Damsel Under Stress (Enchanted, Inc. 3)

Marcia didn’t act like she’d noticed anything odd, which made me relax a little. “It’s nice to meet you, and you must be doing a good job, from what I’ve heard. It seems like Katie has found a good man.”

“The best,” Ethelinda said, beaming proudly, as though she had anything at all to do with it. “Now, if only we can make sure things work out for those two.”

“Yeah, well, everyone goes through that,” I said with a forced smile.

“Why don’t you join us for lunch?” Marcia asked. I groaned inwardly because there was nothing I could say to stop Ethelinda from joining us and it would have been rude to uninvite her.

The hostess returned to her station and glanced at us, then asked Marcia, “Wasn’t it just two in your party?”

“Our friend’s going to join us,” Marcia said.

The hostess then swept us back to our table. She plunked menus down and said, “Enjoy your lunch.”

Ethelinda grinned gleefully once we were all seated. “I haven’t had lunch with the girls like this in ages. Now, what romantic problems do you want help with?”

Marcia giggled nervously, then lined her silverware up in precise rows. “Funny you should mention it, but I did want to get some advice about something.”

“Isn’t that Gemma’s area?” I asked. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for Marcia to talk about her love life in front of Ethelinda, not if she didn’t want it completely screwed up.

“I definitely don’t want to talk to Gemma about this right now. Her view of relationships doesn’t always match mine, and you, well, you seem to be pretty level-headed.” She turned to Ethelinda and added with a smile, “And I’d appreciate any wisdom you’ve got, too.”

“What did you want to talk about?” Ethelinda asked.

“My boyfriend, Jeff. I thought for a while that he helped balance me. He’s a live-for-the-moment guy, and I’m Ms. Spreadsheet. I’m ambitious and driven. But there’s balance and then there’s functioning in different universes.” She looked at me and said, “You knew him before I met him. What do you know?”

All I knew was that he’d been sitting naked in Central Park, thinking he’d been turned into a frog when it was only an illusion because of a practical joke spell, until I’d kissed him and broken the spell. Unfortunately, the next effect of the spell was that he became obsessed with me until he met Marcia and fell for her. “I don’t really know much about him,” I confessed. “I’d just run into him around town a few times.”

“I don’t think I’m a snob, and it’s not like I’m ashamed to take him with me to work functions, but I’m not sure I can stay with him. I just think we’re fundamentally incompatible on a long-term basis. I’m a grown-up, and he’s like an overgrown frat boy. Do I sound horrible?”

“No. You sound sensible,” Ethelinda said. “If you’re not happy, then there’s no need to keep at it. It’s not as though you’re married.” Which was pretty much what I’d planned to say. Why could Ethelinda give such sane advice to my friend when she only messed things up for me?

“Gemma would say I’m avoiding intimacy, that I’m not letting anything into my life that’s not in perfect order.”

“Then Gemma can go out with him. It’s your life,” I said.

“I’m not convinced you’re meant to be together,” Ethelinda said.

Marcia sighed, and I could practically see the tension leaving her body. “I’m glad you see it that way, because I broke up with him last night. I guess that means I’m the fifth wheel for the New Year’s Eve party, since I’ll be going solo. But don’t tell Gemma yet, okay? I know she’d say I should at least have a date for New Year’s Eve.” She chuckled. “It does make me sound like a man, breaking up right before a major holiday.”

“But it also means you really didn’t want to be with him, if you were willing to go dateless at New Year’s,” I said.

“True. And did you say that gorgeous friend of yours is going to be at the party?”

It took me a second to realize who she was talking about, since I normally didn’t think of Rod as gorgeous. “Oh, yeah, he’s the one hosting it.”

“Is he seeing anyone?”

“Uh, Manhattan? And maybe even some of the outer boroughs. Oh, and definitely a few foreign airline flight crews. He’s kind of a player. I love him to death as a friend, but I’m not sure I’d encourage anyone I cared about to date him. It would be a recipe for heartbreak if you actually liked him enough to want to go out with him more than once or twice.”

“He’s going through a phase,” Ethelinda said. “A phase he should have outgrown by now, but I don’t believe it reflects his true personality. Still, he may not be ready yet to move out of that phase.” There she went again with the sane advice.

Marcia twirled her hair around her finger. “Hmm. Sounds like a challenge.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I looked up, and wouldn’t you know it, Rod was walking through the door. There had to be some unconscious spell that made the person you were talking about show up, it happened so often. “Speak of the devil,” I muttered.

“Why, what a coincidence!” Ethelinda said gleefully. “Here that very young man is.”

Marcia turned to look, and while her back was to the table, Ethelinda waved her hand and a soup-and-salad lunch for four appeared. Rod saw me and came straight to our table. “How are you ladies today?” he said smoothly. Marcia batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously, and I tried not to gag.