Evan knew that everything was different. Both of them refused to acknowledge it. That was fine. He told himself it was better this way, that she couldn't be hurt if they just didn't touch the thing they had dropped. But after Isobel left, she haunted his dreams. Her t-shirt was still on his floor. He didn't touch it. He thought about washing it, about giving it back. But he couldn't.

He couldn't pretend.

He was in love. He was ruined. He should never have said anything to her. Should never have told her the truth. In a way, he regretted the fact that he had ever slept with her. He regretted making things weird. Regretted not just helping her jump her car and go home. He laid there, in his bed, miserable. Didn't get up, didn't eat. Just laid there.

Tanya showed up the next day, after Isobel had left. She knocked on his door. Initially, he had been terrified that he was going to find that Isobel had come back. But no, it was just her. Thank God, someone normal.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Two things."

"Okay."

"One, I want to go see your grandma and I don't want to go without you because that's weird."

Evan squinted at her. "Deal."

"And two, I want to know if you fucked Isobel last night."

The sigh that came out of Evan's mouth was all the answer that Tanya needed, and she gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth. Evan scratched his forehead with his thumbnail, and Tanya turned and paced.

"Oh my God, Evan!" she cried, throwing her arms into the air. "You CAN'T DO THAT!"

"I really don't feel like discussing this with you. How did you even know?"

"I thought you didn't want to discuss it," she said, crossing her arms.

"I just want to know how you knew."

"She texted me. Asked if I could squeeze her in. Said she had a bad night. Did you not let her cum? I swear to God, you better have made that girl cum," she threatened, raising her finger at him. Someone in the backyard behind the fence stopped hammering on things to listen.

Evan walked back into his house, closing the door behind him. Tanya walked in after him. "Oh my God, you did sleep with her," she said, looking at the t-shirt on the floor. "Evan, she's in love with you. She's not going to know that this is just a—"

"And maybe I love her too."

Tanya stopped. She stared at him.

Evan dug through his laundry for a shirt. A few moments of silence passed while Evan dressed. Tanya said, "Evan. Was this a one-time thing, or not?"

"Yes. No. I don't know."

"Oh God, you're in deep."

Evan sighed. "Did you just come over here to be annoying?"

"Yes. Oh my God. This is better than my mom's novellas."

"I'm glad you think this is so funny," said Evan as he pulled on his shoes. He was feeling grim, and it showed. He was so tired. He felt empty. He didn't feel broken, but definitely chipped.

When he turned and looked to Tanya, she was just watching him. She looked at that t-shirt. "You wanna give that back?"

Evan grabbed his jacket, and brushed past her. "Let's go."

"I did see her."

He paused in the open doorway.

"And?"

"And she definitely came."

"Good. Glad I can rely on you to be crass."

"She loves you too."

"She told me."

Tanya touched his arm, tugged him to turn around and face her. "Quit this job, Evan. Get a real one. Get a life. She's gonna teach string theory or whatever. She will leave you behind if you don't watch out."

Evan said, "They always leave me behind. What's one more mousy college kid?"

What he meant was, I will not let her break me. I'm already cracking.

"You know that's not how you feel," said Tanya. She ducked under his arm, and put her head on his chest. She hugged him with one arm, and he sighed. He rested his arm on her shoulders.

"I feel like I'm falling apart."

"Mousy college kids will do that to you."

"Is that why you have three kids?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Yep. Had a mousy college kid show me how wonderful the boring life was. And then he went and got in a car wreck and left me alone with three kids and a broken heart."

"Is that why you're such a slut?"

"Oh, no, I was like that before. I've been like that since I was sixteen. How do you think I made it through my stressful-ass degree program without doing drugs?"

Evan felt a pang of frustration. He wished, rather desperately, that he hadn't dropped out of college. He wished he'd stayed in school and got some kind of boring job. That he had just stayed out of the criminal life altogether. The money had been so good, and the life so alluring.

Now, he was just tired, and quickly running out of time to make a change.

Though, if he was being totally honest with himself, he had a pretty strong feeling that all of this was going to blow up in his face pretty soon anyway. He had a bad feeling about Gran, and about Isobel, and about Rodney.

Rodney. That little jerk was starting to worry him.

After a pause, Evan said, "So, are we going to the hospital or what?"

Tanya said, "Yeah, but your grandma needs some stuff from in the house."

"How did you know?" he asked.

"She texted me."

"Does everyone text you now?"

"Well, someone had to tell her the good news about her love spell."

Evan's mouth dropped open. "What? No. No. No."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "No. It wasn't that. I promise, what happened between you two was one hundred percent organic."

"I'm choosing to believe you."

Inside the house, Tanya packed up some of Gran's stuff, while looking around at the state of each individual room. "Who did all this?"

"I didn't see the guys. Isobel almost shot one of them."

"What? Seriously?"

"Yeah. It's what made Gran have her heart attack."

"What a little bad ass."

"I don't know that that was that impressive. She didn't actually shoot the guy."

"Who sent them? This happened to KC once, they were just there to scare him. Didn't work, obviously, and KC tracked them down and kicked the spit out of them."

"I have a pretty good feeling I know who sent them.

