Chapter 16 #3
Many people melted away, each one the kind of person I’d avoided for one reason or another.
He continued walking and stopped at the head of the largest clothing store, a polished and extremely beautiful fairy. “You are fired for stealing other people’s snacks in the break room.”
Everyone gasped. It had been her all along?
She inhaled deeply, turned, and stormed off, chin raised in the air. Her beauty wouldn’t save her.
“She’s also incredibly mean, but I thought we’d stick with the stealing,” he murmured to me under his breath.
“What are you doing?” I whispered back, looking up at him.
He squeezed my hand and continued. He fired a few more people, but most of those he would’ve fired seemed to have left on their own so they wouldn’t be publicly called out.
When he got to Mr. Fern, who stood soldier-straight, certain of his virtue, the devil smiled at him in the most terrifying way.
“Mr. Fern. You fired my dear Miss Charles for being part goblin. Isn’t that directly against discrimination laws?”
“The department store has a policy that lying is absolutely cause for termination, and Miss Charles lied about being part goblin in her first interview.”
“Actually, lack of disclosure isn’t the same as lying. It’s simply withholding information that was absolutely none of your or the department store’s business.”
He frowned. “She applied for an apartment given to those with fairy blood.”
“Does she not have fairy blood?”
He finally turned his head to actually look at the devil. “She’s half goblin!”
“And half fairy. How many of your other workers have so much fairy blood? None, I’d say, and yet you used the excuse of goblin blood to overlook the fairy in her. You’re fired.”
He went beet red. “You can’t do that! I have a contract.”
The devil snapped his fingers, and a sheaf of papers appeared in his hand. “Yes. You may work at the store, but not in your current position. Would you like to take over a position in the janitorial sector? I believe you’d be a phenomenal toilet washer.”
Mr. Fern sputtered and huffed then grabbed his contract, ripped it in half, turned, and stalked out, the very picture of insulted arrogance.
“Deborah, you will take over for Mr. Fern,” the devil said, and my plump friend stepped forward, looking like she’d gotten hit by a freight truck. Same. What was Deborah doing here? She’d been fired a year ago, and she hadn’t gotten any leaner in that time.
“Take over?” she said with big blue eyes as she looked at me like I could explain the madness.
I shrugged. Wonderland madness was apparently catching.
The devil nodded firmly. “Overseeing quality work among the fine employees at House Beur. Also, a ten percent raise to all of you. And please generously distribute bonuses to those who make an effort to treat customers, and each other, with respect and kindness.”
“Is this real?” she asked, which everyone else was probably thinking. Her chin trembled. “I know we recently had new ownership, and that’s why I was rehired, but are you really…”
He smiled and pulled a deed of ownership out of his inside coat pocket. “I am. You’re in terribly good hands. As you were. We don’t want to hold up business.”
“Yes, sir!” A hundred yes-sirs floated through the air then we were in the elevator, my whole body numb and weird.
“Did that just happen?” I asked, turning to look at him.
“Mm. Did I let Fern off too easily? I thought about sticking him to a spinning wheel and letting the employees throw darts at him, but I don’t want to give the idea that I’m not civilized.”
“But how did you know about him?”
“Your father. We chat sometimes while I’m doing dishes and you’ve gone to bed.
He’s a clever fellow and is looking forward to Mr. Fern’s downfall.
You’re not happy about it? Where’s your streak of goblin vengeance?
That’s your real birthday present, his humiliation, but if you’re too good to appreciate it, I suppose I’ll have to think of another way to—”
I threw my arms around him and kissed him.
On the mouth. Like I hadn’t done for weeks and weeks.
He tasted so good and felt so right. He’d bought a department store to give me vengeance for my birthday?
My mother would never have approved, but part of me was satisfied to know that Fern was gone and no one else at the store would fail a weigh-in again.
He caught me around the waist and pulled me close, kissing me sweet and slow, leisurely, holding back his energy, just kissing me like he liked me, and that we had all the time in the world and that the elevator would never reach the lobby.
When I pulled back, I was breathless, my heart was aching, and I thought I was probably going to burst into tears, but not the usual kind. He was too good, too bad, and too perfectly what I wanted in my arms for the rest of my life. And so beautiful.
He tucked my arm in his as we stepped out of the elevator, walked down the last hall, through a tunnel of blooms and butterflies that echoed the mad fluttering in my heart.