “I got the test results back on the water at your building,” he said. “We were right, you were being drugged. We’re getting something done about that, but in the meantime, don’t drink the water.”

“I think I’m already getting the immunity back, just little flashes every so often, but it is coming back. And you didn’t have to hit Rod.”

He turned red and rubbed his bruised knuckles. “Just carrying through on a promise I made him a while ago. He should have known better, spell or not.”