A/N: Thanks for your reviews; sorry for the long delay.

Chapter 3

Late that afternoon, Johanna rooted through her purse for her keys, agitation stirring in her blood as she thought about the fortune teller and the mishaps that had already befallen her…and the heckling that had gone along with it. She sighed deeply as she finally found her key and shoved it in the lock of the door; she should've just stayed home. She pushed the door open and swept inside quickly, closing it behind her as if she could lock out the curse that now plagued her.

"Hey, sweetheart," Jim said from his place on the couch where he was stretched out with the remote in hand.

"Hey," she replied as she put away her purse and pulled off her boots. "You're home early."

"The game sucked; neither team should've been allowed on the field if it was going to suck that bad," Jim stated.

"What about playing pool?"

"No one wanted to play for money…we finished one game and no one wanted to play anymore."

"Why not?"

"I don't know…Phil was being weird, Jeff seemed preoccupied, Zach kept going to the payphone to call and argue with Claudia. Sam didn't show up, Antonio didn't stay long…I don't know…I was looking forward to it and then it sucked. I left early because there didn't seem to be much point in sticking around."

"I'm sorry, honey."

"It's not your fault."

"Where's Spooky?" she asked, hoping to hold off on her nightmare for a few more minutes.

"In her box," he answered, waving the remote at the box beneath the coffee table. "I gave her a little bit of that leftover chicken as a treat and now she's napping."

"Did you take the skin off of it? I don't know if she could handle that part."

Jim nodded. "Yes, I took it off and gave her some of the meat. She enjoyed it."

"Was she okay when you got home?" she asked as she knelt down and ran her hand over Spooky's fur.

"She was fine; and she seems to know how to use her box in the pantry, so either she was trained prior to her abandonment or she just knows, but she didn't have any accidents. When I came in, she was rolling around on the floor with your scarf…so you might need a new one because that's apparently her toy now."

"Small sacrifice to make," she replied, seeing that her red scarf was hanging over the side of the cardboard box that Spooky was sleeping in.

"How was your day?" Jim asked as she got up from the floor.

She frowned as she moved toward him, leaning down to brush a kiss against his lips. "Don't let me go out without you anymore, I don't like it."

Jim's brow furrowed and he sat up, catching hold of her wrist and drawing her down beside him. "What happened?"

She wrung her hands, trying to find the right words to explain but none seemed to suffice. "I got cursed," she said bluntly, tears filling her eyes. "That's what happened. I got cursed!"

"What?!"

"I got cursed!"

"Jo, what the hell are you talking about?"

"We went to see the fortune teller…."

"Of course you did," he sighed. "What hogwash did she convince you of, Jo? You said you didn't believe in it but clearly you do."

"I didn't believe in it! I even said so to the girls before we went in but then Madame Zelda started telling things that were true…."

"Did she really guess these things or did she subtly get them out of you? You know they have ways of doing that."

Johanna shook her head. "No, she didn't! She told us that Sharon is pregnant!"

"She probably saw her wedding ring and thought she'd tell her she's pregnant, she'll run out to the doctor and get a test and she won't be…"

"No!" Johanna interrupted. "When she said it, Sharon admitted that she's pregnant…she's known for a week and hasn't told anyone other than Phil and their parents."

"Is she sure?" Jim asked.

"Yes!"

He blew out a breath. "Guess that's why Phil looked like he had been sentenced to an execution or something."

"Madame Zelda mentioned that too, saying Sharon's husband has mixed feelings about the situation, and Sharon said that's true, and Zelda told her he just needs time to process it and he'll be fine with it."

"She doesn't know that."

"Apparently she does!" Johanna exclaimed. "She also said there's a female relative with boundary issues in Sharon's life and we all know that's Phil's mother."

"That doesn't prove anything; there isn't a woman alive who doesn't have some issue with another woman in their family. That's just a law of nature."

"Yeah, well, she still got the big stuff right! She knew she was pregnant."

Jim waved a hand as if he was brushing away a pesky fly. "Who cares? It was a lucky guess, a woman with a wedding ring, fifty percent chance that she's pregnant."

"Will you take this seriously!?" Johanna exclaimed.

"No and neither should you! So what she guessed a few things about Sharon. It doesn't mean anything."

"Yes, it does…it means she knows what she's doing…she might be one of the few that isn't a fraud."

Jim scoffed. "Doubtful."

"You won't think that come midnight on Halloween!"

"Jo," he sighed. "What did she say to you?"

"I'll get to that after I give you more proof that she knows what she's doing. When it was Maggie's turn, she said Maggie had just had big success at work…and she did, she just won that huge case earlier this week."

"Yeah, and it was in the newspaper, maybe Madame Zelda recognized her from the picture."

"Oh please, I don't even remember what the picture looked like and Maggie's one of my best friends!"

"You don't remember what it looks like because while you were reading it, I was coaxing you into bed…successfully I might add."

