Chapter 40
Since Noble happened to be out running an errand, Jahla stood back, watching as Ollie calmly argued with an older white lady with dyed blonde hair styled into an inverted bob.
Jahla mainly was there to make sure he didn’t get beat up.
She supposed she should have just gotten security and let them handle it, but figured Ollie wouldn’t want to go that far unless things went south.
Though, she was sure she could handle a barely five foot tall older woman in khakis and a white flowery blouse on her own.
Regardless of what she could handle, Jahla could tell Ollie was starting to get angry by how clipped his tone was becoming.
“Ma’am, this is private property, and you have worn out your welcome. If you do not remove yourself, I will be forced to call the authorities to do it for me,” Ollie stated stiffly.
Yeah, her friend was reaching the end of his patience.
The woman’s face turned bright red in anger. “Authorities!? For what?! The one who should be arrested is you for allowing perversion in front of children!”
“Drag Queen Storytime features child-appropriate clothing and reading materials.
And as I mentioned before, though I hate to have to repeat the obvious, the act of drag and dressing up is, in itself, not sexual.
If you find it sexual, that is a you problem, and perhaps you should be questioning why you feel the need to sexualize everything.
“Not that it matters what you think, as legally I am in the clear. This is a privately-owned library, and as long as the programs I hold are appropriate for their target audiences, I can do what I dang well please. Now, are you going to leave on your own or am I calling the police?”
The woman glared for a moment, then glanced toward the road and back, an uncertain look in her eyes for a moment before the anger returned.
The witch sighed. “Do you need me to call you a ride?”
Jahla snorted and rolled her eyes when the lady’s mouth pressed into a tight, stubborn line.
The tension in Ollie’s shoulders seemed to bleed away as the rideshare vehicle pulled out of the parking lot, taking the annoyance with it.
“You are too damn nice. I can’t believe you paid for her ride,” Jahla mused from behind him.
“Well, it got rid of her quickly, didn’t it?!” he huffed. “Did you really want to wait for her to call whoever dropped her off here?”
His friend chuckled. “You have a point.”
“Thought so—oh, Noble’s back!” He smiled brightly when he spotted the man’s black truck pulling into the lot. “Perfect timing, too. Red happened to give me a store name and location where we can buy what I need for that potion, just before that woman showed up.”
Jahla eyed him curiously for a moment, and then slowly asked, “The potion for the cluster ghost that you mentioned yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“The store… It’s run by a witch, right?”
“As far as I know it is. Want to go with us?”
She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Why not? I already put a sign up to check out at the youth librarian’s desk,” just as Noble reached them.
Noble eyed them, his brow raising slightly. “Why are you two outside? Something going on?”
“Oh, it was just some annoying, holier-than-thou woman with backwards opinions. No big deal. But you came at the perfect time, as we have a witch store to go to!”
Noble winced. “Uh—actually, I was just stopping by to, uh, drop something off, as I have more things to do.”
Ollie frowned. “Oh…I suppose I could wait for you to get back again?”
“No. No, you don’t need to do that. Go ahead and go without me, as I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
He supposed it made sense. No doubt Noble had fallen behind on doing normal things at home. Where they were going certainly had nothing to do with him not attending, he was sure. Why would it? Noble was a perfectly normal human who had no reason to avoid witches other than him… Yep…
“Ah, sorry, I have been kind of taking up all your time, haven’t I?”
Noble kissed him on the forehead. “I like when you take up my time. I just need to catch up on a few things.”
“What exactly are you dropping off?” Jahla asked pointedly.
The man blinked, looking down at his empty hand before glancing back up. “Ah, I forgot it in my truck. You go ahead and get going. I’m sure you're excited to meet another witch.”
Ollie giggled. “Ah, I hadn’t even thought about that. Oh, maybe I could ask questions and actually get answers!”
“You should. Have fun, Baby. See you after.” With that, Noble turned around and left.
Looking at Jahla, he asked, “You still coming?”
“I’m coming. Your car or mine?”
“Mine, because it’s cuter.”
She snorted. “Debatable.”
He gasped in fake outrage. “You take that back! My bug is so much cuter and you know it.”
Jahla smirked and cheekily drawled, “Depends on what you call cute.”
Standing by his truck with the door open, Noble pretended to look for whatever he was dropping off as he watched the two drive off with a sigh.
While he wanted to go with Ollie, realistically, it was just not a place he could safely go without possibly being outed.
While they didn’t always work, and mostly didn’t because of the resistances full witch hunters had, witch-owned stores like the one Ollie was going to would likely have spells in place to warn the owner of danger. The danger being him.
Even if the spells failed, and there was a good possibility they would, there was always a chance that whoever ran the place, if older, would recognize what he was.
He supposed he could go home and do more laundry.
Noble, honestly, aside from the scrub-down he’d been doing, had been partly faking having things to do at home.
Mainly as he didn’t want Ollie to realize that he had nothing else to do.
Even with the witch partly hiring him as a bodyguard, he knew for a fact that it was odd for Noble to stay at the library all day, with literally nothing to do elsewhere.
But he’d rather fake having a life than have Ollie finally realize why he didn’t have one.
Though, his lack of one may have had less to do with being a witch hunter and more to do with his lack of personality…
It didn’t really matter either way, as it was only a matter of time before Ollie figured out what he was, and he had a feeling his time was running out faster than he'd like.
Noble sighed again.