Chapter Thirty-Eight
Evan
Iparked in the garage under Compass BioTek and made my way into the lobby. Unlike Riley, I didn’t have a badge, but I was on the always allowed guest list.
Grabbing a pass from the front desk, I took the elevators up to Spencer’s office. I also texted Grace.
Me
I’m visiting Spence. Come up when you’re ready.
“Evan, Dear. He’s free. Is he expecting you?” Mrs. Katsopolis beamed.
“I just thought I’d pop in while waiting for Grace. We’re going on a date.” I figured she’d need it after seeing the professor today.
She smiled at me over her computer. “How fun. Go right in.”
I walked into Spencer’s office, and he looked up from his laptop.
“Evan! Wes is in a meeting. Do you want me to walk you over to Grace?” He smiled. Spencer was wearing his glasses, something he’d been doing a lot more lately.
Probably because Grace thought they were sexy.
“I came to see you.” I gave him a hug. “We don’t seem to hang out much nowadays, so I thought I’d stop by until Grace is ready.”
The last thing I wanted was for him to think our friendship wasn’t important anymore.
He hugged me back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to neglect you by mating Grace.”
Laughing, I sat down in the chair on the other side of his desk. “I think I neglected you by mating Grace. You can come with us, if you want, it just won’t be fun for you.”
“I appreciate it. But I have a meeting tonight.”
“Is everything going okay with the party? Grace just shrugs and tells me it’s all handled,” I asked.
Spencer nodded. “The planner you recommended is excellent and has it under control. Even Mrs. K is impressed. Everything is set, people have responded. At some point we will need to go through those unsolicited gifts. Work went all right? You seem down. Is it Rose?”
“Rose is great. She has a campus job, is taking summer classes, and is doing a course at the Omega Center to learn how to sell the bracelets she makes online.” I sighed. “It was a rough day, but it was just more of the usual. I love this job, but sometimes…”
Spencer reached across the desk and squeezed my hand. “If it doesn’t make you happy anymore, you don’t need to stay.”
“It does make me happy. Some days are just better than others. I’m looking forward to the training this fall. When Grace has your triplets, I can stay home with them then do crisis work on-call to keep up my license and benefits,” I explained.
He chuckled. “You could always work for the foundation. While Mrs. K found us an admin, and we’re looking for a scholarship coordinator, it would be nice to have your expertise,” he suggested. “Not just with the omegas but with our science scholars.”
“Sonja is really excited about having your first Starbright Scholar at Darthmore,” I added. They’d gotten that set up quickly.
“Me, too. Our scholar for Rock Tech is set up, too. Hadley Hall wants to wait until next year so we can actually have proper applications,” he replied.
“Sounds good. I know we’re giving our scholars laptops and allowances, but can I make them care packages?
Sonja said the boy who’s getting the scholarship for Darthmore is literally living in a shelter right now.
There’s no way he can afford all the things he’ll need for the dorms. We could give him gift cards, but his mom doesn’t have a car,” I said, looking at my phone to see that Grace was on her way.
The idea of making our scholars custom care packages made me really happy. I wanted to do that for our omega scholars, too. The comfort cupboard didn’t always have what they needed, and the Center usually didn’t have the funds to buy anything special.
“I love it.” Spencer nodded.
“Is your mom coming to the party?” It would be nice to see her.
He nodded. “She’s excited and has booked her hotel.”
“She can stay in the guest house,” I offered.
“Mama likes her independence. Also, some of her family is coming, too, not just my father’s.”
“It’ll be nice to see everyone.” Though I knew his dad’s family in Greece much better than his mom’s family from New York.
We talked for a little longer.
“Hi.” Grace came in. She kissed my cheek and went right for Spencer’s lap.
“Hi.” Spencer kissed her and held her.
She grinned at me. “I’m ready for our date.”
“Good.” It was a surprise. Hopefully, she liked it.
