Wishful Thinking Read online

  “I called you because my birthday wish is screwing up my life—again,” Phil snapped. “I’m fighting with my fiancé, I’m about to lose my job, and I hurt some people who are very close to me because I can’t stop saying what I think.”

  “Well, that is what you wished for,” her fairy godmother sniffed. “I wish I could really speak my mind,” she parroted in an exact imitation of Phil’s own voice. “I didn’t think it was a particularly intelligent wish myself. But then, I don’t make up these wishes, I just grant them.” She waved her silver wand to illustrate her point and Phil had to slap at the sparks it dripped onto the VW’s seat.

  “I just wanted to be able to stand up for myself,” she protested angrily. “I didn’t mean that I wanted every single thought in my head to come straight out of my mouth.”

  “Well then, you should have worded your request more carefully,” her fairy godmother snapped back. “And now I suppose you want me to fix it.”

  Phil’s mouth got the better of her. “Damn right I want you to fix it! You need to reverse this wish right now—before my life is completely ruined by your incompetence.” She regretted her hasty words as soon as she said them. As inept and irritating as her fairy godmother was, there was no point in antagonizing her. But with the wish controlling her mouth, there was no helping it.

  “Well!” The FG fanned her mother of pearl wings in agitation, causing a small hurricane inside the bug that whipped the loose strands of Phil’s hair into her eyes. “Of all the horrid, disgusting, ungrateful—”

  “Look, I’m sorry,” Phil said. “But I can’t help what I say! Your magic seems to have removed all the filters between my brain and my mouth. Please just reverse the wish. Please?”

  “All right.” Her fairy godmother lifted her chin and a strange glitter came into her silvery eyes. “Granted,” she said in a very unpleasant voice. “Your wish is hereby reversed. Now don’t bother me again!” Phil felt the all-over Pop Rocks in Diet Coke tingling sensation of a granted wish. Then the FG vanished with another puff of pink smoke and a nasty laugh leaving nothing behind her but the odor of burnt rose petals lingering in the air.

  Granted. Her wish had been granted. Phil breathed a cautious sigh of relief, then decided she’d better test it out first. Closing her eyes, she thought of what she really thought of her fairy godmother which included some of the filthiest four letter words she knew and waited to start shouting her thoughts out. But no, to her intense relief, her lips stayed shut. She opened her eyes. She was cured. But wait—did that mean that she was back to having a lamb-like temperament too?

  Phil closed her eyes again and remembered her last argument with Christian. Should she have dropped her dinner plans with Nana and her sisters and Josh to go to her fiancé’s party? Did she have an overwhelming urge to go apologize for ruining his night? She frowned, feeling upset all over again. Hell no. And no to giving up law school, too. And no to putting off the wedding… Well, maybe that could wait for a little while. She and Christian needed to do some serious talking before they walked down the aisle. But at least she didn’t feel the need to apologize for everything she’d said and try to smooth things over.

  And in the mean time, it looked like she was cured of her foot-in-mouth disease. And she had retained the ability to think for herself. Great!

  Phil fairly skipped up the stairs to her apartment. She knew what she would find when she opened the door. Christian would be sitting up waiting for her, no doubt worried that she had been out so long after midnight. They would sit on the couch and talk late into the night, the way they had when they were first dating. Phil would explain quietly, and with tact, all of her concerns and her fiancé would listen to her—really listen, she was sure. Then they would come to an agreement about the future and she would find out all their fights about her going to law school had been based on a big misunderstanding. Probably he had been trying to offer her what he thought was a better life than the one she had planned for herself and he had just expressed himself badly. After all, Christian was a man and men were always saying the wrong thing, weren’t they? And after the last day and a half she certainly knew how that felt.

  She unlocked the front door, ready to fall into her fiancé’s arms. But he wasn’t there. He wasn’t sitting in the living room waiting for her and he wasn’t making pot after pot of coffee worrying about her, either. When Phil found him, he was snoring on his side of the bed.

  “Christian?” She patted him lightly on the arm. “Christian, I’m home. I’m sorry dinner ran late.”

  “Hmph.” He rolled over in his sleep and exhaled in her face. Phil jerked back—his breath was thick with Scotch fumes. Well, so much for the idea of him worrying about her, she thought sourly.

  She sighed and went in the bathroom to catch a quick shower before bed. Well, at least she was back to normal now. They could talk things out in the morning.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  But in the morning when she rolled over, Christian’s side of the bed was cold. Phil fumbled around until she found a note on his pillow. Early meeting at the office. See you tonight. Christian.

  She read the note twice before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it across the room. Now that her thinking out loud problem was cured, she wanted to sit down and talk to her fiancé like rational adults. Her feelings for him had changed significantly in the past several months and that scared her. She wanted to know that he was scared too. She wanted reassurance that things were going to be all right. She wanted to hear Christian say he loved her so she could remind herself that she still loved him too. Was that so much to ask?

  Phil got up and was halfway to the front door to get the paper by force of habit when she stopped in her tracks. Christian wasn’t here so why should she fetch his paper? Let Mrs. Tessenbacker have it for once. But no…if she did that, all the ground she’d won yesterday would be lost. Better get it after all.

  Sighing, Phil opened the door and looked out. Sure enough, the paper was there, unmolested by either Mrs. Tessenbacker’s sticky fingers or her nasty little dog’s urine. All was right in the world. Phil was just reaching out to take it when she heard a slight creaking. Looking up, she saw Mrs. Tessenbacker’s beady little eye staring at her through the crack of the door.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Tessenbacker,” she said, relieved that she felt no need to express any of the thoughts she was currently having about her cheap, thieving neighbor out loud.

  Mrs. Tessenbacker made a noise like hrmph and started to shut her door. But then, to Phil’s surprise, she opened it instead and came out into the hall. Doodle-bug danced out behind her yipping and growling at her feet. She stood out in front of Phil’s front door and put her hands on her broad hips.

  “Cheap, she calls me,” she said loudly, frowning at Phil. “And says my little Doodle-bug smells!”

  “Please, Mrs. Tessenbacker, keep it down!” Phil looked up and down the hall at the other apartment doors to see if anyone was coming out to see what the racket was about.

  “But you don’t understand what my life was like,” her elderly neighbor continued loudly. “I came up during the Depression. Never enough food, my father couldn’t keep a job, so if there was anything to take, we took it.”

  “Um…okay.” Phil crossed her arms over her chest, hoping Mrs. Tessenbacker’s personal version of The Grapes of Wrath wouldn’t take too long. “I’m sorry you had a hard childhood. But I really don’t see how that has to do with you taking my paper instead of buying your own.”

  “We took it!” Mrs. Tessenbacker insisted loudly, as though Phil hadn’t spoken at all. “And that’s why I still take things. Your paper, fruit at the grocery store, aspirin at the drugstore…”

  “Um…Are you trying to tell me you’re a…a shoplifter?” Phil stared at her blankly. Why in the world would her neighbor tell her such a thing?

  Mrs. Tessenbacker’s tiny, beady eyes grew wide and she shook her head vigorously. She had a miserable look on her face and yet she seemed