Wishful Thinking

Chapter 2-2

To her relief, Autumn’s parents hadn’t insisted on staying too long at the potluck. They left around five, and went home to digest and let her father finally watch some football. As usual, her mother picked up her e-reader and settled down in a chair to devour one of the books she’d bought with a holiday gift card, and Autumn had been left blessedly alone.

That gave her some time to do some snooping in her bedroom and on her phone, just so she could get her bearings and try to figure out how much different this timeline was from her own in terms of her personal life. Except for Michael’s absence, however, everything seemed oddly the same, right down to the classes she was taking at Northern Pines.

She leaned against her upholstered headboard and thought furiously. It made some sense that her classes hadn’t changed; she’d determined when she was only a freshman in high school that she wanted some sort of a career in fashion, and that decision hadn’t really shifted much even after Damon was gone. True, she’d contemplated going down to Arizona State University in Tempe and majoring in fashion merchandising there, but she’d realized quickly enough that she really didn’t want to go away to school, even if the de la Paz clan had opened up everything after the McAllisters and the Wilcoxes had mended their feud.

Anyway, Northern Pines — and the rest of the civilian world — really had no idea who was running the Wilcox witch clan, and so there was absolutely no reason for any of the classes it offered to be different in any way. So, okay, she was still a senior in college, and still lived at home. A quick flip through the photos on her phone told her she hung out a lot with Laurel and some of her other cousins, and that also hadn’t materially changed.

No photos of Michael, of course, and no “couple” selfies to show Autumn had been dating anyone seriously. Again, that made sense; unlike Laurel, she really hadn’t been interested in dating civilians to pass the time until she was ready to settle down with a safely distant warlock cousin. In a way, that was partly why meeting Michael had felt like getting hit by a ton of bricks — she hadn’t been planning on a relationship and hadn’t been looking for one, and being blindsided in such a way had made her fall head over heels that much faster.

In that moment, she realized how much she missed him — missed the sound of his voice and how wonderful it felt to lay her head against his shoulder as they put their feet up and watched Netflix in the small two-bedroom apartment he shared with his roommate Colin. Luckily, Colin was a med student and had crazy hours, and so he wasn’t around very much, which gave her and Michael some much-needed privacy.

And Autumn especially missed Michael right now because he was such a good sounding board, could offer such great advice after pondering all the facts of a situation. That particular quality would most likely make him an excellent lawyer, too.

But she couldn’t talk to him now, because he didn’t even know she existed.

As that thought passed through her mind, it all became absolutely too much. She hugged a pillow to herself and let the tears come.

Not too many, though. She didn’t want Laurel asking questions about her puffy eyes the next day…at least, not until the time was right.