“Have fun. If you’re going shopping, get whatever you want. Both of you. I’m serious.” He gave her another kiss.
“Thank you.” Grace got off his lap and took my hand, leaning into me. For a moment I just savored holding her.
“Okay, I’m ready.” Wes stood there with his stuff.
“I don’t have a problem with you coming with us, but you’re going to be bored,” I cautioned.
Wes blinked in surprise. “Nothing is boring when I’m with you.”
Awww. Though I did warn him.
I nodded. “Okay, let’s have a date.”
“Oooh, where are we?” Grace asked as we pulled into the giant CoCoCozy that was on the fancy side of town.
“Come see.” I opened the door of my 4x4 and helped her out.
Wes got out and looked around. “I don’t think I’ve ever been here.”
“Nope. Usually, I come here with people from the Center.” Though Brennan took me on a shopping spree here when we moved into our new place.
I brought them inside, where there were a couple of help desks. Behind them were signs: Alpha Waiting Area, Shopping, Cafe, and Item Pick Up.
“Checking in?” an omega asked us.
“Yes. Two for shopping.” I showed my ID. “Grace, show your ID.”
Confused, Grace did.
The associate looked at Wes. “One alpha for check-in?”
“Yes. Wes, show your ID,” I instructed.
Wes did, also confused.
“Here you go.” She printed off three stickers. “Do you know where to check him in?”
I put one on me, one on Grace, and one on him.
“Yes, I do.” I grabbed Wes’ arm and pulled him toward the sign leading us to the alpha waiting area.
There was a large area with glass walls and lots of TVs, some showed sports or news, others broadcast feeds from the store.
Some people worked at tables, others played video games or pool, a couple read or were on their phones.
There was also another section with a soft-play area for children, along with an art table, and a reading corner.
“One alpha for check-in?” The employee, in her yellow and pink uniform, beamed at us.
“Check-in?” Wes blinked.
“This is the omega-only home store. We shop, you sit in the waiting area. I told you that you’d find our date boring,” I teased.
“All snacks and beverages are complementary, and you can order food from the cafe on the kiosk,” she told him as she scanned my name tag and his.
“Have fun! Play nice with the other alphas.” Grace giggled, pulling him down for a kiss.
“Yeah, play nice.” I kissed him and pushed him inside. I grabbed Grace’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“So, he stays in the alpha play area while we shop?” Grace laughed as we went up the escalator.
“Yes.” I grabbed a scanner. Grace headed one way, and I took her arm. “No, this way, we have to follow the arrows. Soft goods and home goods are on this floor, furniture is upstairs, downstairs are home essentials, the snack hall, and the cafe.”
Grace took everything in as we walked past the art.
The air-filters were top-notch here. Everything was de-scented regularly.
Soft music played, and it smelled vaguely of vanilla.
The entire store, from the colors to the way things were laid out, was designed to be relaxing.
All of the employees here were omegas, except for the delta security and stockers, and possibly a couple of betas.
It was also very fancy.
“Let me know if you see anything for your nest or the guest rooms or anything,” I said. “Spencer told me three times that we can get whatever we want.”
She looked at a painting of a ballerina. “I like this one for the creepy doll room.”
“Great.” I scanned it as a couple of omegas walked by giggling.
“This is an omega home store? I love the alpha day care,” she giggled.
“Right? There are cameras all around the store so they can watch us and know we’re safe, but we’re free to shop.
You can also check on your kids. It’s one way some omega parents get a little time for themselves.
They can smell some candles and have coffee in the cafe for an hour.
There are cameras in the play area, and you can watch them on your phone,” I said as we looked at rugs.
We’d put hardwood floors in the basement nest, but she might want rugs.
“This one for the nest. This one is for the other guest room.” She indicated two different rugs.
I scanned those. Most things you scanned, then picked up or had delivered so they weren’t contaminated with scents. Though the home essentials section downstairs was an exception.
