Page 2 of The Heartbreak Hex

“Sure,” she replies, stepping down from the cauldron, her long wooden spoon continuing to stir by itself. “How long will you be out?”

“I’m not sure actually,” I say, still feeling a little worried. What if it’s not about the Ball? “Harry needs to talk about something.”

Gretchen frowns as I say my boyfriend’s name. She doesn’t like him and has a hard time not showing it. She always says that I can do better and that it’s not right that we’ve been dating for five years and he still hasn’t proposed or even asked me to behis mate. I just think some people take more time than others. Harry’s always been a little skittish of commitment and I don’t mind waiting.

“C’mon Gretchen. It won’t be all day.”

My twin just shakes her head, but says, “I can watch the store. Go do what you’ve gotta do.”

“Thanks, Gretchen,” I smile. “I owe you one.”

∞∞∞

“YOU'RE BREAKING UP with me?” I practically screech, decorum totally forgotten, even though we’re sitting in the middle of a public park. Mummies and daddies push their babies in strollers, giving me the side-eye, but I can’t bring myself to care.

“Keep your voice down, ‘Trudes,” Harry winces, his eyes looking this way and that at the passersby. He never was one for a scene.

Fighting to modulate my voice, I say, “Seriously, Harry, tell me you’re joking. You’re breaking up with me afterfive years? What the hell?”

Harry’s lips twist slightly and he shrugs. “Well, you’re never home . . .”

“I’m working, Harry! I have a business to run. I put a roof overbothour heads and food on the table, so that you can chase your passions. What’s so wrong with that?”

The werewolf just shrugs again. “I get lonely okay? You’re gone all the time and even when you’re home it’s like you’re still at the store. You’re always planning and preparing. You don’t have time for a boyfriend anymore.”

His words sting, but something about his complaint sticks out and makes my blood run cold. “Who is she, Harry?”

“What?” He looks a little freaked out. “There’s no one else, I swear. It’s just you’re gone all the time . . .”

But I don’t let him distract me. “No way, Harry Moonkin. I know you. You’re never ‘lonely’ for long. So, who is she?”

Looking chagrined, my now-ex-boyfriend sighs. “Look, nothing’s happened yet, okay? I wouldn’t do that to you. But I’ve been talking to Calliope Aetos . . .”

“The medusa?” I almost shriek again, but barely stop myself. He’s been talking to the monster that made my life hell in high school? The betrayal cuts deep. I can feel tears pricking at the backs of my eyes, but I’ll be hexed before I cry in front of the dirtbag who, at the very least, has had an emotional affair with my childhood bully.

Harry doesn’t even have the grace to look ashamed. “We have a connection, okay? I think I have feelings for her. She might be my mate.”

He might as well have stabbed me.His mate? After I’ve been with him for five years, supporting him, never pushing. But a medusa he’s been “talking to” might be his mate?

“How long?” I choke out, still holding onto my tears. “How long have you been ‘talking’ to her?”

“Don’t say it like that, ‘Trudes . . .”

“Don’t call me ‘Trudes,” I snap icily, my anger helping me to keep from falling apart. “‘Trudes is the gods-awful nickname my boyfriend gave me and you’re not him anymore.”

“You don’t like my nickname for you?” he asks, sounding hurt.

Oh, screw him.

“Focus, Harry. How long?” I demand. I’m not going to let him change the subject.

Now he has the decency to look a bit sheepish. “Only a month . . .”

“A month!” I exclaim, the words feeling like glass in my mouth. Somehow a month seems like too long and not enough. Not only has he been talking to another woman behind my back for a whole month, but he’s also willing to throw away everything that we have for a month’s worth of “conversations.”

I think I might be sick.

“Look,” he says, standing up, “‘Trudes . . . I mean, Gertrude, what we had was great, but we’ve grown apart and I’ve got to look out for myself, alright? My own happiness. And right now, Calliope looks like the way for me to be happy.”

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