Misfortune and Mr. Right (Only Magic in the Building)

by Savannah Scott

Find the love who would come back home to you, the love that will outlast the hard days, and cheer you over every finish line

The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back. ~ Wendy Wunder

Just once I’d love to beat him at something. Not that I’d rub it in his face. I wouldn’t even gloat … much. Maybe just a teensy-weensy victory dance. That’s all. It would be so small. A little gloatette. A gloatina. A gloatsie. I’d gloat so quickly, you’d barely notice. And then I’d move on once and for all.

There’s more to life than what we see with our eyes.”

Megan and Gran were two peas in a pod. They spoke the same fantastical language of the heart. Kindreds, as Anne Shirley would have called them.

A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. – J.P. Morgan

To say she thinks the worst of me would be merely scratching the surface of her obvious repulsion. Somehow, no matter what I do to impress her, she always bristles around me. She’s feisty, stubborn, and driven. But also soft, deeply compassionate, and loyal. I’ve achieved everything I ever set my mind to. Everything but convincing Olivia Pennington that I’m not the devil incarnate.

But Olivia steered clear of me like she was avoiding the next pandemic.

Right there, just inside the doorway, stands my boss, Darwin. And next to him, with a deceptively warm but cool look on his face stands Logan Alexander. At my workplace. Okay, Monday. This is just cruel. A genuine bait-and-switch. I take it all back. You’re the Mondayest Monday that ever Mondayed.

He’s always got that Mona Lisa look about him—like he’s half smiling, half plotting your death, half constipated. Yes. That’s three halves. There’s more to Logan Alexander than meets the eye. He doesn’t math.

Unbeknownst to them, they’re in the presence of a royal pain in the tush, as Gran used to say.

Logan breaks the staring match, which in the animal kingdom would mean I won.

If by fine you mean my life just crashed in the equivalent of a near-fatal accident.

“Eat. Chocolate makes all things better.”

Mister Rogers did not adequately prepare me for the people in my neighborhood. ~ Unknown

There was a time when I didn’t think Olivia Pennington had a heart. What was I thinking? That woman is all heart. I admire the man who could win it. That man will definitely not be me.

You know what I love? Dogs.

If a dog is rabid, you know. And if they love you, you know. Dogs do not give mixed messages.

We read one another like we always have. We are Batman and Catwoman, not exactly enemies but certainly not friends. A strange, almost predestined thread binds us to one another, tugging at us whenever we are within a certain range.

No one has ever affected me like she does.

Maybe she’s not Catwoman. She’s Poison Ivy. And I’m highly allergic.

His wink is nearly as delicious as this pastry.

This isn’t about besting one another. It’s about grabbing buckets and putting out a fire—together.

“It’s my invisible wings. That’s what makes me awesome!”

In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. ~ Christopher Morley

I don’t know how or when it happened, but there’s not another woman in the world I would even consider pursuing. For me, it’s Olivia Pennington, or it’s no one.

She’s a vision, and I’m powerless to resist the pull she has over me tonight.

I extend my hand, and Olivia looks up at me, a note of challenge in her eyes. I smile down at her. I hope she never stops challenging me. I hope she’s always here, with me, extending a dare or holding her ground. I hope we race one another until we can’t run anymore, and then we’ll race with our walkers or wheelchairs. I need her. I’ve always needed her.

I don’t want to brag or make anyone jealous, But I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school. ~ Unknown

“You and Logan. That dance. It looked like the first dance at a wedding far more than a reunion reenactment of a prom dance, one I could tell you were squirming about as soon as you were called up on stage.” “We didn’t look like newlyweds.” Megan props her hands on her hips and stares at me. There are perils of maintaining a lifelong best friendship. This is one. Scrutiny. Exposure. The inability to bluff.

“Trust me,” she persists. “The way that man was looking at you—was not neutral.”

Which man is he? If he’s the man I’ve assumed him to be all along, I know how to function around him. We engage in battles. I keep my guard up. I never let him see me sweat. But if Logan is this other man, the generous philanthropist, thoughtful, reserved, and possibly even humble, I don’t know how I’ll survive. How will I resist him? Do I even want to? And if I don’t, what might he do to my heart?

Life is a combination of magic and pasta. ~ Federico Fellini

This night feels shrouded in some sort of magic. How else can I explain Olivia sitting here sharing a meal with me?

Olivia Pennington is going to sleep in my bed after sharing a meal I cooked for her. I don’t know what spell has fallen over my apartment, but I can only hope I don’t break it.

In her heart, she held a secret wish, a spell waiting to be broken by the one destined to find her. ~ Unknown

I look up from Logan’s feet and meet his smirky smile and those eyes that have always had a direct shot to my heart. Whaaat? I mean, my … nothing. Logan Alexander doesn’t have a straight shot to my anything.

Logan Alexander is officially the most confusing man I’ve ever met.

A first kiss is magic, the moment the world stops spinning and everything feels perfectly still, a taste of forever in a single touch. ~ Raymond Chandler

“You are the best man I know.”

Because you possess the kind of generosity and humility that would lead you to do something so unbelievably selfless, and you didn’t even want me to know.”

We’ll never have another first kiss. I’m both eager and hesitant. Nervous and exhilarated.

This kiss has been brewing for at least fourteen years. All the passion and fire we usually reserve for our rivalry has found its way into this kiss. She’s leveling me.

“I’m still right here.” I kiss her forehead. “You are. Miraculously. Do you want to actually come in? Or did you just come here to thank me, give me the best kiss of my life, and leave me paralyzed and overwhelmed in the hallway?”

Oh. My. Gosh. I kissed Logan. Logan kissed me. We kissed. I kissed Logan freaking Alexander. I did that. And, oh man, oh man, he kissed me. Did he ever.

Nothing would have prepared me for our actual kiss.

Let him help you put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

It occurs to me that it will take a lifetime to unearth all of Logan Alexander’s layers. And my new mission is to keep discovering his numerous facets for as long as he will let me.

“This night is the beginning of an amazing future,”

“That’s what I want too, Olivia. A future with you. I know that’s a lot to say right now, but we’re not meeting for the first time. You’re not just a coworker I developed an attraction to or a neighbor who caught my eye a month ago. You’ve been a part of my life for nearly as long as I can remember. I know you. And I can’t imagine wanting anyone else.”