???????, klaus mikaelson

Chapter-Nine
no rest for the damned

❝YOU ARE THE WITCH WHO IS GOING TO BREAK THE CURSE.❞

31st January, 2010

The plan was simple.

Well━relatively simple.

It had started as a logical decision. A harmless curiosity. That was all.

At least, that was what Noah had been telling herself for the past thirty minutes.

Boston was still shaking off the morning cold, the streets damp from last night's rain. The sky, a dull gray, hung low over the buildings, making everything feel quieter than it should have been on a Sunday afternoon. A sluggish kind of hush. The kind that made thoughts louder than they had any right to be. Noah adjusted the strap of her bag, fingers drumming against her coat pocket as she and Maggie walked up the street. Maggie, her very annoying senior colleague. But after the soul-sucking 9-to-7 grind, she was also Noah's loyal━albeit reluctant━friend. They'd met last year, when Noah first got the job. Back when she had still cared about impressing people. Before the monotony set in. Before she realized office life was not her thing.

And yet, here she was.

And here was Maggie.

And here was the art gallery that she absolutely, definitively, had no business being at.

She knew that.

Maggie knew that.

Hell, even the old man across the street giving them a weird look probably knew that.

But Noah was curious. And, well━screw it. She had dated enough guys in her twenty-two years of existence to know how all of this worked. She had never been the type to overthink when it came to men. Flirt, push and pull━it was a game she understood. Fun, uncomplicated.

Nik, however, was a different beast entirely.

He had mentioned that he owned an art gallery. He had offered for her to visit. And at the time, she had been so sure she wouldn't give it a second thought. A casual, noncommittal "I'll keep that in mind" had been the extent of her response.

She should have forgotten.

The second she walked into her apartment, closed the door, and put on a bad reality show, she should have forgotten.

But she hadn't.

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks. And she still couldn't get him out of her head. Since their last meeting. Since she repaid her stupid coffee debt. Since she convinced herself that whatever this was, it wasn't going anywhere. And yet━here she was. Because, apparently, ignoring him wasn't working.

Which was frustrating. And annoying. And completely unacceptable.