You Must Fall In Love

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The moment Rob heard the question, he knew that letting her ask it was a disastrous idea. Sure, he'd been dissimulating, pretending at self-amusement for no reason except to save his own face — the truth was that he wanted to know about her more and more, for reasons he wasn't entirely happy with.

"What happens after you get rid of your curse?"

They had too much in common. She was stubborn. He was a boor. She hated her magic. He hated his curse. Neither of them liked people, and they were only patient because the only other option was to live life in a perpetual state of volcanic eruption. The only substantial difference, apart from skin color, was the fact that he could turn into any number of animals at any given time, and that she apparently had to write arcane pictograms on a Post-It note.

Which he was keeping her from doing, of course. The wonders of life were infinitely varied.

"You're assuming that we're getting rid of my curse."

"Have a bit more faith in me. Assume we do."

He shrugged. Along with the nose-rub, it was his most prized gesture, capable of imparting meaning to a vast assortment of dead air and completely banal pauses.

"I haven't thought that far ahead."

In this particular instance, he was trying furiously to come up with an acceptable answer that would also preclude the possibility of response.

"There's no way you haven't. Are you trying to tell me that you came here, perfectly ready to marry someone you've never met, without even the slightest thought as to the future afterward?"

"If that's what makes you feel better, sure."

"I don't believe you."

"You don't have to. It's the truth."

It really was. To him, the entire magic princess shtick was just that — a fairytale that he didn't have much faith in. He had approached the whole deal like a man under a sun-hat, too struck by the heat to deal with the soreness creeping up his stomach and the fact that he was slowly turning into a human lobster.

"You have to understand," he tried again. "Actually, no, you don't have to understand. Just listen."

She put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot.

"When I came here," he said, "I didn't have anything going for me."

"Join the club."

"No, you're not listening. Zip it. I had no prospects. None. No education, no work experience, no acquaintances, no friends. Nothing. Mother Superior was about to load me into a cannon and fire me into the arms of the State of Virginia."

Her foot had stopped moving. She was probably trying to deal with the fact that her problems were smaller than she thought, but in Rob's opinion that was nothing but an excellent and entirely commendable thing. For one thing, it was much better than having real problems.

"What happened?" she asked.

"A pamphlet blew into my legs on the street."

"Oh," she said, "so Kang gave you the destiny talk."

This was so astute that he wondered if she had been replaced by aliens.

"Yeah," he said, lost for words. "How..."

"I figured it was something he'd give you," she said. "He gives it to everyone, doesn't he?"

Rob tried his best to look nonchalant, aware on some level that it wasn't working out.