Chapter 14 #2
But it was so much more than that. He had articles printed out about how to make instant ramen fancier and more awesome.
He was trying to get me to have the real college experience.
A shopping list—or grab from cafeteria list—of hard-boiled eggs, shredded cheese, bacon, etc to just throw on top of cheaper cups of ramen since I had an electric kettle in my room.
Ways to make me feel normal. Experience it all. I melted.
I swooned and flushed as I called him Sir Winter, my hero. There was also a list of places owned by witches and warlocks—mostly warlocks—that he wanted to try but hadn’t been able to.
Meaning he couldn’t afford it. I was grateful he wasn’t leaving them out because they weren’t in his budget, that he wasn’t a caveman like that. He didn’t have to pay for all of our dates and I had money. We could… We’d figure it out.
He also had a whole spreadsheet with notes of what I liked from places I’d tried.
He hadn’t been there for when Wyatt had brought me everything from Taco Bell, so he’d asked about that and had updated it.
That was… Wow, he really liked to take care of people and manage things. Not in a bad or controlling way.
He was a nurturer. I was pretty sure that was the right way to put it.
Winter also focused on making me stop and check in with myself, put myself first. He wasn’t the best with auras.
He read magic better and if people were lying or hiding things.
So he must have talked to Taylor about someone being on my detail who did check auras or at least my health because there were several times he asked them to check me.
And if he didn’t like the answer, he hit the brakes on what was going on.
Like flat hit the brakes and didn’t care if I was supposed to have a session with Councilman Reid.
He said the man could wait for magic no one else could give him and had me eat and listen to music for a bit to settle my magic. I was floored.
Also touched when Councilman Reid wasn’t upset. He absolutely agreed and so did Wyatt—everyone else there. They said I was young and growing and needed all the considerations I could get especially since I didn’t have a familiar to warn me.
All if this was possible because I selflessly didn’t have a familiar to distract me, but it inhibited me in other ways, so they had to accept that. Seriously, they were helping me heal by being so considerate with me.
Saying that upset Tracey. I didn’t understand until later when she said it wasn’t being “so considerate” but basic manners and normal—not being assholes and it hurt her heart that I saw it as so amazing.
She promised that the people around me would keep treating me as they should and she wouldn’t fail me again.
I was crushed she took that so personally and as her fault and went to go after her, but Taylor waved me off and promised he had it. I assumed it was some burden only the people in charge could understand?
Either way, Winter said it wasn’t my fault and it had hurt his heart too. Basically, I got to be the kid on this one and accept my scale of being treated well was wonky because of my abusive past.
Fair enough.
Kelton had focused on my quality of life in another way too.
Rita had talked to someone at her former job that she trusted—not one of the team she’d managed—and they were having the same problems she’d had.
So after interviewing with Tracey and Jasmine, they hired Nelly.
She was younger than them, I thought like twenty-five.
And she was a bit judgy. Or at least from what I got from her familiar, but Rita really liked her, so I hoped it was just because she was coming out of a bad situation.
But Kelton had made sure that Nelly knew to stay out of my room and I’d had history with maids harassing me and… Issues. To never go in there and he helped work out a system. I wasn’t going to be home often, so it wasn’t like my room needed to be cleaned weekly anyways.
I was glad he’d handled it and saw it was valid to ask for. He’d also pushed for me to get a bigger room than I’d originally said. I was an introvert and my magic left me unsettled. I’d grown up trapped and—he said I needed my space. The others were getting what they needed, so I should too.
Tracey fully agreed and asked him for his thoughts on how to accommodate me, taking it seriously when I tried to brush him off.
He had suggested a small kitchenette. He said I reached for snacks out of the fridge while I worked without even realizing it and immediately made myself tea when I was done sometimes.
Both were true.
Tracey wouldn’t know that part since she hadn’t lived with me ever.
So that was how my suite at home turned into almost a mini-apartment.
I had a “master” sized bed and bathroom but also a living room with kitchenette and huge area to work.
It was set up like a massive craft room basically, but it was tons of work materials.
When Clare, Tracey, Jasmine, and Kelton all pushed for me to have it right off my room and how I wanted it from the start…
I really got into it. I took the time to plot it all out from the massive wall of IKEA storage with drawers and—everything.
I laid it all out for all the materials to make toys and more.
I needed to have a room downstairs where I could do the skeins for the blankets because that would be too much to drag in and out of my room—or maybe I was just going somewhere to do that now that I could do a lot but whatever. This was—it was amazing.
And Kelton set it up with Nelly to order what I would need for grocery delivery when I said I would be home and working.
I thought that was pretty spoiled—and so did she—but the others reminded me how much each toy cost, so if fresh blueberries while making them helped me then order the damn blueberries.
