Signed, Sealed, and Smitten (Only Magic in the Building)

by Melanie Jacobson

The fairytale ladder. The rolling ladder. The Professor Henry Higgins in his library ladder. The Belle in the bookseller’s shop, singing about her provincial life ladder.

Show me a girl who loves to read who hasn’t had the same fantasy, and I’ll show you—nothing. That girl doesn’t exist.

That smile, though. That smile, in a silky whisper, spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

“I’m going to carpe the heck out of the diem for the next two months before I’m also stricken with old age.”

tried. I am a lifelong golden retriever with no chance of being a black cat.

What I can’t understand is why Grandad never mentioned Phoebe Hopper to me. They’d been having monthly lunches for three years by the time he died. That is two years and eleven months past the time when he should have introduced his Boston-based grandson to this captivating woman. He and I will have words on my next cemetery visit.

“Spill it like it’s the Boston Tea Party,”

“Ooh, finding someone irritatingly attractive is how all my favorite romance novels begin.”

How can a shameless flirt with intentions as deep as a Saharan rain puddle create a strong enough impression that I still feel him when he’s gone?

I’ve always loved sunflowers. Vibrant. Resilient. Helpful. Things I want to be, so I adopted sunflowers for myself.

“I don’t have a great poker face, do I?” “Your face comes with subtitles. I like it.”

That is unfortunately sexy. I make sure my expression doesn’t change even as the urge to fan myself strikes like I’m a Colonial woman in forty-seven petticoats and a wool dress and the Sixth Regiment just came to town after getting baths.

“I had to deal with a sudden urge to push you up against a wall and make out with you.”

Lignin is the old book smell that all basic nerds love, but only true nerds know its name.

I want to keep this man talking because he’s like a character from Stars Hollow come to life.

“O-O-O-O’Reiiiilly … Autoooo Parts.”

“Happy accident. That’s what serendipity means. I couldn’t remember if it meant fate or good luck or something like that, so I looked it up.”

Eventually, a siren breaks through. I haven’t heard many since I moved in, and I send up a prayer that whatever is happening, everyone involved will be okay.

And I can’t figure out why the best things about you are the things you keep trying to suffocate.”