Page 41 of Love, Magic and Misfortune
Rose turned, smirking. “Well?”
“You looking to start a fight?”
“No.” Rose laughed. “I don’t know why you think you can hide anything from me. You never could. You should have him sit for you—”
“Jasper wouldneversit for me and let me paint him. Bah.”
Rose raised her eyebrow. “If he’s anything like he was when you were both little, I think Jasper would do just about anything for you. The two of you were inseparable.”
“No.” Violet shook her head, resolute. “We’re rekindling our friendship, but he keeps me at arm’s length. There are some hard boundaries established and if I broach them, he gets prickly with me, fast. It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Hm. I’m not convinced.”
Violet’s work phone buzzed on the table. Against her better judgement, she flipped it over and casually leaned to look at the screen, watching the messages pop up in succession.
[Karen: What are we doing for the holiday party?]
[Karen: It’s already November 23rd!]
[Karen: Should we just book a restaurant?]
[Karen: That sounds expensive…]
[Karen: What if we got a food truck?]
[Karen: We could do a thing in my backyard.]
[Karen: I know a guy and we can rent heaters?]
Rose lifted her chin, gesturing toward the journal in Violet’s hands. “Why are you looking at that?”
“Because it’s interesting. I think it’s a grimoire. There are lots of lists of ingredients and their magical intent, sketches of what look like amulets and talismans… There are even some Latin phrases in here and other symbols I don’t recognize. Maybe spells?”
“I can’t.” Rose waved her hand, dismissive. “I wouldn’t eventouchthat. Everything about it makes me uncomfortable—we should throw it away.”
Violet laughed, turning a page and finding another complex-looking formula in an unknown script. “This feels like the kind of thing you’d throw away one night, but the next morning—”
“Don’t evensayit—”
“You’d wake up and it’d be sitting on your nightstand.”
Rose groaned loudly, pressing her palms flat over her ears. Violet chuckled once more. “I think you’d be cursed if you tried to get rid of this. It’s a relic from the past. Plus there are actual curses in here, I bet.”
“I’m not touching it,” Rose said, walking toward the wicker chair on the opposite side of the small table. She sat and grabbed her cocoa, but then dramatically leaned away from Violet and the book.
Violet shook her head. “You goofball. Anyway, I’m thinking of taking it to Simone so she can go through it. She might be intrigued since she’s kind of into this stuff.”
“Simone… Oh, the pretty baker lady?”
“That’s her. Aw, I hope people say cute things like that about me and not like, ‘Oh, that freckly mixed girl with the frizzy hair?’”
“Your hair isn’t frizzy. Today.”
A loud knock at the front door made them both jump. When it was silent again, they stared at each other.
“You gonna go get that?” Rose asked.
“Yougo get it. You’re older.”
