Chapter 4
Four
Wash had barely started working when there was a knock at his door.
Annoyed, he thought about ignoring it, but if it ended up being Ozen, that might just make his day more difficult.
With a frustrated growl, he pushed out of his seat and stomped to his door, opening it a crack with a grouchy “What?” already spilling from his mouth before he even knew who was standing there.
He regretted it the minute it came out. Then again, the last person he expected to see standing at the door was the little fairy from before with a cupcake in his hands and a smile on his face.
He didn’t often meet men smaller than him, which made his dating life difficult for…
reasons, but the fairy couldn’t be more than a handful of inches over five feet, with a couple of inches added at the tips of his wings.
The wings themselves were a shimmery opal color, pretty common for fairies, and sparkled in the direct sunlight from the window nearby.
His hair, curling near the tips of his pointed ears, was a light blue, with hints of pale purple threaded throughout.
His rosy cheeks and big blue eyes made him look innocent and sweet, and the light pink poet shirt with the billowy sleeves and high-waisted navy blue pants only added to the effect.
He looked like he belonged in a fairytale.
It took Wash a long moment to realize he was staring at the fairy, and he only noticed when the tips of Peri’s ears turned pink and his smile turned shy. Goddess, even that made him look cute.
Clearing his throat, he frowned at the fairy. “Did you need something?”
Holding out the cupcake with both hands, Peri replied shyly, “I made these for everyone. I didn’t want you to miss out.”
The automatic refusal was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it down. He might not want the temp’s help, but he didn’t need to be outright rude to him. Grudgingly, he took the treat offered, nodding politely. “Thank you.”
When the fairy didn’t move, only looked at him expectantly, Wash felt his face twitch against a scowl.
He hated new people in the office. It was always awkward, and he never knew how long it would be before they made stupid comments that would piss him off.
Though imagining the adorable fairy saying something cruel was nearly impossible. He was just so cute.
“I’m… going to get back to work,” he hedged, taking a step back. He’d never fully opened the door, not wanting to encourage visitors to enter his office, but it felt wrong to shut the door in Peri’s face.
A flash of disappointment crossed the little fairy’s face before he forced it away with a bright smile.
“Okay. Let me know if you need anything. I’m around to help.
” He flapped a hand toward the reception area.
“Kian is going to train me a little on what to expect, but I promise I won’t make more work for you. ”
Maybe not intentionally, but all temps and interns ended up causing trouble, despite their best intentions.
He couldn’t entirely hold it against them; they were untrained, but it did make his life more difficult.
He avoided asking for help since it usually meant he’d have to spend the same amount of time cleaning up the mess as he would have spent just doing the job himself in the first place.
Again, he kept that to himself, giving Peri a nod. “Thank you for the offer. And the… cupcake,” he added awkwardly. That still didn’t make any sense to him. Who showed up to a temp job with cupcakes?
He didn’t close the door until Peri returned to reception, not missing the few times the little fairy glanced over his shoulder at him as he walked back. Maybe it’d be sooner rather than later that Peri would bring up the obvious.
Grumpy at the thought, he stomped back to his desk and sat, putting the cupcake on the one spot in the corner not covered in notes or parts of experiments he was working on.
He stared at it for a long while, considering throwing it out.
His gut churned at the prospect. No doubt, Peri would ask if he enjoyed it, and lying to the adorable man felt wrong.
And he’d never admit it, but he loved sweets.
Carefully peeling the light blue wrapper, he took a large bite of the treat and nearly choked on a groan. “Oh, gods…”
It had the perfect balance of frosting to cake, not so overwhelmingly sweet that it made his teeth hurt, and the cake itself was moist with a surprise cream-filled center.
He took his time savoring the confection, but he was still disappointed when the treat was gone.
His gaze flicked to the door, and he considered asking for another, but decided against it.
He still heard the taunts when he was a child, the last time someone saw him indulging in sweets.
Being called a Keebler demon nearly put him off sweets forever.