Yeah, fair enough.
Plus, she would be in charge of getting what I wanted to restock my fridge on campus that Emma would now bring twice a week when she was on my guard duty. Kelton had set that up as well. Just things to take off my plate that were easy and no bother to add to someone else’s.
Nelly would be handling food and groceries at the house. That was her job. What were a few extra things on that list?
And Emma was at the house for harvesting and more. What was it for her to bring to me when she was teaching class or guarding me?
That was how Kelton pushed me to start seeing things. Just like I could easily listen to a familiar on a run, people could do things for me as well. It was what friends did for each other he’d told me gently. People who cared for each other.
Yeah, I hadn’t had much of that in my life and I understood he was trying to show me what was normal. I appreciated it and his suggestions to my life. All of it was for the best—I saw the care and his intentions.
Sergey too. He completely changed the plans for my bathroom.
He designed it. He knew enough from working with his mother and that company of his birth family’s over the years that he knew a bit about contractors—it was honestly impressive. He drew it out and added… Everything.
It had everything I could ever have wanted or thought to have. A jet tub with room for three and a control panel that would take me months to learn. And I was used to a tub with a control panel.
A whole large closet-sized area onto the bathroom that was the shower. It could hold a lot of people. It had three shower heads. Not just like three sprays but it was… It was ridiculous. The design screamed someone with multiple lovers.
Or a family of more than five showered together to save water?
Right, because a family who could afford a shower like that worried about the water bill.
And again, the shower had a whole panel and more controls than most vehicles.
There was the toilet “closet” for privacy and a small sink in there.
The bathroom also had the double sink vanity in the main area with gorgeous mirrors and great lighting.
But not the lighting that was too bright and made you cringe at night when tired or in the morning when you weren’t ready.
He thought that deeply into the details.
In between the door to the shower and the toilet closet was a damn bench.
I thought for sitting and putting on moisturizer or whatever so I didn’t get my bedding wet—keep it all in the bathroom.
But apparently, Sergey wanted to get in on Winter’s spa time with me and thought it would be great for massages too.
I didn’t hate the idea, but it made me nervous it could be a point of contention between them. Winter left it alone and said he agreed when he heard the idea, so… We were good?
I would assume we were.
Then the far wall to the right of the toilet closet was storage.
Just storage.
All storage.
That had thrown me. Why did I need a wall of storage when I had huge new closets and more?
For my spa, basically. Sergey wasn’t the only one who went nuts on getting me every bath product. When the people around me learned that I took soaks to settle my magic how they would use their familiars or other methods, everyone had suggestions or told Tracey what to get me and from where.
I had so many bath bombs, salts, beads, soaks, fizzes, bubble tabs, etc. to try that it would take me years to get through them. Magical and regular. I had stuff for showers, other things to spray into my hair to leave in. Candles to use while showering.
Everything and it was fucking awesome. A lot of it we’d paid for, but Mrs. Moon had come loaded to the gills with everything she loved because she had been the same with her magic when she was young.
She’d spent two hours going over it all with me while I took notes.
Also, she wanted me to learn and play after hearing that I’d made a fur treatment for Woodchuck.
Not to push me. Not to get anything out of me. She just wanted me to always have an outlet for my magic to have creativity even if I never told anyone.
And that was when I saw it. The hurt and pain. She’d lost that. She’d put it aside because of life—mating, children, becoming an adult and the responsibilities with that. Whatever it was, she’d lost that part of her and she was helping me not do the same.
I was touched and ended up not having a session with her but just talking with her familiar and letting them discuss things they couldn’t normally while we set up the pretty in my new bathroom. Again, I liked to pay my debts.
So yeah, my life was really going better. Things were more settled.
Perfect?
No, not even close.
They were never perfect, but they were really fucking close especially after Tracey announced trying to talk to me on the side was done for the employees of Familiar Treasures.
She hadn’t known it was happening and it had gotten worse with us hiring more.
My security had snitched and she’d ended up cloaking on Saturday morning to witness how often it happened.
She lost it. I hadn’t realized how many times because I was focused on the magic, but she said it was over a dozen for the couple of hours I was working.
She sent out a company-wide message that the next person who bugged a teenager for perks when Familiar Treasures paid well, gave lots of perks, and took care of their people would be immediately terminated.
Wow.
People were floored and I got a few looks, but it was Rita who made it clear that people were asking me left and right and some rather pushy that they had to keep asking me. That it had gone over the line and it was overdue to handle, but I was young and hadn’t wanted to start trouble.
Except I wasn’t the problem. The adults asking favors of teenage employees—asking a teenage employee to break the rules and risk her job were the problem.
Yeah, they settled after that.
So life was pretty close to perfect.
Now if I just did well on my midterms I could keep going with liking my life.