your apartment."
"Exactly. It would be really nice if he came to me in visitation afterwards, but the main thing is to release him from the building. And to do that..." Here we go. "I need to use sex magick."
He coughed and reached for his water glass again.
"Are you laughing?" This time she rather hoped it was laughter. Not ... rejection. Anything but rejection.
"No." He took another drink. Ice jingled again as he put the glass back down. "No, it's not laughing I'd be." He looked at her closely, his gaze direct. There was no mirth present now. "Let me guess. The sex magick is where you'll be needing me?"
Her stomach was quickly sinking beneath her chair. She wished she could hide under the chair with it. "Is that a problem?"
He shrugged. It was a noncommittal gesture. "When are you looking to perform the spell?"
Was this a good sign? He was merely thinking of scheduling conflicts? She wished she still had some wine left. Perhaps an outright refusal would have been more humane. "For best results, the spell should be done at Samhain. Which, as it happens, is tomorrow. Halloween."
"Tomorrow."
"Yes. We should cast the spell tomorrow night, actually. The veil between the worlds is thinnest then, so it makes for easier contact with the dead. And obviously that means a better chance of success with spirit-work. It's an unbelievable bit of luck, really, Samhain being tomorrow."
"An unbelievable bit of luck," he repeated. He glanced out the restaurant's picture window, nodding thoughtfully, however it looked as if his thoughts were anything but pleasant.
"Because the exorcist is coming sometime on Sunday. So we would have to cast the spell tomorrow regardless."
"Exorcist?" He turned to her, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "This is why he needs to be freed?"
"Yes, sorry, I hadn't got to that part yet. My landlord said he's bringing an exorcist over on Sunday to eliminate my cat. So I'm on a deadline here. Time-sensitive material, as it were."
He looked out the window again. His expression remained dark, unresponsive to her attempted light tone.
"So ... umm ... yeah, my ghost kitty must be released before Sunday," she continued. "Which means it's Saturday or nothing. Well, I guess you could count tonight. Tonight or Saturday or nothing. And so Saturday being Samhain is, consequently, perfect timing."
He shook his head but did not respond.
"And since my landlord wants to demolish the building, too ... well, performing the spell on Saturday would solve everything perfectly." She could feel her cheeks getting hot. She needed to stop repeating herself. He understood the situation. He just wasn't interested. In fact, he couldn't bear to look at her.
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