* * *

Tanya was texting the entire drive to the hospital. It was a gray, miserable day. Evan wondered if that meant bad news. Of course, he realized he was being ridiculous. The whole idea was ridiculous. He was not going to start thinking that ridiculous nonsense.

He was a rational man.

Or something like that.

Tanya followed him into the hospital, and to the elevators. They passed silently through the corridors. Evan didn't like it here. He felt sick himself, under the greenish fluorescent light. Once they reached the room, both he and Tanya stopped and stood quietly in the doorway.

Isobel was there.

She was asleep on a cot. She was curled up, uncomfortable but probably exhausted. Glory was sitting up in her bed, flipping through a deck of tarot cards. She looked up, and smiled in a mean way, as if she knew their dirty secret.

All she said was, "Thank God, I'm starving. Will someone go get me a burger?"

Tanya raised her hand, and said, "What do you want?"

"I literally don't care. If it comes with bacon, I'll kiss you."

"Curly fries?"

Glory said, "I think we're the same person, Tanya."

"Oh, I'm way nicer than you. I'll be back in twenty minutes."

She abandoned Evan in the doorway. He walked in and closed the door behind him. "How long has she been here?"

"Oh, a few hours. She came by after class. Said she wanted me to finish her blanket."

The blanket in question was thrown across Isobel. It was beautiful. Red and blue and purple all together, in Isobel's thick and thin spinning. Her hair was a mess all across the uncomfortable hospital pillow.

"Gran, did you maybe interfere with something you shouldn't have?"

Gran looked at him with her sarcastic eyes. She wasn't wearing any makeup, but the effect was still pretty potent.

"Evan, I have known since the moment that girl walked in that she was going to be something special. Also, I do not know how you got so suspicious, but you really should relax. Witchcraft only works if you think it does."

He sighed, a little frustrated already.

"What's the house look like?"

"Trash. I haven't even called someone to fix the door yet."

"I would go ahead and do that. Maybe now."

"Don't tell me what to do," Evan said with no heat in his voice, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Glory helped him connect to the hospital Wi-Fi, and he looked up a locksmith. He called them, and set up a time the next day that they would come.

"You know that broken door is an invitation for someone else to come break in."

"What are they gonna take? They smashed all the TVs."

"Dicks."

Glory took a breath. Her heart rate spiked, and Evan looked around for a button to call the nurse.

"Don't bother," she said. "They can see my heart rate on the TV at the nurse's desk. It'll be alright."

Evan sighed. Glory was pale. She looked upset.

"Do you think you'll need to see someone?"

"For what? My heart? I'm seeing someone right now."

"No, I mean for . . . Well you look pretty upset."

She did. She was shaking, her heart rate was elevated, and she kept taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. He had never seen his grandmother so vulnerable, and he hated it. He hated that this had happened at all, but that it had caused such chaos was even worse. He looked at the flecks of black and blue in the linoleum floor.

"You think this is the first time something like this has happened to me? I'll be alright."

A moment of silence passed.

"I think I have to fire Isobel."

Glory snorted. "You thought I needed help."

"What? She almost had to shoot someone. She was freaked out last night."

"Clearly. Let me tell you something, kid, I am fairly certain I know what happened last night, after you two went home, and I think I know exactly how Isobel is feeling about it. She isn't some wilting flower. She's a tough turd."

"Ew."

"Shut up. Anyway, you don't have to worry about either of us."

"How does everyone know about what happened?"

"We don't, we are all guessing and you're confirming it. Also, how does everyone know? Who knows already?"

"So far, you and Tanya. By tomorrow? Everyone in the country."

Glory chuckled. "Stop treating it like a big deal."

"It felt like a big deal. Can we stop talking about this? You're my grandmother, it's weird."

"Sure. Done. Done talking about this."

Glory turned on the TV and the two sat watching it. Isobel stayed asleep. Listening to her soft breathing was putting Evan in an uncomfortable place, but he also didn't want to leave. Not yet. Should he fire her? He wasn't sure. He didn't want to upset her, but if she was fired, it would mean she didn't have to be around them anymore—and by extension, he might not have to look at her anymore and remember her soft skin, or the way she looked up at him when they touched, they kissed, they . . . This was never going to get easier.

He looked over when they heard a small noise. Isobel turned, rolling onto her back as she stretched as long as she could, her arms, ribs, and back arching. Evan looked away. He felt that he owed her some kind of privacy. In his peripheral vision he could see her sit up, wiggle around to stretch again. He'd seen her wake up before, and the process was rather fascinating.

"What time is it?" she asked, even as she reached for her phone.

"Time for you to get a watch," said Glory.

"My grandma says that all the time."

"Your grandma is a smart woman."

Glory turned to Evan. She pointed to her purse, and said, "Give Isobel my keys."

Evan and Isobel both looked up sharply to her. Glory did not retract. "What, did I grow a second head? They said that might happen, they said they gave me a few radioactive tests. But give Isobel my keys while you're staring at me."

"Why am I being given your keys?"

"So you can take my car and get into the house."

"Glory, I have a car."

"Your car is crap. Take mine, I'm not using it anyway. Put gas in it."

Isobel was blushing bright red. Evan got up as he was told and looked through his grandma's bag. He found the keys, and brought them over to Isobel. As he handed her the keys, his heart sank.