Charming the heart of a man is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Especially when it's already bewitched by somebody else - literally!
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All that former witch-in-training Avalon wanted was a simple job to get her life back on track and forget abo...
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Avalon took a deep breath, mastering a smile at her boss as she tried her best to ignore the tonnes of worries that were circling around her head: Nina in the backroom, purchasing possibly dangerous ingredients; Lars gone AWOL; Zelo nowhere to be found; and Neymar right here in the middle of the magic shop, with not a clue in the world.
Despite that, there was a naturalness about Neymar's aura and demeanour now that Nina wasn't in the same room anymore. Like the moment she was out of sight, he could be himself again. No surprise there, considering the stupid love spell and all, Avalon pondered.
Neymar tried to catch her eyes when she didn't answer right away. "Earth to Áva?" He grinned, clearly amused by her dazed state of mind. "You there? Or do I need to swing one of those esoteric pendants in front of you to call you back to the present?"
Avalon leaned away when he actually followed his words with the action, only slightly distracted by the fact that he'd managed to grab the only Tigers Eye stone in the bunch of amulets. Which, as fate would have it, was one of the stones standing for true love. Thank you oh so much for that, Mother of the Moon, she thought dryly.
Time to play along; there was no alternative anyway. She glanced one more time toward the empty counter over Neymar's shoulder, then she snatched the amulet holding the brown and beige striped stone out of his hand and rolled her eyes.
"Shut up, silly," she retorted, holding the stone in the palm of her hand while wrapping the leather band leisurely around her fist and wrists to give her nervousness a bit of an outlet. "I'm into esoteric stuff. That's nothing new."
It really wasn't; he'd even joked about her poster of the three Moon Goddesses way back when she'd just moved into her room.
If only he knew who he'd been making fun of.
Neymar kept on grinning. "Sure, but I didn't know you're this cosy with the shop manager. Or why would you help her do stocktake? And you too, by the way," he said toward Gil who only shrugged while arranging the items on the table into different piles. Was he actually counting them?
Avalon cleared her throat. "And you? I thought you were supposed to entertain your guests?"
His parents and his sister Rafaella had come for a visit this weekend, which left Avalon free of her chores as a nanny and Davi in the loving hands of his immediate family. Speaking of...
"Mãe and pai are watching Davi right now," Neymar explained, scratching the back of his neck. "And Rafa's out with, uh, Rafa, actually."
The second "Rafa" was Rafael, one of his teammates and - much to Neymar's distress - a guy that had taken a liking to his younger sister. Avalon couldn't blame him; she was gorgeous.
Neymar pulled a face when he continued, already knowing the question on the tip of her tongue. "Don't ask for details because I didn't either. I don't really wanna know what's going on there."
