She’s incomprehensible on the phone but it’s something about Draco and she’s hysterical. I tell her I’ll be there right away. I leave the mess of paperwork on my desk and grab my jacket, texting as I wait for the elevator.

“Lauren!” I yell from the other side of her door after three knocks. “Are you ok?”

She eventually comes out, sobbing. Takes me by the hand and leads me to the sofa.

“What is it?” I ask her, my alarm growing.

“Draco,” she sniffles.

“What’s wrong with him?” I ask, hugging her tightly, fearing the worst, but honored that she’s called me in her time of need.

“I took him to the vet…” she mutters through tears. “They said it didn’t look good. He’s got to stay there tonight. I don’t want him to die.”

She hugs me back tightly. Her back is trembling and she’s crying desperately into my jacket. I just want to make it better, but I don’t know how. It’s a terrible feeling. I just carry on hugging her, knowing it’s all I can do. “I really like you, Lauren,” I suddenly blurt out. “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

She draws in a deep breath, and ceases sobbing. Pulls back from me and looks up at me, those beautiful brown-green eyes blinking back tears. “Love?” she gasps.

“Yes, love. I think I have the worst case of insta-love this side of the Atlantic,” I say teasingly, hoping to cheer her up.

But her eyes quickly fill with even more distress. “You don’t love me, Jackson!” she suddenly cries out. “You just think you do! You’re under a spell! It’s the love potion. That’s the only reason you think you love me. You’d never be with me otherwise. I’m not blonde, am I? You didn’t notice me until poor Draco pooed on your welcome mat.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” She’s making no sense at all A love potion?

“I bought a love potion from a gypsy woman,” she explains miserably.

I stare at her in surprise. “You bought a…love potion to use on me?”

She chews her bottom lip and nods.

“Right,” I say slowly. “So when did I ingest this…potion then?”

“It’s a long story, but I’ll give you the gist of it. After I bought it I changed my mind, but Danny secretly put it into your cake. I didn’t know he had done it and only found out when he rang me after I’d served it to you. I ran out to get it back, but you had already eaten it.

Ahh, the cake she’d given to me on our very first date. No wonder she had walked up to me as if I was a bomb that could have gone off any moment. I can’t help but laugh when I remember her face.

She frowns. “Why are you laughing?”

“Oh, Lauren, my sweet Lauren, you don’t understand. I have no idea what you’re going on about with this love potion. All I know is that I didn’t eat the cake.”

Her jaw drops. “What do you mean, you didn’t eat the cake?”

“I’m not really a cake person. And I ate a lot of your delicious meal.”

“Oh,” she says, her eyes softening and filling with wonder, “Really? You didn’t eat it?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. So you can’t blame the cake.”

She frowns. “But you were already yawning and people only do that when they’re losing interest, then after you ate the cake you changed. You were like a different person.”

I laughed. “No, I wasn’t. I pretended to yawn so I could ask you to get me coffee. Then you’d leave the room and I could disappear the cake.”

“Why?”

“Because I hate red velvet cake. I hated it ever since I was child. We were eating in a restaurant and I got a fish bone stuck in my throat. I was choking to death. My mother grabbed somebody’s dessert from the next table, which turned out to be a slice of red velvet cake. She smashed it and turned it into a ball in her hands. Then she stuffed it into my mouth, closed my jaw, and made me swallow it. It pushed the bone down and I could breathe again, but ever since that trauma I’m paranoid about bony fish, and hate the taste of red velvet cake.”

“Oh,” she whispers.

“I really liked you and I didn’t want you to hurt your feelings that evening. You had gone to a lot of trouble to bake a different one just for me, and I was damned if I was going to make you feel bad. At the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to eat red velvet. I couldn’t believe it when your mother tried to offer me one. Hell, I nearly ran out of your house then.”

“So, you really do have feelings for me then?” she asks in awe.

“I do, yes. I liked you from the first moment I saw you, bouncing up the steps, chatting away to Draco as if he was a person, not realizing I was just behind you.”

“Oh, my God, that’s so embarrassing.”

“It was utterly adorable,” I say, “I wanted to ask you out, but I thought you were with Danny so I told myself it was for the best. I didn’t need the distraction what with the building work I had just taken on.”

“Really?” she asks, wide-eyed.

I can hardly believe any girl this gorgeous could be so unsure of herself.

“When you first asked me to dinner I was smiling because I’d promised myself the next time I saw you, I would ask you out. But I chickened out and you got there first. I was very impressed.”

“I was too, actually,” she says and laughs.

Jeez, I really love this girl a lot. Maybe too much.

And then she’s kissing me, her hands either side of my face. I kiss her back, with all my heart. Her lips tasting of salty tears and I kiss them all away.

She’s laughing into my kiss and then crying again.

“But don’t you think I’m crazy?” she asks. “I tried to put a spell on you!”

I can’t help but laugh. “I think you’re crazy, yes! But I love it.”

She giggles through her tears but then she stops. “What happened to the cupcake, then? Where did it go?”

“I…” I stop suddenly. Oh, shit. She’s not going to like this part.

“What is it?”

“Draco ate it,” I confess with a grimace.

She stares at me in horror. “The whole thing? He’s not supposed to eat stuff like that. He’s old now, Jackson and he has a delicate system. I spend a substantial part of my income buying him the very best food and supplements.” Suddenly she goes white. “Oh, my God! Dire consequences, she said. That’s why he has suddenly fallen ill. Draco is never ill. Oh, no. He could die.”

I go to hug her again but her body stiffens and she looks at me accusingly. “How could you do that?”

“Hey, hang on a minute. I didn’t mean to hurt Draco. I actually held it out for Tyrion to eat, but Draco jumped up and literally snatched it from his jaws.”

“If you had just been honest with me, I could have rushed him to the vet and told them to pump his stomach or something.”

“I didn’t know it wasn’t anything but cake. My dog eats cake without any problems and the way he jumped up and stole it was like he was used to it.”

“No, he did that because he never gets anything like that. I’m very strict with his diet.”

“Anyway, all this happened more than a week ago so how can it be the reason he is ill now?” I argue.

“Who knows how long the medicine takes to show its effect.”

“I’m so very sorry, Lauren. I know how much you love Draco and I would do anything to make it better for both of you.”

She shakes her head sadly. “It’s ok. There isn’t anything you can do. I think I just want to be alone for a while. I need to think.” A lone tear slides down her cheek making me feel awful.

I wipe away the tear away and kiss her on the forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“I know. Can you please go now?”

I can see that she is blaming me because she needs someone to blame. “I don’t want to leave you like this.”

“I’m fine. I promise you. I’ll call you later, okay?”

I stand up, feeling lost and helpless. It’s a horrible feeling. “Text me if you need anything,” I say as I walk to the door, but she doesn’t reply.