I hadn’t planned on telling those journalists the truth about my ability, but I hadn’t really planned on journalists being there. Which was kind of ironic, considering the reason I’d originally bullied my way into the situation.
But it had resulted in a boom in business I never could have predicted. My voicemail was full, and my email was overwhelmingly stuffed to bursting. I’d been so sure that anyone finding out I was an empath instead of a precog would destroy my chances of continuing my mother’s legacy, but it turned out I couldn’t be more wrong.
“Who woulda thought, huh, Hudson?”
My cat didn’t respond, and when I looked down, she’d left my feet to settle on the closest cat bed and clean her butthole.
“Sorry, didn’t realize I was boring you.”
She did not respond.
But it wasn’t like I was all that eager to have a conversation whileIwas showering, so I sat down and tried to be patient.
Somehow, even after all the crazy growth I liked to think I had in the past month, I still wasn’t any more patient.
Oh well, we all had our flaws.
But even if I didn’t really have much patience, Ididhave short-form video content, so that would just have to do. I scrolled mindlessly for about seven minutes before even videos of cats intimidating dogs four times their size couldn’t distract me, then I got up and headed downstairs.
So much for time blindness,I thought to myself as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I was acutely aware of every single second that was passing.
Thankfully, Paul was not the type to be late, and two minutes before our agreed meeting time, I heard a knock on my door.
Oh God!He’s here!
Of course he’s here!
I’ve been waiting for him and looking forward to this all week!
I think I’m gonna be sick.
Maybe I should cancel?
No! Absolutely not!
Shouldn’t I answer the door?
Oh… right.
With one last glance at myself in the hallway mirror, I took the last step forward and opened my door.
Sure enough—not that there had been any doubt—it was indeed Paul standing there with a truly impressive bouquet of flowers.
“Holy moly! I didn’t know you were bringing a florist shop!” I said, happily taking them into my arms.
“If you don’t like them, you don’t have to keep them,” he said. “I don’t mind.”
He reached out a hand, as genuine as he always was, but I playfully slapped it away. “Unless you want to be the secondVanMarche who gets a limb cut off, you leave my flowers alone!” Sometimes (all the time) my mouth moved faster than my mind, so it wasn’t until my words were all the way out of my mouth before I realized what I said. “Oh my god, I’m sorry! Is it too soon?”
But Paul was already laughing and shaking his head. “You know, I don’t need anything else adding to the difficulty people have differentiating me from my brothers. I’ll keep the limb.” He turned and offered me his arm like a classical gentleman. “Unless you’d like to take it, that is.”
I appreciated the subtle pun and grinned as I wrapped my arm around his. “Don’t mind if I do.”
“Perfect.”
Together, we walked down my short driveway and to his car. It felt a bit strange to be dolled up and out and about a little before two o’clock in the afternoon, but that was the time Paul had requested.
When we’d finally gotten around to planning the date after the furor of giving all our statements, going to the hospital, and making arrangements for Luther to be released into home care along with hisfiancéeGem, Paul had mostly asked a few questions before requesting that I leave everything to him. I’d been curious, of course, and even asked what he was planning, but when he said he wanted it to be a surprise, I decided to roll with it. Besides, it sure was a more pleasant riddle than the ones we’d been solving (or failing to solve) lately.