Annalise Writes

Chapter 19

Not long after I developed my full-blown crush on Jax, I attempted to embark on my first date in an embarrassingly long time as a diversion tactic.

So, when Brad from Tinder asked me out, I thought, Fine.

The beginnings of this love story was a decidedly modern one: I swiped right. He swiped right. From there, we messaged back and forth for a few days. I liked that Brad didn't give off any obvious serial killer vibes. As in, he didn't ask me to go cave exploring on our first meeting like one of the other creepy dudes I'd also been talking to—

See? Romance wasn't dead, after all!

Just kidding! Dating sucked balls. Finding love was always so much easier in Hottpad romances than in reality. I had zero expectations with Brad from Tinder. I simply wanted to get dolled up and get out of the apartment, away from a certain tatted up, hard-muscled somebody who kept roaming around my bedroom, my kitchen, my living room in nothing but a pair of gray joggers that left very little to the imagination...

I didn't know if Jax was flaunting his, ahem, sizable assets on purpose, but—whether or not his intentions were intentional—I refused to fall victim to such temptations. I was an independent-minded, college-educated, occasionally-badass bish who knew better than to let her ovaries explode over a stupid pair of joggers. My overactive mind had been over-analyzing my imaginary future as Mrs. Jaxon Zane Maddox for far too long and far too often, and this nonsense needed to stop!

As my feelings for Jax grew stronger, reason flew out the window. Irrational fears buzzed through me.

What if Kyra's witchy spell stopped working one day?

What if Jax and Lord M disappeared on me as suddenly as they had appeared?

The possibility of losing them depressed me more than I expected. Even though they were becoming quite real in every sense, especially in developing and expanding on their own individual identities, identities that felt distinct from the ones I had initially created for them—it was probably better not to get too attached to Jax or Lord M since the future for them was one big, unexplainable unknown.

Trust me when I say I've already tried to Google this shit a million different ways—how to prevent a love spell from breaking, how to stop characters from leaving the real world, how to keep fictional people alive—but I always came up with nothing.

Like Jax said, we really had no choice but to roll with this strange phenomenon one day at a time...

My phone lit up. It was a notification from Brad.

See you soon, Annalise. :)

I smiled—sweet guy—and texted back, See you soon, Brad. :)

With some effort, I shoved my worries to the wayside and started applying mascara for my big night out.

Yes, back to Brad. Focus on Brad. We like Brad.

Brad was the kind of guy that I needed to date right now. He was around my age. In college. Electrical engineering major. Good on paper. He seemed funny but not too funny. Cute but not too cute. Tall but not too tall. Nice but not too nice. He was just like me—decent and average in every way.

Plus, he agreed to take me out to my favorite boba shop.

We were practically made for each other!

Thirty minutes later, when I stepped out of the bathroom in a cute, little black babydoll dress with my hair curled and my makeup all done, I ran into Lord M in the living room. Immediately, I noticed that he was sitting alone, Kyra-less, on the couch.