“Are you doing okay?” I asked as she looked at throw pillows. They had all sorts of sizes, colors, and textures.
Grace frowned. “I feel fine but today was a lot. Also, I feel more. I smell more. I hear more. Sometimes it’s overwhelming.”
I pulled her to me. “Sounds like it. If you need something to take the edge off, we can get that for you.”
Certain types of blockers could make it a little easier for her. There were also a few simpler things we could just grab at the drugstore.
“I should learn to deal with it.” She snuggled into me.
As she told me about her meeting with the professor, we scanned some pillows, chose bedding for the creepy doll room and guest room, and bought some things for her room, my room, the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the basement nest.
“Let's go upstairs and look at the furniture,” I suggested, following the arrows toward the escalator.
The furniture was grouped by room type as we sat on couches and lay on beds, and I told her about my day.
Delight lit up her face as she pulled me down on a demo bed, laughing. I kissed her, hard. Yep, this was exactly what she needed.
“Toys,” she gasped as we walked past another area. “Beautiful wooden toys. Oh, and look at those dolls.” Grace led me into the nursery area, which, unlike the others, you didn’t have to pass through to get to the next section.
There were both things for babies’ and kids’ rooms. But she didn’t care about that.
No, she sat herself down at a tiny table. “This. For tea parties in the creepy doll room.”
“Absolutely.” I scanned it, along with some toys, a toybox, and a beanbag. “We can come back here when we need a nursery,” I offered, as we passed a bunch of ridiculously fancy cribs.
“Where will we put the nursery?” She picked up a doll with little ponytails and a pacifier. “I had a doll like this one, once.”
“We might need to remodel or move. Spencer mentioned wanting to move us to that new development by the fancy Omega Center where we took you. Something about a backyard tennis court.” I laughed.
Grace thought for a moment. “I liked my first tennis lesson. Our house is nice, but it is laid out weird. It might be a while, Evan. With everything that happened, I don’t…”
“I know.” I hugged her tightly.
We finished on this floor and then took the elevator to the first floor since we had to go through home essentials and the snack hall to get to check out.
“Anything here we can just put in the cart,” I explained as we grabbed a basket and wandered through a giant display of candles. “They also have a kiosk where you can review everything you scanned.”
“Okay.” She smelled a candle and put it in the cart.
“Look.” I led her through a curtain into a room full of every kind of fairy light imaginable.
We got some lights and continued on. There were a lot of things we didn’t need down here, like pans and dishes. We got a kettle and some teacups so we could have tea in the bathtub. I got a few cute things for Riley.
I added some bath stuff to the cart along with a new bath pillow. They had high-end bath products, including a fancy version of the green fizzies that she liked.
Finally, we got to the snack hall.
Her eyes lit up as she took in all the snacks, treats, and gourmet food for sale. “The candy wall is better than the candy store Riley took me to at the fancy mall.”
Grabbing a bag, she happily filled it up with candy. I did, too.
“Oooh, let’s get some samplers of instant drinks for our kettle?” Grace added them to the cart.
“Perfect. Hey, let’s review what we’re going to get and decide what we’re going to pick up and what gets delivered,” I said as we went to the kiosk.
We reviewed everything and then went to check out with all our goodies.
“Wow,” she whispered at the total.
“It adds up fast, doesn’t it? But, Grace, we mated rich. I think we should just give in and let them buy us shit when they offer, like when Spencer bought you purses.” I draped my arm around her, as we got our bags and our pickup ticket.
She leaned into me. “I know.”
“Mostly, I brought you here because I thought that you could use a nice, calm place to decompress after a hard day.” I hugged her close.
“Thank you. Mostly, it’s a lot to process.” Her arms wrapped tighter around me.
“It is. Should we collect Wes and eat at the cafe?” I asked. “Alphas are allowed there if accompanied.”
She looked up at me and smiled. “I love it. If he played nicely with the other alphas he can even have dessert.”