A dog’s tongue laps on my face, dragging me from sleep.

“No…please, no. Have a heart, Draco.” I turn my head to the side and that’s not a good idea, since it feels like there’s a marching band storming through my brain.

Draco doesn’t care. He just jumps over my prone body, stretches out on the bed and starts licking from the other side. He’s easy that way.

“I said, cut it out. I fed you when I got home.” Crossing my arms over my face doesn’t help. “And I took you out too, even though it was late at night and even though I hate walking around late at night. So don’t tell me you need anything right this very minute.”

But Draco just wants love. And licking. Lots of licking. The dog is a lick addict. He might need an intervention.

A brief opening of my eyes confirms my greatest fear…its morning, it’s a bright morning, and my head feels like it’s going to split straight open. Why did I drink that sixth or seventh martini? Even the fourth one is never a good idea, no matter how smart it seems at the time.

At least I had the foresight to leave a bottle of water on the bedside table, which I drink from very gladly. At least my stomach isn’t churning.

The memories of the night flash before me. Yuck. I hold my head and groan, my mind still ticking away slowly. My heart suddenly sinks. Oh, my God. The gypsy woman. Zelda. Shit. I hope for a second it’s some kind of nightmare. But nope, the memory solidifies. I gave her four hundred bucks.

“Draco, why am I so stupid?” I groan as my head sinks back into the pillow.

He snuggles in next to me, which is pretty much all he wanted to do in the first place, and stares at me with the same adoration he always stares at me with. It doesn’t matter to him that I blew four hundred bucks last night.

“That’s going to a lot fewer treats for you, little boy,” I whisper, absently stroking his fluffy, white fur.

He sighs.

“I know. It was a very, very dumb thing to do. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though. You wouldn’t understand it, but lots of things seem like a good idea when you’re drunk.” I open one eye and look down at him as his big, brown eyes are staring at me. “Like, you know when you’re in the middle of eating your favorite treat and you’re just completely blissed out and not thinking straight and everything in the world is awesome? Yeah. That sort of feeling.”

But even Draco, a dog, wouldn’t do something as stupid as I did. Four hundred dollars for a vial of what’s probably nothing but tap water. Women like Zelda capitalize on the loneliness of others to turn a quick buck. No wonder she was laughing when we left. Probably counting her money.

My purse is lying on the floor. I pick it up, scramble around in the bottom of it, and find the tiny glass vial. The liquid has a pink tinge to it and I ease out the cork, sniffing inside, but it doesn’t really smell like anything. Maybe slightly sweet. I put it to one side and sigh. What a prize idiot! Spending insane amounts of money, I can’t afford.

My head needs pain relief and my heart needs coffee. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I drag myself out of bed and stumble towards the door.

Danny, my roommate’s door is open. I guess he must have come back a day early. I look in, but it is empty. He is already up and out, probably at a yoga class or something similar. Since he went alcohol free, he’s a changed man and its mornings like today when I wonder if I should take a leaf out of his book. Especially as I pick up the discarded items of clothing from the night before and toss them in the laundry basket. I have no idea how my shoes ended up where I found them; one in the kitchen and the other in the bathroom. But that could easily have been down to Draco rather than me.

I pour the coffee down my throat, fall back into bed, and drift off to sleep again. The phone wakes me up a couple of hours later, and I nearly fall out of bed trying to get to it. For some weird reason, I thought it might be work, but it is only Nina.

“How are you feeling today?” she asks with a dry chuckle.

“Probably about as good as you—but poorer. Considerably poorer.”

“Come on. It’s not that bad. You’ve spent more than that in a day at the mall. I was there. I remember.”

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between dropping that sort of cash at the mall and blowing it away the way I did last night. I have nothing to show for it.”

“You have the potion.”

Which is sitting on the end table, staring at me. Blaming me. Laughing at me. “Yeah, well, whoopee doo.”

“Come on…” She laughs. “I’m sorry. It was all my idea and I feel like garbage for even suggesting it, but she sounded so nice and helpful when I called her and I was very drunk last night too.”

“You have a point there. It was all your idea and I think I will silently hold you responsible for the duration of our friendship.”

She laughs. “Want to go halves?”

“Nah.”

“You sure? Because I really don’t mind.”

That is what I love about Nina. She is a truly sweet natured person. “Nah. It was my decision. Thanks though.”

“All right. So you spent some money. No big deal. You won’t even feel it in a month or so. And you have a fantastic story…I mean, come on. I know I’ll never forget what happened last night. And I plan to bring it up at your wedding someday. You know. When you marry the guy next door.”

“Shut up,” I groan, putting a hand over my eyes. “That’s never going to happen. She’s a con-woman pure and simple. She even lied about it being full moon last night.”

“Yeah, but that’s just a sales tactic. She was adding urgency and a sense of drama to the situation. The candles did all flicker at once when she yelled at us to shut up.”

“You’re right. That did happen. I think I peed a little when it did.”

She giggled. “Oh, I’d be surprised if I didn’t.”

“Either she’s really magic, or it was an effect she set up in the house. Who knows what she’s set up behind those velvet curtains of hers?”

“Speaking of her house,” Nina continues, “what was up with that? It was like a movie set.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” I say glumly.

“And the hoarder conditions in the kitchen. I assume from the noise in there, anyway.”

We both laugh, and I feel a lot better. She’s right…it’s a crazy story, something the three of us will share for the rest of our lives, and how can you put a price tag on something like that?

“So. I have to ask. You know I have to ask.”

I roll my eyes—which doesn’t matter, because she can’t see it. “Am I going to use it?”

“Yes.”

“No,” I say firmly.

“Lauren!”

“Nina!” I tease.

“Come on,” she whines. “You went to all the trouble to get it and spent all that money.”

“I thought this was going to be just a fantastic story we could all look back on and laugh over.”

“What idiot told you that?”

“Lay off, okay? Please. It was a silly idea. I can’t do something like that to a total stranger. Who knows what is even in that bottle. It could be poisonous.”

“Why did you even buy it if you’re going to punk out like this?”

“Because I was drunk and you guys pressured me.”

“Andrea didn’t want you to do it at all.”

“Yeah, which is what pressured me,” I mutter. “I wanted to prove her wrong.”

“Gotcha. I still think it’s worth a shot, though.”

“Why?”

“Because how could she survive if she’s a scam artist? Wouldn’t word of mouth get around? I mean, this is the internet age, babe. If somebody’s pizza shows up late, the first thing they do is go online to complain. I mean, they don’t even eat the pizza right away, they’re so busy going online to complain.”

“You have a point.”

“I say go for it. What do you have to lose?”

“Oh, I don’t know. My self-respect?”

“Psh. Who needs that?”

“I do, if I’m going to keep living next door to Mr. Miller.”

“So that’s his name? I thought you two never really talked.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t check out his mail.”

She laughs. “Stalker.”

“Says the woman who wants me to trick him into taking a love potion.”

I do feel better by the time we’re off the phone.

My phone pings, and I’m lulled out of my TV trance.