Page 40 of The Pumpkin Spice Romance
She pointed for him to go, and Stanhope gaped like a fish and then turned around and walked off like a scolded puppy. Maddie was giving full boss babe energy, and I was so here for it, but I couldn’t help but notice that Maddie had also predicted the entire event before it happened.
Just like the pistachio bar. Just like the homeless guy. Had there been anything else? Mrs. Landry and her cookies?
I thought Maddie was magical, but was she. . . actually magical?
“I’m never going to be able to go back to those networking events again,” said Maddie. “I can’t believe I just said that to his face.”
“It was brilliant,” I said. “If you’d given me a second more warning, I could have gotten it on video.”
“Heh.” Maddie looked amused. “Seeing Stanhope get doused in awning water would have been pretty good.”
“How much warning do you get?” I asked.
“What?”
“Before the future happens. How far ahead can you see?”
Maddie went pale. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maddie, it’s OK.”
She was backing up. This was not good.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t see the future.”
I might not be psychic, but I could see she was panicking.
“I’m just happy not to end up covered in water,” I said. “It’s fine.”
“I have to go now,” said Maddie.
“Maddie, wait.” I followed her, but she hurried toward her car, which was parked a few steps away.
“Really need to finish my ordering,” she said, flinging open her car door so that I nearly ran into it.
“Maddie, please, just wait.”
“No time. Sorry. OK, bye.”
She slammed the car door, and I was forced to back up as she peeled away from the curb.
MADDIE
“Romeo said there was a best friend emergency,” said Shayla, and I pulled my head up off my desk. I’d driven in a panic back to the place I felt the safest – Deja Brew – and had been hiding in my office for an hour.
“A little bit,” I agreed.
“Eeee,” said Shayla, grimacing at my tear-stained face. “OK, so first of all. . .” Shayla dropped her oversized purse onto my desk and fumbled inside until she came out with makeup wipes. “First, we fix the mess, and then you tell me whose nose I’m punching.”
“No one’s,” I said with a sniff.
“It was that Felix guy, wasn’t it?” She grabbed my chin and began to aggressively groom my face. Now I knew how kittens felt.
“Sort of. Not really. It was my own fault. I couldn’t let Stanhope win. But Felix is too smart. He figured it out.”
“I should bite you,” said Shayla, leaning back to look me in the eye. “For telling stories all back to front like my Uncle Fred. Back up, try again.”
I sighed and tried to go back to the beginning.
