Love Spell
Chapter 3: Spells Into Action
Nicole walked into the office the next day, a big smile on her face when she saw her boss on the floor of his office, croaking like the toad that he still was.
"I hope you enjoyed your night as a toad. I wish I could keep you one forever, but I need this job." Nicole sighed. "All right, how to I do this?" She thought for a moment, then wriggled her fingers at him. "Turn back into the sorry excuse for human you once were with your memories of being turned into a toad all a blur." She then snapped her fingers on both hands.
A mist appeared, cloaking the toad from her sight for just a moment. When the mist evaporated, her boss was human again. He had his eyes closed, and he was rubbing his forehead.
"Man, I suddenly have a killer headache! What were we talking about again?" he asked her.
"You wanted me to cover the mock Salem witch trial at the Halloween bash. I agreed to do it. It actually sounds like fun," Nicole said. She had decided to just play it cool with him. Arguing with him would get her nowhere. Again, she really needed this job.
Her boss nodded. "Well, good. Not like you had a choice, but I'm glad I don't have to argue with you on this one. You're fiancé gets home today, doesn't he?"
Nicole nodded. "Yes. How did you...?"
He made a gesture with his hand as if brushing her off. "I'm a reporter. It's my job to know things."
"I'm not quite sure my outside life is your business." Nicole couldn't help but be a little put off.
"Oh, relax, will ya? I've decided to do something nice for you today. I have too much of a headache to get any work done, and the piece on teacher-student sex scandal at the university isn't due until Friday. Why don't you take the day off, and report back in the morning?" her boss offered.
Nicole grinned. "Really?"
Her boss nodded. "Sure. I know you're eager to see your fiancé."
Nicole clapped her hands together. "Thank you!" She then left his office before he had a chance to change his mind. Maybe turning him into a toad had been good for him. She smirked at the thought.
Nicole arrived at Daniel's apartment and knocked on the door. She had called ahead of time just so she didn't come to his place only to find him with the redhead again. She didn't think she could stomach seeing those two together again. Not that she would have to much longer if the spell worked as it should.
Daniel opened the door and smiled widely at her. "You have no idea how much I missed you!" He held out his arms to her. "Come here."
Nicole hugged him, wishing so badly that he wasn't a dirty cheater. But he was. Not only that, but he was also a liar pretending he missed her when he clearly hadn't.
"So you have the whole day off, hm?" Daniel asked.
Nicole nodded. "Yep!
"Mm, so do I…" Daniel murmured kissing the side of her neck.
Nicole forced a smile. "Lucky me."
"What should we do, hm?" Daniel asked, still kissing down her neck.
Nicole used to live for making love with Daniel. Now, the thought made her want to barf. "I'm actually starving. Wanna go out to lunch?"
Daniel stopped kissing her. "Okay, sure. We can do that. Then maybe a hand-held stroll through the park afterward?"
Nicole nodded. "Sounds perfect."
"Just let me jump in the shower first, then we can go. All right?" Daniel asked her.
She nodded. "Sure thing."
He then grinned, and wriggled his eyebrows at her. "Care to join me?"
Nicole smiled, and gently stroked his cheek. "I would but I have a few phone calls to make before I'm all yours. Besides, I'm really hungry, and we both know that would only delay us."
Daniel sighed. "Oh, all right. Party pooper!" He kissed her cheek. "I'll make it quick!" He then sprinted off to the bathroom and shut the door. Moments later, the sound of the shower running was heard.
Nicole plopped herself down onto the couch and waited. "That spell should be taking affect any time now." She had put a delay on the curse so that she would be present when the bad things started happening. After all, what fun would making a show be if you didn't get to watch it?
Daniel was in the shower for no more than two minutes when suddenly, Nicole heard him cry out.
"What the hell?" Daniel's voice asked from the bathroom.
Nicole covered her mouth and stifled a cackle. His voice sounded normal enough. She was guessing his teeth didn't fall out yet. She was going to go with his hair falling out.
The water turned off and she heard him getting out of the shower. She heard his footsteps, and then he loudly cried out, "My hair! All my hair, it's gone!"
Nicole had to use a pillow to stifle her giggles. Then, once she was able to contain herself, she shot up off the couch, and ran over to the bathroom door. "Daniel, what's going on? Are you okay in there?" She pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle another giggle.
When Daniel opened the door, revealing patches of hair on his mainly bald scalp, Nicole had to literally bite her tongue in order to not burst out laughing.
Nicole placed a hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh, Daniel, what happened?"
Daniel shook his head. "I don't know! I was just in the shower, washing my hair as usual, when all the sudden my hair started coming out in chunks!"
"Oh my gosh!" Nicole removed her hands from her mouth. "What do you think happened?"
Daniel shook his head. "I don't know! I smelled my shampoo bottle. Nothing seems off about it. I think I'm going to have it brought to the lab for testing. Oh my gosh, I can't go out like this!"
