The Fate Date (Glengarry Curse #1)

15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Sabrina

“ U nggghhhhgrrrrrrr,” came the dulcet moans over Taylor Swift blasting in the kitchen.

“I made pancakes,” Sabrina said as Véro staggered into the living room of her apartment, cradling her head.

“This is what it must feel like after an abduction. Only without sexy aliens.”

“Two pitchers of margaritas and three shots will do that to a girl,” Sabrina said. “Do you have any maple syrup?”

Véro looked at her. “ Voyons , I’m French,” and went to dig the amber bottle out of the back of her fridge. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how badly did I mess things up with Gabe last night?” Véro asked, as she pushed aside jars of pickles and mayonnaise.

“Um, well…” In truth, Sabrina had a bit of a vomit phobia, and as Gabe was a paramedic, she’d let him handle the worst of the puking. “I fell asleep on the couch so I can’t really say.” It was part truth. Gabe had asked her not to leave so that Véro was comfortable. The poor guy held Véro’s hair back for several hours. Sabrina fell asleep as Véro had detailed the differences between human, alien, orc, and mothman penises, according to her romance novel expertise.

“He left his number?” Sabrina offered. Gabe had helped her to bed and then told Sabrina to call him if Véro started vomiting again.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mhmmm,” Sabrina said .

“Huh.” Véro took a swig directly from the maple syrup bottle. “What happened with you? What did Duncan want?” she said, voice pitched low in disapproval.

“He…uh…said the job didn’t work out in Toronto as he expected. He moved back to Ottawa recently. He said that he saw me on your stories and took it as a sign that we should get back together.”

“Ugh,” she said. “I hope you told him to stuff it.”

“I…uh…I didn’t say yes.”

“Sabrina, what the hell?”

“No, I know,” she said. “I don’t want to get back together with him.” She couldn’t manage to find the right words last night. She told him that she was seeing someone else, but he kept bulldozing over her every time she tried to talk, insisting that she give him another chance.

She wished she had been more assertive, but seeing Duncan just reminded her that not much had changed in her life these past three months. She wanted to be like the heroines in the movies, turning down her ex in a grand cinematic moment because she’s cultivated this super-amazing-successful-fulfilling life without him. But right now, Sabrina in no way resembled that confident protagonist. She felt so stuck. And her confidence had gotten stuck in her throat too.

“But Gavin. I like Gavin.” Véro squeezed Sabrina’s hands.

“Gavin?”

“You know, twice your size, dark waves, gorgeous smile, steely eyes.”

“Oh, yeah. I like Gavin too.” She set a stack of pancakes on the table.

Véro drowned them in maple syrup. “You should have seen him when you were talking to Duncan. His brothers basically had to hold him back he was so pissed.”

“You’re exaggerating. ”

“I’m serious.”

“Véro—”

“I don’t get it—why even give Duncan the time of day? Gavin seems like a really good guy. You two looked so sweet together.”

Sabrina tried to busy herself in Véro’s kitchen.

“By the way, what did he get you for your birthday?” Véro said through a mouth full of pancake.

“What?”

“The present?” Véro gestured towards the front door where the small box sat on the doorstep, in brown paper, tied up with string. It reminded Sabrina of the Sound of Music. She’d set it aside to make sure it didn’t get puked on and forgotten about it.

“ C’est quoi ?” Véro asked her.

She ripped open the paper to reveal a small box. Inside was a bracelet. It was a simple, looped gold chain, with ten little beads attached like charms in a strange pattern.

“Oh neat.” Véro dipped her head for a closer look. “Very eclectic, not what I would expect him to pick out.”

There was something about how the beads were arranged…

“Ohmygod,” Sabrina said.

“What?”

“I think it’s my birthchart.”

She took it off and laid it out in a circle, with the clasp on the left, where her ascendant would be in her natal chart, the loops of the bracelet chain representing the twelve houses.

“There’s a black bead on the first loop—Saturn in Pisces. A white bead on the fourth for my moon in Gemini. A red bead on the sixth for Mars in Leo.” It was all there. Two beads, a yellow and blue dangled from the eighth loop as the Sun and Mercury in Libra. Three beads were attached to the ninth loop representing Pluto, Jupiter, and Venus in Scorpio. Lastly, another two beads on the eleventh loop indicated Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn.

