Infatuate by Aimee Agresti Page B

graceful with her long, lean limbs but was surprisingly clumsy, managed to spill a can of paint all over her sneakers.
    “Well, at least white goes with everything,” Sabine offered.
    “Totally coulda been worse,” I said, trying to be nice since she looked a little upset.
    I told her and Sabine to go ahead, that I would close up the caretaker’s cottage and put things away so they could have a head start getting home to let Drew clean up before our tutoring session. With an organ droning in the distance, I dropped the keys off in the church’s main office. A kind, bespectacled, fifty-ish administrative assistant named Susan directed me to leave them in a trophy-shaped urn, which looked eerily like ones used for holding remains. On the way out, my phone, the old-fashioned one, buzzed with a text message from Dante: He and Max wanted to walk back home with me but were running a few minutes late and asked if I didn’t mind waiting.
    In search of a place to kill time, I wandered around the side of the church to that garden with the imposing statue and a small bench. But something else caught my eye, and I kept right on walking toward it. Lights flickered ahead from within a darkened passageway. As I got closer, I could see it looked like a cave, a cozy little hollowed-out rock formation. This had to be the grotto Sister Catherine had mentioned. Inside, the space was barely wider than my arm span, but had been outfitted with shelves that now held hundreds of lit candles. The burning scent mingled with a mustiness, but nevertheless, it felt comforting, like an old blanket found at the bottom of a chest. Along the rough walls, handwritten notes had been taped up, and small engraved plaques offering thanks mounted, some with the names of those whose wishes had been fulfilled. I scanned these messages. I wondered what they had all asked for. A warm breeze swirled outside, whistling against the cave’s opening. A quick gust whipped past me into the grotto and the flames of all the candles bent at once but only one blew out. I didn’t like the idea of someone somewhere potentially losing a wish on my watch. I removed the candle from its crimson glass bed on the shelf and tipped its wick into the flame of its neighbor. It ignited bright and strong.
     
    You’ve got no idea what kinda business a voodoo shop can do.” Dante, excited, rattled on a mile a minute. “We just got this tour group, totally went wild, and it’s tough because the place only just opened and she’s still getting her pantry stocked and her temple set up. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen two sweaty sunburned women from Alabama get in a tug of war over the last voodoo doll for attracting marriage.”
    “I pity their future husbands,” I said.
    “No kidding.” Max shook his head, whistling.
    “And not that I’m in the market for it, but they actually have dolls for that?”
    “There are dolls for everything. Love, luck, money, revenge, you name it. Someday my prince will come,” Dante joked quietly, fluttering his eyelashes. Max was scrolling through the texts in his phone, not paying attention.
    “Lemme tell you,” I said under my breath. “I saw a prince on New Year’s and they’re not all that great.” Max was on the phone now.
    “Sorry, sweetie. Didn’t mean to bring that all—”
    “No, no, it’s cool. Besides, we’re in it together.”
    “I know, thanks for that,” he said. His playful sarcasm had a way of making everything seem okay.
    “So what’s your boss like?” I asked, trying to navigate away from dark topics.
    “Mariette. She’s superhot but, you know, obviously not my type. She’s gorgeous and kind of mysterious. There’s this whole crazy backroom of stuff she uses in her spells and readings. We were unpacking it today and setting it up and labeling things like, literally, jars of chicken bones and alligator teeth.”
    “Whoa. Hardcore.” I stopped for a minute. I wasn’t quite sure how to broach it, but