Nicole shook her head, and took his hand. "Daniel, you never struck me as one to be vain. Men shave their heads all the time. Heck, they even go completely bald all the time." She kissed his cheek. "Why don't you get dressed? Then we can go eat. We can stop by the hospital after and you can have Kayla check your head to see why your hair fell out." She kissed his hand.
Daniel sighed. "All right, fine. But I'm shaving these remaining patches of hair off first! I'm not going out there looking like an idiot." He shut the door behind him, and a moment later, the sounds of him shaving his head could be heard.
Nicole finally let out the laughter she had been holding in. She was glad she had gotten him to agree to go out. After all, what fun was the destruction of Daniel Jonas if no one else could see it? And this was just the beginning! Oh, she was going to have fun with this spell. She could hardly wait for the rest of it to start working its magic! She smiled, knowing it would be more than worth the wait.
When they got to the Brady Pub, people were staring a little, but not gawking like Nicole hoped they would be.
"I feel like all eyes are on me," Daniel grumbled.
"Ah, don't worry about it. People are hardly noticing," Nicole said.
The waiter took their order shortly after and didn't even bat an eye. Nicole was disappointed. But then, the best thing happened. Eric Brady walked in.
Nicole couldn't believe her luck! Then again, it was Eric's family's pub, so she supposed it wasn't that far-fetched. She waved him over. "Hey, Eric, over here!"
"Nicole! What are you doing?" Daniel asked, looking alarmed.
Having a little fun, Nicole thought. Instead, she said, "I want to say hello to our friend. Don't worry, he's not going to judge you. He used to be a priest, remember?"
Eric got to their table then, and his mouth dropped open when he saw Daniel. "What the heck happened to you?"
Nicole grinned. "He decided to shave it all off. Doesn't it look good?"
Eric hesitated for a split second before slowly nodding his head. "Yeah, it's cool."
"You don't have to lie to spare my feelings. I know you hate it," Daniel said to him.
Eric blushed. "It's not that. It's just going to take some getting used to; that's all."
"The truth is, most of my hair fell out when washing it, so I had to shave the rest. I have no idea what happened," Daniel confessed.
"Did you have Kayla check your scalp out?" Eric asked. "There has to be a reason that happened to you. I mean, hair doesn't just fall out."
"I'm going to have her check it out right after we eat," Daniel assured him.
"Well, good luck with that. Let me know how it all turns out," Eric said.
"Thanks. I will," Daniel promised.
Eric patted him on the shoulder. "See you guys around," he glanced at Nicole, then Daniel before heading over to the bar.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Daniel said.
Nicole smiled fake sympathetically.
They were eating their food when it happened. Nicole had just finished her meal. She was glad, because, if she had still been eating, she would have surely choked on a burger or a fry.
When Daniel took the last bite of his burger, his two front teeth came right out with his bite of burger. "Oh my gosh!" he said as his mouth started dripping blood.
"Daniel! What happened?" Nicole asked, trying her best to not laugh, and to act concerned and surprised.
"I don't know! They just came right out!" Daniel said, his face ashen.
Nicole quickly handed him a napkin. "Here. Press this to your bleeding gums."
Daniel took the napkin from her and did as told.
"Give me your credit card. I'll pay the tab, then we'll get you to the doctor. Or do you want to go to a dentist now?" Nicole asked.
Daniel handed her his credit card with his free hand. "Kayla," he said, his voice slightly muffled from the napkin.
"I'll hurry!" Nicole said, running up to pay.
I should totally be an actress, she thought to herself with a slight smile poking at the corner of her mouth. Poor, poor, Daniel. Everything seemed to be going wrong for him, and Kayla wasn't going to have a clue what it was. Daniel was only going to get worse too! Hm… She guessed it would be a while before his little redheaded mistress was going to want anything to do with him—or anyone else for that matter. What a pity.
Just as Nicole knew would happen, Kayla had no idea what was wrong with Daniel.
The bleeding in Daniel's gums had finally stopped, but with him bald and missing his two front teeth, he was already quite unsightly.
"I'm sorry, Daniel, but I have no idea why your hair has fallen out. We'll get those lab results on the shampoo as soon as we can. If there's nothing in the shampoo, then I'm afraid you may just be losing your hair prematurely," Kayla said.
"But all at once and out of nowhere?" Daniel asked.
Kayla shrugged. "It's extremely peculiar, and I personally have never seen anything like it, but there's a first time for everything, right?"
"I want to have more tests run. I need to know if I will ever be getting my hair back, and if there are treatments available that will work for me," Daniel said.
Kayla nodded. As soon as we get the lab results in from the shampoo bottle, we can go from there. Now why don't you get to a dentist and have those teeth looked at? I'll let you know as soon as we know anything. I promise."
Daniel nodded. "All right, thank you."
So, once he was done there, Daniel got on his cell phone and called the dentist. However, he couldn't be seen until the next day.
"Do you still want to go for that walk in the park?" Nicole asked him, her arm latched with his.
"No, I think I want to just go home and rest. Do you mind if we call it a night early?" Daniel asked. "I just want to sleep, and forget any of this ever happened. At least until I wake up."
