I gazed at him with an adoring smile, warm from the sensation of falling in love all over again. I could thank the elves for that much.
Perdita came over to pour us coffee and take our orders. She glanced at Owen, then at me, then back at Owen, then she grinned and said, “So, you did listen to Florence.”
“Yeah, I did,” I said.
“Good. I’m glad. Now, I’ll have these out in a moment for you.”
When she was gone, I whispered to Owen, “I thought she was on the verge of something there.”
“It’s probably best not to snap her out of it in public. We don’t know who might be watching.”
“Are we sure we want to snap her out of it at all? She’s not very good at being stealthy. She makes a great diversion, but she can’t hide what she’s thinking.”
“But she knows everyone. She’d probably have access to half the prisoners here.”
“Then we should save her for when we want numbers. Right now, we need information.”
He nodded. “That’s a good point. If we break the spell on her too soon, everyone will know about it.”
Perdita returned a moment later to refill our coffee. “Your breakfast should be ready in a sec.” With a smile, she added, “I’m so glad you listened to Florence. You two just seem right together, you know?” She started pouring coffee into my mug, and then she frowned and blinked. Coffee spilled over the rim of my mug as she gaped at me.
And then she snapped out of whatever wonderland she’d zoned off to and jumped out of the way, the coffee carafe slipping out of her hand and shattering on the floor. “Oh, sorry Miss–I mean Katie. Let me clean that up for you.” But instead of reaching for the towel tucked into her apron, she waved her hand and made the coffee disappear from the table. That seemed to finally sink in, and she gasped and blurted, “Katie, Owen, what’s going on here?”
So much for breaking the spell only in private or for not bringing Perdita in until we knew more. This was a rather spectacular display of spell-breaking. I was sure that everyone had turned to look when the carafe broke. I just hoped they hadn’t seen her magic away the spilled coffee.
Owen reacted while I was still thinking. He leapt out of his seat and caught Perdita like he was afraid she’d faint, then moved her to his seat. “Take deep breaths,” he told her loudly enough for those around us to hear.
Another waitress rushed over to see what happened and called out for a busboy to come clean up the broken carafe and the remains of the coffee. “Are you okay?” she asked Perdita.
I jumped in before Perdita could answer. “She probably needs some fresh air. I’ll take her outside.” I got up and went over to her, took her by the hand, and said firmly, “Come on, Perry, let’s go outside for a second.”
She looked up at me, opened her mouth to speak, then saw the expression on my face and let me lead her out of the diner. As soon as we were outside, she gasped, “What is this place? What’s happening?”
“Hush!” I urged, glancing around to see if anyone was watching or listening before I briefed her. “Seeing Owen and me together must have broken the spell for you,” I concluded.
“Oh my God! What do we do? How do we get home? My mom will be so worried. That is, if she isn’t here, too. What if they took my family because I showed you that flyer?” She sounded so hysterical I worried that I’d have to slap her out of it.
Instead, I grabbed her shoulders firmly and said, “Calm down! If they know the spell’s broken, they may try to hit us again with it, and then we may not be able to break it. What’s the last thing you remember before you ended up here?”
“I was on my way home from work. I got into the vestibule of my building, and then nothing. I was suddenly working in a diner, only I thought that was where I’d always been.”
“Don’t worry, if you don’t recall running into your family here, they probably aren’t here,” I said, as gently as I could in this urgent situation. “This seems to be a pretty small world. You have to go on playing your role, pretending that nothing has changed. Can you do that?”
“But I’m a terrible waitress. I’m so clumsy.”
I couldn’t fight back a wry smile. “That actually hasn’t changed here.”
She stopped hyperventilating. “Oh. Yeah, you’re right. I have been a terrible waitress. Why did they make me a waitress?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why they did half of what they did. Have you ever thought about being a waitress?”