The elevator dinged, and the woman and Mr. Hair Gel made a move to exit at the same time. Vivien grabbed the woman by her upper arm to stop her. At the contact, the woman looked more surprised than concerned.
“That man is going to try to share a cab with you. Say no. Trust me. You’re not safe with him.” Vivien released the woman’s arm and couldn’t blame her when she rushed away from the crazy lady telling her what to do.
“Do you know that guy?” Troy asked.
Vivien shook her head in denial. “No. Never seen him before.”
“Then…?” Troy watched as the woman left the building. Mr. Hair Gel had stopped a cab and stood with the door open. He gestured toward the lady as if offering to share a ride. His wide smile made Vivien press her lips together as she watched with bated breath.
The woman glanced back toward the building, appearing worried. She slowly shook her head and headed off in the opposite direction on foot.
Vivien released her breath and whispered to herself, “Good girl.”
“Wait, how did you…?” Troy moved to hold open the front door for her. “Why didn’t you want her to share a cab with that man?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling.” Vivien didn’t want to get into details about what it meant to be claircognizant. She’d tried to tell people she was psychic in the past, especially when she was younger, and people had one of two reactions. Rarely, they believed her and then wanted her to predict stuff for them. Or, usually, they didn’t believe her and they treated her like a kooky freak. Since some of her ancestors used to work as tarot card readers on the carnival circuit in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the word freak had been a family curse word on par with dropping an f-bomb.
The truth was, Vivien didn’t know how she knew. She saw the two of them, knew he’d try to give the woman a ride, and knew it would be unfortunate if the woman went with him. She had no clue why it would be bad or what exactly would happen.
“Are you heading home?” Troy asked.
“Um, yeah.” Vivien nodded as she reached into her purse to find her keys.
“I don’t suppose you’d want to share a cab with me? I promise I won’t give off any feelings.” Troy was clearly trying to make a joke.
With the woman gone, the feeling of dread began to evaporate, and she was able to give Troy more of her attention. She smiled. “Thanks, but I have a car.”
Vivien started to turn, only to remember her manners.
“Would you like a ride home?” she asked. It occurred to her that it would look rude if she pulled into her driveway at the same time his cab arrived. “I need to pick up dinner first. I have a friend staying with me. Lorna hasn’t been feeling very well. Another friend is joining us.”
Why was she supplying all this extra information?
“Oh? Nothing serious I hope.” Troy fell into step next to her, clearly taking her up on her offer for a ride.
“Lorna…” Vivien tried to think of an eloquent way of explaining that she’d gotten drunk with two of her friends and they’d accidentally séanced a demon using an old book of magic they’d found hidden beneath the stage of the historic movie theater. Her best friend, Heather Harrison, owned the theater, which she’d inherited from her grandmother, Julia Warrick.
Julia had been a renowned medium. People had traveled miles to go to her shows and paid her to talk to their loved ones. They were learning how to do seances from Julia’s magic book. Ghost Julia had also gifted Vivien, Lorna, and Heather with the magical rings they now wore.
“Lorna?” Troy prompted when she didn’t finish her sentence.
“Oh, sorry,” Vivien mumbled, realizing in her attempt to come up with an answer, she’d forgotten to actually give one. “Lorna was attacked. She’ll be fine.”
“Seriously?” Troy frowned. “Did it happen here in town? Is she all right? I don’t remember reading about an attack. Did they catch who did it?”
That was a lot of questions.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Vivien said. “It’s Lorna’s business, and I don’t feel comfortable talking behind her back.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” he said, nodding as if he understood her lame excuse.
Troy felt like someone she wanted to know, and it would be easy—oh so easy—to fall into his arms. The man was attractive, and she was a woman who knew how to make the most out of her attraction. But she also didn’t want it to get that far. She wasn’t sure why she felt so strongly about that point, but she did. Unless he bluntly asked her out, there would be no reason to turn him down.
She didn’t want to date him and break his heart.
She didn’t want him to ask her out and for things to become awkward between them.
Friends. Friendship would be good. If she could keep him off the dating track long enough, he’d easily fall into the friend zone. She should say something friendly to him.
“So, which floor were you here for?” She tried to steer the conversation away from her supernatural hobbies.
“Twelfth, rental insurance,” Troy answered. “My landlord is insisting I take out a policy.”
“Yeah, he gets a referral discount on his own policies if he gets his tenants to do that,” Vivien answered.
“You were on eleven, that’s the…” He glanced at the building. “Law offices, right?”
“I had to stop in and pay my ex-husband tax,” she said.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were going through a divorce.” Troy watched his feet as he stepped around a cracked section of the concrete parking lot.
“Seven years ago. My ex is a lawyer and has an office here. They wanted me to look at some papers.” None of these were things Vivien felt like talking about. She picked up her pace, walking along the parked cars as she looked for the back end of her white sedan. “How’s your work coming along?”
“My moving here is really just an excuse to hang at the beach and people watch.” Troy laughed.
Vivien found her car and made a beeline for it, hitting the button on her key chain multiple times to unlock the doors before they reached them. The car responded with a loud ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk.
Normally, her ex didn’t get to her. She barely thought about Rex anymore. He was like a bill that needed to be auto drafted to and from her bank account. She knew the monthly annoyance was there, but she didn’t think about it unless she was looking directly at it.
“You should join me sometime.” Troy had opened the passenger door and leaned against the frame as he looked over the roof of the car. He gave her an easy smile. The man was handsome and definitely attractive, but that didn’t change the vibe she got off of him. He was the kind of person who looked for a serious relationship. Vivien wasn’t sure she had any room left for one of those.
“Yeah, maybe.” It was the politest no she could manage at the moment.
As she slid into the driver’s seat, she wished he wouldn’t have hinted at a date. It only made the car ride potentially awkward. She forced herself to pay closer attention to the conversation so she could steer it in the right direction—away from hints of dating.
Friend zone. Find the friend zone.