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my face usually gives me away.
    “Not completely.” It’s sort of the truth. I haven’t figured out the perfect oversize plant for the alcove by the women’s restrooms.
    “Mm-hmm.” She sounds disbelieving. “And have you finished the outline for your insane scheme to win his love in a plotline straight out of a romantic comedy from the nineties?”
    I didn’t know cappuccino foam could actually travel backwards through the trachea until it shoots out my nose in evidence. I grab a napkin off the table in front of me and cough into it a thousand times before I can speak again. Landon looks . . . concerned is the most polite description I can give it.
    “How did you find out?”
    She sighs patiently and pulls a piece of paper out of her events binder.
    “If you want to embark on some nefarious plan, it’s probably best not to leave a copy on the printer-copier we share.” She looks down at the list in her hand with a frown. “‘Jo and Laurie—a reverse Little Women .’ What does that even mean?”
    I eyeball the doc in her hand, noting my list of possible scenarios along with Casidee’s loopy cursive. That particular idea involved a shared hobby and possibly a sibling with some sort of wasting disease—neither of which Liam and I have, so I chose to ignore her question.
    “ I didn’t leave it on the printer. I’m guessing that was the handiwork of our former assistant.”
    Landon waves away my comment.
    “She’s not a former anything, and I’m sure she’s only trying to help.”
    I angle my head to study her better.
    “So which is it—you found it on the printer or Casidee is trying to help?”
    Landon suddenly becomes way too interested in the chalkboard with today’s specials. I slam my hand on the table.
    “Snitch!”
    “She’s not a snitch—”
    I cut her sentence off with a look.
    “OK, well, she is a snitch, but only because she’s worried about you. Miko.” She bites her lip nervously. “This plan is kind of crazy. More than kind of—it is really crazy. As in my aunt Judy dropped her basket and had to move into a special home for people who heard voices—that kind of crazy.”
    Ouch.
    Hearing it from my assistant was easy enough to brush aside, but hearing it from my best friend definitely stings. My hair is clinging to my neck defensively, and I push it out of the way along with her worry.
    “It isn’t crazy. It’s inventive and cute and just as good a means to garner attention as anything else.”
    She looks at the paper skeptically.
    “You’ve included transmutation as a viable option . It’s number three on the list!”
    I pop my knuckles.
    “It worked in the Guild Hunter series,” I grumble.
    “Because she was dying!” Oh man, she’s exasperated now. “And she didn’t even actively choose to become an angel; he did it to save her life and—” She cuts herself off and runs her fingers through her perfectly blown-out blonde hair to try to restore order. “My point is—if you like him, why not just go about it like a normal person? Why not ask him out the normal way? Why not invite him on a date or to coffee, or tell him how you feel?”
    These are the same questions Casidee asked me the other day, only I don’t feel as comfortable telling Landon the truth. But the reality is, I know exactly why I’m choosing this route, because I’ve thought about it a million times. In life I strive for honesty, most of all from myself. The honest truth is I know what makes me special, and I’m also glaringly aware of what makes me weird.
    “Because I’m not a normal person. Because I’m not sure what the regular way would be. I’ve had two boyfriends in my whole life, and Liam is utterly different than either one of them. Because I’ve been trying to work up to something for almost a year, and I’m no closer than I was then. Because nobody understood my Game of Thrones costume again this year, because I didn’t have anyone to dress up as Drogo and carry my dragon