Page 7 of Honey, I'm Home

She’s gaping at me. Why is she gaping at me? “I’m losing my fucking mind. That’s what’s happening, isn’t it? Why are you acting like this?”

Now I’m the confused one. “Like what? Like we’re in love and in a committed relationship? Aster, are you okay, Darlin’? Did you hit your head?”

She sinks down into the chair I just fixed, which immediately falls apart again. Oh no it doesn’t. Nobody gets to touch my girl’s ass and then cause her pain.

I assist her off the floor and then take that piece of shit out back to teach it a lesson.

I’m banging it against the edge of the dumpster the strip of businesses share when she walks out, mouth agape again, making me feel like she needs something to stopper it. Oops, that was a bit much, wasn’t it? My bad.

“Hawthorne!”

I throw the chair in and flip it off for good measure, then dust off my hands before getting back to my woman. “Yes?”

She shakes her head and grabs me by the shirt, pulling me back inside. Gods, I love an aggressive woman.

“Sit. Explain.”

“Not sure there’s much explaining to do, really.”

“I disagree,” she seethes. “I’ve been— no, that doesn’t matter. Why are you acting like you and me are a thing?”

I feel my eyebrows get all scrunchy. “Aren’t we?”

She shakes her head, eyes huge.

“Huh. I could have sworn… eh. No matter. We’ll still pick you up at six o’clock sharp. The place makes a killer plate of baklava.”

Man, I can’t wait to get back and tell the guys the good news that we didn’t fuck up the house. They’re going to be so happy we don’t have to re-do everything.

Chapter 4

Aster

As I try and put the office into some semblance of order, I tell myself that I imagined the entire interaction with Hawthorne. Because the alternative? Not going there.

I found a box in the middle of the breakroom table with a sticky note on top that said ‘Open at your earliest convenience’, but when I tore into it, it was jerry-rigged with confetti and one of those fucking spring snakes that jump out at you, and then there was some sort of voice box that played a villainous laugh.

Prospects at the new job are looking great.

Iprobablydidn’t have a real heart attack from that hot pile of garbage.

Underneath all the smoke and mirrors was a bunch of papers with clients that were currently seeking services with the realestate firm, which is reduced to only me. The notes taken throughout the files are more than a little tricky to understand, and I never really stopped to consider how selling houses to a bunch of supes might be different than selling to regular-ass humans.

Turns out, they’re almost like different fields entirely.

Supes have very specific needs when they buy a home, quirks if you will, which makes both buying and selling these homes tricky. If a wolf family wants to move out, for instance, they might have a basement full of custom dens that they’ve had built into the foundation, but then say a water witch wants to move in? They need that space to have some sort of water feature instead. And from what I’m gathering, everyone just expects to be entirely catered to.

There’s probably going to be a lot of negotiating, concessions that both parties want made, and I figure my best bet is just calling the clients one by one and making sure I have all of their files straight.

???

I'm beginning to understand why the previous lady was so excited to get out of here. After dealing with the very needy clients all afternoon, I've got a killer migraine and a very empty, very rumbly belly.

I have to admit; I didn't expect Hawthorne was serious earlier when he said they'd be picking me up at six. But look at that. It's 6 o'clock on the dot, and all three of them are knocking at my front door. With the sun setting behind them, it makes them look almost eerie, like they're glowing.

This far away, I allow myself the luxury of fully taking in their appearances. I'm behind the glass, so they won’t be able to hear how hard I'm suddenly breathing or feel the rise in my body temperature.

How many nights did I lie awake when I was younger, fantasizing about the three of them showing up and sweeping me off my feet? They’ve always been such close friends until they weren’t, that it was easy to imagine dating them. Of course I dreamed of dating all three of them, you can't separate them. They come as a set.