“Gavin absolutely understood the birthday assignment,” Véro said.

He really had. She’d never been given such a thoughtful birthday gift in her life. Not even from her mother.

“I told you he was smitten.”

The comment made Sabrina want to curl up with her cats, turn on a movie, and live vicariously through their rom-com lives. He’d looked so handsome yesterday. His touch had felt so right. When Gilbert had asked her why she liked him, the answer had come pouring out of her, full of pathetic honesty.

“He’s not.”

“Are you kidding me? Sabrina, I’m telling you—”

“Véro…” Her eyes began to prickle. “Véro, it’s not real.”

“This is real sweetheart.” She held the bracelet up. “You’re probably not used to dating a half-decent guy. God knows we’ve kissed enough toads to fill countless storybooks.”

“No, Véro, the relationship. It’s not real. Gavin and I are not actually dating.”

“I’m confused. Is this some sort of open relationship thing?”

“No. He’s helping me with some business stuff with the shop while I pose as his fake date at a corporate retreat. We were pretending last night, practicing before the big event.”

“ Calice, Sabrina. You’re fake dating ,” she yelled.

“Y-yes, that’s what I’m trying to explain.”

Véro waved her hand. “No. Like the trope in romance novels. Only it’s happening in real life.” She pulled up her book-tracking app. “I can help you. I’ll go through the books I’ve read and pull out the best fake dating ones. I’ll make a list of all the things that could go wrong, so that you know to avoid it.”

“You’re not mad that I lied?” Sabrina asked.

“ Are you kidding me ?” She grabbed Sabrina’s arms. “You are a real. Life. Romance. Heroine. I intend to live vicariously through you for the next few weeks.” She looked back to her phone. “Oh man, such a good one—definitely avoid a room with only one bed. Thank God it’s not Christmastime, mistletoe is a classic forced-kissing situation.” She found a piece of paper and began taking notes. “Of course, the worst thing that you could do is fall in love with him,” she said on a laugh, looking up at Sabrina.

Sabrina avoided Véro’s gaze. There was a tense silence as Véro absorbed the truth on her face.

“Shit. Sabrina. Do you like him?”

Sabrina twirled the bracelet on her wrist.

“ Non, non, non …It’s like the cardinal rule of fake dating—no feelings,” Véro moaned.

“I’m not sure how I feel,” Sabrina admitted. She knew the attraction wasn’t just physical. She looked forward to their coaching sessions. She liked making him laugh and relax. She even enjoyed his bristly banter. She’d come to realize that once he let his guard down, he was one of the most reliable, thoughtful, and caring people she’d ever met. Not to mention that kiss…

“Yeah, I think I like him.”

“Shit.” Véro nodded her head. “Well, if it’s worth anything, I think the feelings might be mutual.”

Sabrina tried to temper the ember of hope in her heart. “It doesn’t change anything. Acting on these feelings isn’t possible right now.”

“Now those are some self-limiting beliefs, my friend—don’t you have oracle cards for that?”

She did. She could recommend the perfect deck. But even their power only went so far. “I still need his help with the shop, and we both need to make sure he gets the job. I don’t want to complicate things until that’s sorted.” She could use the signing bonus to pay for a graphic designer for her planner—and avoid the monumental embarrassment if it turned out her runaway feelings were not reciprocated.

Véro shook her head. “Well then, you’re definitely going to need my help, or else you’ll be climbing your shared walls at this corporate retreat.”

Sabrina gave her friend a shove. “Actually, could you help me with the socials for the shop?”

Véro spent the next several hours sharing everything she’d learned from her time as an influencer. She showed her how to set up a tripod, how to curate photo presets, how to schedule posts and write captions. She’d even explained her process for brainstorming video content.

Even though her friend was painfully hungover, it was clear she was very gifted at this. Her former employer was shortsighted, in Sabrina’s opinion, to get rid of such an incredible talent. People always wrote Véro off as flighty because of her impulsive nature—but her creativity and thirst to be on the cutting edge of everything she did was inspiring.

Sabrina left later that afternoon with a box full of photoshoot props, a clear social media strategy, and an optimistic attitude. Perhaps her friend was right. Maybe she was on the precipice of her big protagonist moment. And maybe she just might have a shot with the hunky hero too.