Cleo was in the kitchen when they stepped out. “All good?” she asked. Noah cleared his throat and avoided her eyes. “Yeah.” “Saved the hand,” Andrew joked awkwardly as Olivia handed them both plates. “Couldn’t save the salad so I just chopped up some fruit.” “Sorry,” Noah said. “I think I’m gonna go-” “Sit,” Olivia […]

December twenty-ninth and Andrew was still trapped. He’d tried again multiple times that day, the first time tossing his bag in the car just in case. It couldn’t hurt, he’d reasoned. Plus, four days was plenty of time. It made sense that the curse would end today, and he wouldn’t want to be without his […]

Cleo wiped a hand across her forehead as she watched the trash truck drive away from her mother’s house. That was it. The last load was finally gone and her mom was completely moved out. She glanced at her phone and saw that it was a little after noon. Perfect. That gave them plenty of […]

The beauty of Keegan’s was that while there was definitely lunch service, there really wasn’t much of a lunch rush. By some miracle, Olivia was caught up on her paperwork. So she finished the last couple of orders and brought them out to the table herself. The two men, construction workers who regularly came in […]

Noah was chopping up wooden pallets at the far end of the backyard when Olivia stepped outside with a bag of trash. She realized immediately he had headphones in and, not wanting to startle him while he was swinging around an ax, she changed her mind about trying to talk to him. Instead, she headed […]

Celine could sense something in the shop as she got to work. It was four-thirty, the dinner rush was starting, and there was definitely a strange tension in the air. She pulled her hair back, then walked behind the counter and began making her way to the back office. Their assistant manager, Tatiana, and the […]

The lights were on in Olivia’s house as Andrew pulled the rental car up into the driveway. He parked behind Noah’s truck, turned off the engine, and sighed. He didn’t want to go in. Even though the past couple of days had been exactly the same, he had foolishly thought that maybe today would be […]

Noah still wasn’t feeling great, but he wasn’t going to skip work for a hangover. Cleo had stopped up to say goodbye before he’d left. It had been a little awkward, which Noah knew made sense. She’d been worried, but clearly uncomfortable talking about it. And he’d been too embarrassed to do much more than […]

Cleo slammed the back door of the rental car, then turned to Olivia and gave her a huge hug. “I’ll call you when I get back from my tour,” she promised. “Please do!” Olivia said into her shoulder. “I can’t wait to hear everything. And take pictures! And videos! As many as you can.” They […]

It was after hours on Christmas Day and Iris was back in her store. It was still a mess, despite multiple attempts to fix it. Every time she tried to clean Roland – or whatever he was – just trashed it again. But tonight she didn’t care. Instead, she paced the store furiously, tossing supplies […]