This is book 2 of the A Rose by Any Other Name series.
It's been months since Derrick and Mike broke up, but, Derrick is still heartbroken. He needs to focus on rebuilding his life but it's hard when the magic federation is harassing him to join th...
Writer's note— These chapters are around 3k, is this too long?
Song of the chapter: I Want You Around —Snoh Aalegra #
I paged through my magic grimoire*, annoyed and murmuring to myself. Even curled up on my couch with Earl grey tea on the coffee table and Sol on my other side, my magic was still aggravated. These fucking magic feds and stupid Mike with his stupid new boyfriend.
—A grimoire is a magic spell book, imagine it looks something like this. Kinda magic—y and stuff. —
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As soon as Mike had left the shop I'd started poring through his Instagram and lo and behold there Ricky was. Just a few posts of the two of them together, but the little heart emojis in the caption told me everything I needed to know. Ricky's bio said he was Cuban-American and proud of it, most of his posts were in Spanish. With a little bit of stalking I found that they must have met that time when Mike went to Cuba shortly after we had broken up.
Friends to lovers...how sweet. Ky would tell me that Mike's new relationship was none of my business and that I still needed to focus on myself. But, I found myself still taking annoyed sips of my tea as I tried to figure out when they started dating.
I told Mike I would come by later with a spell and he had insisted on picking me up. Just at that second my phone started to ring, and I got up off the couch, nearly knocking over my tea in the process. I swore before picking up my phone and answering.
"Hi," I said in a voice that sounded breathless, and then wishing I didn't sound like I'd just run a marathon.
"Hey Derrick," Mike said easily, and the soft sound of music playing in the background make his voice a little hard to hear. "We're five minutes out. Thanks again for doing this, it means a lot to us."
"W-we?" I stuttered like the idiot I was.
"Yeah, Ricky wanted to tag along. I mean, I told him I'd just be picking you up, but he insisted. Anyways, I'll see you soon."
Fuck, I need to find a spell and made sure it worked so that I wouldn't look like an idiot in front of Mike's boyfriend. I paged through for a few panicked minutes until, I came upon a spell that looked like it would work. It detailed how it irreparably damaged listening devices and I was glad someone had put in the work to devising something like that. I just had to ensure I kept security and surveillance in mind or else it would fry anything.
But, how would I test it? I paced around my living room, holding the book, and nearly tripping over Sol who decided to run over my feet at that very moment.
I found my way towards the kitchen and headed to the island that Lana had sat at for the briefest of moments the day before. In fact, now, it struck me as odd because Lana always declined offers to sit down. Looking around the island, I ran my fingers across the surface, and the side before touching underneath. To my complete and utter horror I felt something stuck there. I tugged on it, and it resisted for a few seconds before coming loose.
