Portia slowly shook her head. "No. But I do think you settle tooquickly."
The reason why she was here began to slowly sink in. "No. No, gracious no." I waved my hands around. "I don't want it. Him. Whatever. Please don't do this tome."
Her laugh sounded like bells. "You're a different kind of case, Ms. Harper. So I have to handle this differently." She tapped a finger against her chin. "I admit, this isn't how I want to handle it, but I feel like I have to." She waved a hand and the glamour I'd so carefully constructed this morning fell away. I touched my hand to my cheek andgasped.
"I needthat!"
Portia clucked her tongue. "No. Youthinkyou need it. There's a bigdifference."
I tried in vain to reconstruct myglamour.
Portia shook her head, even though her eyes shimmered with sympathy. "For the next few months, you will not be allowed to use glamour magic, Katie. This is about you. What you need versus what you think you need. What you really want versus what you think youwant."
"So itisone of those scenarios." I glared at Portia. "How are you so in tune with what I want or what Ineed?"
Portia smiled sadly. "It's the curse of my position. I know just about everything in this town." She let out a sigh and even that sounded pretty. "The spells you cast to keep your identity a secret have fallen. When you walk out of here, your identity will beknown."
Horror filled myveins.
"Katie, do you really think all people arebad?"
I shook myhead.
"It's okay to be scared. But it's not okay to hide yourself from theworld."
My tone was dead. "People will useme."
Portia shook her head. "People willtryto use you. Again, there is a difference. The only person who can force you to use your magic isyou."
"Why are you doingthis?"
At this question, Portia hesitated which made me very suspicious. "I was already aware of your...plight. I considered getting involved, but I was waiting for the right time. Something made me go ahead withit."
"What?" Idemanded.
Portia shook her head. "You have to recognize the worth in yourself. You are strong. You're beautiful. You're powerful." She stood up and leaned over my desk. "But everyone else is those things, too. You need to know what makes you that way because it's different for everyone. Recognize those signs in people. See them for who they truly are. When you do this, when you truly open your eyes, things will fall into place foryou."
I scoffed. "Aren't you supposed to drop my soulmate into my lap instead of doing all this weird Fairy Godmothershit?"
Portia gave me a sad smile. "Who's to say I haven't already done that?" She headed to the door. "If anyone was in need of weird Fairy Godmother shit, it's you, my dear." Before she opened it, she turned and offered me a feral grin. "I suggest you get a good night's sleep because tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life." And with that, Portia Kadish opened the door anddisappeared.
I sat in my office chair with the mirror pulled within inches of my face and desperately tried to recast the glamour, any glamour, but it was to no avail. That particular power was gone and the only person looking back at me with a wild, desperate and terrified expression was just me, Katie Harper, Jilted BrideExtraordinaire.
I cursed like a sailor denied shore leave and tried desperately to think of something. "A paper bag!" I gasped and reached down to rifle through my desk drawers. Several seconds in I realized how dumb that was. Like a paper bag on my head would draw less suspicion than just walkingout.
Maybe I could pretend I was a customer. I sighed. Matt, the main bartender, was the one who let everyone in. He'd be immediately suspicious. I grabbed my calendar, picked up the phone and went to cancel the rest of my day's appointments when I realized everything was already cleared. I frowned and thumbed through to the next day only to see all of them rescheduled and shifted around. Portia had even made it to where I got to come in two hours later onMonday.
"I'm going to murder you," I seethed through my teeth as I shoved the calendar away. I had nothing to keep me busy. Normally I would be ecstatic about that, but walking out of this room would drastically alter the trajectory of my life. I didn't even want to think aboutit.
I sat there for two hours trying to come up with a plan only to realize that freaking Portia Kadish had effectively cornered me and I was the rat trapped in themaze.
"Shit," I said in defeat. I rose from my desk, slid my sandals back on and cracked open the door to my office. Sound immediately filtered through. Clinking glasses, silverware, laughter, running water. Maybe I could just waltz out and not acknowledge a singleperson.
I opened the door to step out only to run right into Matt who stood there with his hand raised about to knock on the door. I immediately stepped back and apologized, but when I looked at his face, it was so full of confusion I had tolaugh.
"I don't remember seeing you in," hesaid.
"You didn't. It's me,Matt."