Nicole kissed his cheek. "I understand. Are you sure you don't want me to come over?"
Daniel nodded. "I'm sure. I wouldn't be any fun anyway."
"All right." Nicole kissed his cheek again. She certainly wasn't going to kiss the toothless wonder on the lips! "I'll call you later tonight to check up on you."
"All right," he said. He then walked on ahead of her towards his home.
Nicole smiled once he was gone. "Sorry, Danny Boy, but it's only going to get worse for you." She headed home, wondering how Theresa and Kate were doing with their potions.
Brady opened the door when Theresa rang the doorbell. Anger instantly flashed over his face when he saw who it was. "I see I'm going to have to get that restraining order. I'm disappointed. I thought you would take the hint, but you didn't. I'm sorry it has to come to this, Theresa."
"Brady, wait! I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I came by because I know I have to stay away from you, but I didn't want our final goodbye being the way it was. Can't we please end things civilly?" Theresa asked.
Brady crossed his arms over his chest. "And how do you suggest we do that, Theresa? Hm? Do you want a handshake? You're not getting a hug, so you can forget about that!"
"Look!" Theresa took out two cans of lemonade. "I got you some of that lemonade you like. Can we just have one drink together?"
Brady hesitated for a moment. "If I drink my lemonade with you, will you leave as soon as we're finished?"
Theresa nodded. "Of course! Never to bother you again."
"I'm going to hold you to that. Get in here." Brady stepped back.
"Thank you!" Theresa stepped into his house, and headed into the living room. She sat down on the couch.
Brady closed the door, then headed into the living room after her. He sat down on the chair beside the couch.
Theresa handed Brady a lemonade.
"Thanks," he said.
They both cracked open their cans.
Before leaving for Brady's place, Theresa had opened his can and poured the potion in, then used magic to seal it back up. She had marked the top of hers with a red marker so that she knew which one was hers.
They sipped their lemonades.
"So, how was your day?" Theresa asked him.
"It was all right. It will be even better if you keep your word and never come back here again after today," Brady replied.
"I told you I wouldn't, and I won't," Theresa assured him.
"Good!" Brady said coldly.
They didn't say anything to each other as they drank the rest of their lemonades.
Once Theresa had finished hers, and once she had watched Brady drink the last drop of his, she stood up to leave. She extended her hand to him. "Well, thank you for sharing a drink with me, Brady. I will keep my word, and you'll never have to see me again. It was nice knowing you while I did."
Brady stood up as well, and took her hand. He shook it for a second, then pulled her close to him. "Wait."
Theresa smiled, and batted her eyelashes at him. "Yes, Brady?"
"Don't go. Stay. Please." He placed his hands on each side of her face, then gently kissed her. "Stay with me, please?"
Theresa grinned widely. It worked! The potion had really worked! She wrapped her arms around his waist. "Of course I'll stay, Brady. Why would I leave?"
Brady kissed her again, and she kissed him back. Revenge would be sweet. But first, she was going to have a little fun.
Kate smiled when Clyde sat down across from her at Club TBD.
He grinned cockily at her. "I knew you couldn't stay away from me."
"You win. I got lonely without you. I don't like when you're mad at me." Kate put on her best pout.
"It's all right, Darlin'! We all make mistakes. Just don't let it happen again, all right?" Clyde asked.
"Of course not. I won't be such a fool twice." She smiled at him, and gently rubbed his hand.
Clyde kissed her hand. "And you will be available to me whenever I need you, right? No more excuses, no more cancelled dates, and no being late?"
Kate shook her head. "I will be available to you whenever you need me. No excuses, no cancelling our dates, and no being late."
Clyde grinned at her. "I'm glad we understand each other now."
Kate resisted the urge to throttle him, and pushed his drink toward him. "I got you a drink so we can toast to our new beginning."
Clyde sniffed is drink. "Scotch on the rocks. You know just what I like, Darling!"
Kate smiled. "Mm… Indeed I do."
"To us beginning again, and to you changing the error of your ways," Clyde said, holding his glass out to her.
Kate smirked. "To us beginning again, and to me changing the errors of my ways."
They clinked their glasses then drank up.
Kate watched with great pleasure as Clyde drank all of his drink down in one gulp.
He set his glass down, looking a little dazed.
Kate smiled. "Clyde, go get me another Blue Martini. And make it quick!"
"Yes, Ma'am! Your wish is my command, my Darling!" Clyde hopped right out of his seat, and went to get Kate her drink.
"The spell is working most excellently," Kate said with a smile as she ran her finger along the rim of her current Blue Martini. "He's under my spell, and will do everything I say. His mind and body won't leave him any other choice. Now he's going to see what it feels like when the tables are turned." Kate cackled to herself. From now on, Clyde was going to be her slave. She would work him to the bone. He would be forced to do whatever she commanded of him. His days of being the boss, large and in charge were over. And that was only the beginning of her plans for him…
She smirked at the thought.