"I hope you enjoyed last night because at the rate you're going here, you won't be having that privilege any time soon…and if what she said happens, you may never have it again, with me anyway."

He rubbed his fingers across his brow, feeling like it was going to be a long night ahead and not the kind he liked. "Okay, what else happened?"

"She also said that Maggie is getting married soon."

"She saw a bare ring finger and took a shot. We know Jeff and Maggie aren't engaged."

"Oh really?" Johanna asked. "Because according to Maggie, Jeff asked her last night."

"What!? He didn't tell me that!"

"You said he was preoccupied! Maybe that's why. Maggie said it was a shock…like a spur of the moment thing that happened and took them both by surprise."

"Jeff's probably regretting that today which would explain being preoccupied."

"Madame Zelda told her she sees a beautiful ring in the near future and Maggie said that Jeff was taking her to pick out a ring after work on Monday."

"I thought the ring was supposed to be a surprise."

"Jeff told her he couldn't make up his mind and would rather her pick exactly what she wanted."

"He clearly had no plan for this."

"Clearly; but let's not get off topic. Madame Zelda also told Maggie that great things are coming her way, with work and personally."

"That doesn't mean it's true."

"She's off to a good start!"

He breathed deeply. "Okay, I take it we're getting to you now?"

She took a breath and told him everything that the fortune teller had told her, a tear breaking free and spilling down her cheek as she finished. "What am I going to do now?" she cried.

Jim sighed as he wrapped an arm around her. "What you're going to do is put that nonsense out of your mind. You are not cursed. Nothing is going to happen to you on Halloween. She probably knew you were skeptical and made up this curse and tale of doom to get even with you."

"Sharon told her I didn't believe…Madame Zelda said she'd make a believer out of me," Johanna said as she swiped at the tears on her cheeks.

"Sharon's a bitch," Jim replied. "I wish you'd just haul off once and punch her in the mouth."

Johanna scoffed. "Believe me, I'd like to but she's pregnant."

"Her mouth's not pregnant," he replied. "But if Sharon told Madame Zelda that you were skeptical, it probably pissed off the woman and she thought she'd torment you with a bad fortune. That's all it was."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Why?"

"Because, when we left, we only got so far away before we had to pull off the road because we got a flat tire."

"That was a coincidence," Jim replied. "Sharon probably ran over a nail or a piece of glass or something."

"We had to wait at a café for an hour for a tow truck."

"It's a Saturday; you know how it is on the weekend," he told her. "I'd be more surprised if you didn't have to wait."

Johanna's gaze narrowed at him. "When the tow truck driver finally came; there was only room for two of us to go with him…guess who had to walk?"

"Maggie really let you walk by yourself?" Jim asked.

"Yes! Sharon had to go in the truck because it's her car and she's pregnant…God, I'm going to hear that every day of my life now until she gives birth. Maggie had to go because she has a hangover."

"Why didn't you just call me to come and get you?"

"Because I didn't have any change for the payphone!" she exclaimed.

"How can you not have change? You always have change," Jim replied. "It's always in the bottom of your purse."

"Yeah, well, I cleaned it out this morning…because you know, you mentioned how my purse is always a mess, and I threw all the change from the bottom of my purse in that jar you've been throwing change in."

"Hell of a time for you to clean out your purse," he remarked.

"See, I am cursed!" Johanna told him. "Why else would I have done that?"

Jim blew out a breath. "Because I was an ass and brought up how you always lose your keys in your purse. Did you at least catch a cab?"

"I tried, but every time I thought I was getting one; someone else would grab it."

"So you walked all the way home?"

"Yes," she cried. "And to make it worse, I left my bags in Sharon's car…and I got a damn blister because the shoes I wore wasn't broken in enough for all the walking I did. Every single thing that happened before I was abandoned, Sharon would remind me that it was because of the curse."

Jim sighed a little. "Babe, it was a bad day, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. It was just a bad day…and that probably started before this so-called curse, didn't it?"

"I guess you could say that," she admitted. "I tried to leave once before we even went to the fortune teller but Maggie talked me into coming back. I should've just kept going on my own. I didn't have any fun at all. I just wanted to come home."

"I'm sorry," he murmured as he tugged her back into his embrace. "I guess it wasn't a good day for either one of us to go out with friends. It didn't turn out the way either one of us hoped it would."

"That's the truth. The whole time all they did was criticize me…saying I just didn't want to be away from you; that we're too affectionate at work…it just felt like a big critique session and I hated it. I felt like I wasn't with friends at all."

"I know the feeling," he muttered. "Everyone was in favor of going to the bar, watching the game, playing pool…and then, no one really wanted to be there, no one wanted to play pool, the game sucked, no one was really talking. It was just a waste of time."

"Why does it have to be this way?" she asked quietly. "I don't feel like I've been shunning people and that subtle accusation has been made. Sharon says we've been joined at the hip since we got back from our honeymoon."

