Page 29 of Infernal Affairs

“You look like you’re bracing for a hurricane,” she says, her gaze darting from the flour-crusted sleeves of my apron to my face.

Her tone is as bright and eager as a puppy’s, so I can’t help but smile.

“Maybe I am. You want coffee?”

“Not unless you’re adding whiskey. My calves are killing me.”

She plops herself onto the counter stool and props her feet on the brass rail below.

“So, Daisy…how’s your emotional forecast? Sunny with a chance of Enoch?”

“Ha. More like gale-force awkward.” I pour us both coffee before answering. “He’s coming over for dinner tonight. Here. I'm cooking.”

Zelda gasps dramatically.

“Oh, we're past dating. We've advanced to homemade meals.”

“I know.” I groan into my mug. “That somehow feels even scarier.”

I add the merest wisp of clover honey to my coffee and lean against the counter, cradling the mug between my palms.

“It feels...official somehow. Like we're pretending to be actual adults who have dinner together. I don't even know what that means for someone like him.”

Zelda’s phone pings, but she silences it without looking.

“You get to decide what it means. You, Daisy Flowers, with your heart on your sleeve and your hair in a bakery bun. You call the shots.”

“Thanks, but I feel like I need a user manual. Or better yet, a magical cheat code.” I raise my voice toward Clover's office. “Can you give me a potion for confidence?”

From the back room, Clover answers before I even see her.

“You don't need a potion. You need a plan.”

She pokes her head through the office doorway, gives me a knowing look, then disappears again.

Zelda immediately takes over.

“Okay. What's the plan?”

She folds her hands on the counter like she's leading a strategy meeting.

“We use the old Thistlebrook method. Step one: wear something that makes you feel like you could take over the world. Step two: laugh at his weird jokes. Step three: look him in the eyes until he blushes.”

“Demons don't blush,” I point out. “At least, not like people do.”

“Oh, they absolutely do.” Zelda grins. “I heard the tips of their ears turn pinkish-white.”

I blink.

Immediately my mind replays the day Enoch leaned over my shoulder to correct a spreadsheet, the very edges of his ears turning the faintest cherry-blossom pink.

“You're kind of evil for knowing that.”

“I'm observant,” Zelda says smugly. “Which is why you keep me around.”

A moment later Clover reappears, her hair a wild tangle, cinnamon-dusted spectacles perched on the end of her nose. She studies us like we're two loaves she's deciding whether to bake or throw out.

“Daisy, darling...did you finish last week's receipts?”