With an unhappy sigh, he tossed the trash into the can under his desk and wiped his hands off with the napkin Peri had offered with the gift. Despite his disappointment, his mood had lifted slightly, and he got back to work with a little less frustration boiling under his skin.
He’d scribbled down a list of things he needed to get done the night before, but looking at it now, he could see his priorities were off.
While he wanted to work on the personal project he’d been researching the night prior, he also remembered he had client-requested projects he needed to prioritize first. It took a minute of pawing through his desk to find a notepad but eventually he found it and made an attempt to create a new to-do list based on priority.
In the back of his mind, he knew it was in vain, he almost always forgot about the list by lunch time and got distracted with something else, but it at least meant he got some of the necessities done in the mornings.
He made sure to scroll through his email, setting alarms for meetings he had to be at and adding them to the list as well.
When he finally finished it, he sighed. Sixteen things on his list, just for today, and only a few of them weren’t priorities.
Then again, they all felt like priorities.
Except the meetings with the head office. He could take or leave those.
The phone on his desk rang, and he picked it up without looking away from his list, grunting out a quick “Washburne” in greeting.
“Mr. Washburne, I received a call from the Elder Grove coven. They’re requesting an update. Can I put them through?”
He looked around his desk with a grimace. He had the paperwork on that somewhere…
“Mr. Washburne?” Dakota prompted when he didn’t reply.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m just trying to find the file.”
“Let me send someone in to help you. They sounded a bit impatient, I’m worried something happened.”
He gave her another grunt, since it couldn’t be helped, and hung up.
She’d keep the client busy or tell them she’d call back in a few minutes while he searched his desk for the paperwork he needed.
That particular project was going to be entering the testing phase soon.
He just needed to work out a kink in the spell that kept throwing out sparks when it wasn’t supposed to.
The project was number three on his priority list. He probably would’ve gotten to it today.
A soft knock on the door just barely caught his attention, and he called out a quick “Come in” without looking up. When he finally glanced up as the door opened, he felt his heart quicken when the little fairy waved and beamed at him.
“Hello, again. Dakota said you needed help finding a file?”
He glanced down at his desk, then back at the fairy, wincing. Of all the people who had to see his desk like this, why did the little fairy feel like the worst case scenario? “Uh, yeah… It should be marked with the coven sigil on the front of it… a crescent moon with vines and a sunburst, I think.”
The little fairy was careful to not get close to the half finished projects Wash had lying around, practically dancing to get to Wash’s desk.
Unlike Wash, who was just pushing things around, Peri began meticulously stacking files so he could see each one, finding the Elder Grove coven file hidden between two others near the bottom of his haphazard pile. “This?”
Wash took it, flipping it open to look through it.
Thankfully, it was all there and none of the paperwork got intermixed with another file.
That happened sometimes when he had more than one open on his desk.
Things slid around when he pushed them out of his way, and he often got confused on what was in the files until he figured out things had gotten mixed up.
“This it is, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Peri replied brightly. “Do you want me to organize the rest of this? It won’t take long.”
His normal response would be no. So someone needed to explain to him why his mouth decided to say, “Uh… Maybe later. I have to call them back.”
Peri nodded in understanding, his smile unwavering. “Okay, let me know when you’re free, and I’ll come back. I hope your call goes well!”
He waved and flitted to the door, avoiding the projects entirely, giving Wash another beaming smile as he closed the door behind him.
Wash could only stare at the spot he’d been standing a few moments before.
How was it possible for someone to be made of pure sunshine?
That’s what it felt like whenever he had to interact with the fairy.
Like somehow just being around him made the room brighter and the air warmer.
Maybe it was some kind of spell? Wash had worked with fairies in the past, but none had quite the same effect on him as Peri did.
If there was something special about Peri’s magic, or if he was using an enthrallment spell of some kind, it would explain why Wash was still staring at the door instead of picking up the phone like he should have.
Frustrated with himself, he opened the file again, spreading it out on his desk so he had all the information right in front of him when he made that phone call. Once he was done, he’d clean up his desk himself. He didn’t need to be distracted right now. He had too much to do.