"I told you, she's a bitch," Jim replied. "We live together. We work together…and she lives and works with her husband, so there isn't this great difference between us and them…except we're more fun and you're better looking."

She laughed a little. "You're way better looking than Phil."

He gave her a soft squeeze as he chuckled quietly. "Okay, we're both better looking. We don't even have lunch together every day. You just had lunch with Maggie earlier in the week. You've gone with Sharon; hell you even had lunch with your sister last week and went shopping with her last weekend."

"I know…that's why I don't understand where it's all coming from. There was also a complaint about you kissing me in the breakroom; I was told that we need to leave that at home."

"I'm guessing Sharon said that?"

"No, Maggie."

"Maggie!" Jim exclaimed.

She nodded. "Surprised me too."

"She really shouldn't be talking about public displays of affection when I've seen her and Jeff all over each other in an elevator…at work…during business hours."

"Apparently it's only wrong when we do it," Johanna replied. "She also claimed that I don't have lunch with my friends anymore…so I guess that lunch I had with her earlier this week wasn't memorable. I don't know what people want me to do…I mean before we were together, they were always leaving me in the dust for their boyfriends. I get married and I'm the neglectful one? What am I supposed to do?"

"You don't have to change anything because they're being picky," Jim replied. "And if I want to kiss you in the breakroom, I will."

"Maybe you better hold off while I'm cursed," she muttered.

"Not a chance," he replied. "And you're not cursed…you just had a bad day; that's all."

"You know Sharon's going to tell Phil and he's going to tell everyone at work and I'm going to have to listen to it from now until Halloween," Johanna remarked.

"I wish I could tell you that won't be the case…but we both know it will be."

She nodded. "It's going to be a long week."

"I know…and we have that dinner at my mother's on Tuesday."

Johanna closed her eyes for a moment. "See, I really am cursed."

"Let's not tell my mother about the curse that you don't have," Jim requested.

"She would love to see me being cursed."

"You're not cursed," Jim stated.

"I don't know…things feel weird right now."

"That's because you're dwelling on it…just like I said you would. Now let's order a pizza and forget this stupid day."

She sighed deeply. "Pizza sounds good…no one wanted to eat with me at the festival."

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "I'm happy to eat with you…and I'm sure when Spooky wakes up from her nap, she'll be happy you're home and you'll forget about this stupid curse thing. You're going to be fine."

"I hope you're right," she replied. "Halloween isn't far off…I don't like feeling like a marked woman."

"Nothing is going to happen on Halloween," he said firmly. "You need to believe me instead of a stupid fortune teller."

"I'm trying," Johanna said softly. "But I just can't help it."

"You'll feel better once you get occupied with something else. Let's order our dinner and play a game of cards; okay?"

She gave him a small smile. "Okay."


Later on, as Johanna stood in the kitchen, staring at her piece of pizza laying cheese side down on the kitchen floor, she couldn't help but feel like it was a sign of the week to come. "You think I'm not cursed?" she said as she tore her gaze away from the floor to look at Jim. "My pizza is on the floor."

"Sweetheart; we all drop things. There's more in the box, just get another piece."

"It's starting…I'm telling you, that curse has started. The universe sacrificed my pizza to send me a message."

Jim laughed as he got up from the table and moved to the counter. "It did not; you just dropped it. Here, I'll get you a new piece," he said, reaching into the box and selecting another piece of pizza to put on her plate. "You pick up the tainted one so the kitten doesn't get it; she probably shouldn't have pizza."

"Probably not," she agreed as she stooped down and picked up the slice of pizza. She tossed it in the garbage and then grabbed a cloth from the drawer and got it wet so that she could wipe up the stain the pizza had left behind. When she finished, she glimpsed a spot of dried coffee on the floor under the table and she crawled toward it to wipe it up with the damp cloth. When she finished her task, she moved to rise, smacking her head off the rim of the table.

"Ouch," she cried, rubbing the spot.

"Are you okay?" Jim asked.

"No, I'm cursed!" Johanna exclaimed. "Do you believe me now? I dropped my pizza and I've whacked my head, all in a span of a few minutes."

"Sweetheart; you're just having an off day and you keep thinking about that stupid fortune teller; that's why these things are happening."

"You think I'm making it happen?" she replied.

He nodded. "Not on purpose…but come on, we both know when something gets stuck in mind, it has…side effects, to say the least. That's why I'm trying to get you to relax and forget about what that con artist said."

"But what if it's not nonsense? What if I really am cursed?"

"You're not," he said firmly as she took her seat. "You're going to be fine. We're going to eat our dinner and then we'll play another round of cards and tend to Spooky. This is just a bad day and you're going to sleep it off, sweetheart. Trust me; tomorrow will be better."

"I really hope you're right," Johanna replied, feeling the sting of tears; but deep inside she felt like it was going to be a long curse filled week despite her efforts to believe in her husband.