Page 20 of Hexes From Exes

“Well, yes, I’ve not seen you cry before,” he said.

She laughed. “We’ve known each other like a week, how would you?”

“I’ve been following you longer than that,” he said with a shrug.

Stephanie stopped and turned on him. “You’ve been what?” she asked.

Rick nodded. “Very standard to follow the cursed person, a little research. I’d been watching you for two whole weeks before I approached you. It was enough time to learn about you and give me questions.”

“What did you find out about me?” Stephanie asked, curious.

Rick shrugged. “You work all the time. But when you’re not at work, you’re at home or at a fitness studio. You haven’t gone on any dates, you like to speed when you drive, and you are very punctual. It was hard to direct the magic for the punishment with that information alone.”

“That explanation isn’t any less creepy,” she said.

He shrugged. “You perform research for your job, I perform research for mine. I did not know that about your parents. I wondered how you had the money to start your business despite being a college drop out.”

Her cheeks turned a deep shade of red, and she looked away, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t really want it to get out, you know? I don’t pretend to be a self-made millionaire. I wouldn’t have any of this without my parents money, but they had to die for me to get it. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Rick agreed. His own parents were still alive, living just a few towns over. They’d needed a lot more help over the last few years and relocated to an elderly community to help take care of them and not impose on Rick. He couldn’t recall the last time he visited them.

“It took a few years, but I got the money. By then I had foreclosed on my parents’ home, nearly failed out of school, and was inches from homelessness. I worked at a makeup store and realized what I wanted to do, saw the potential for growth in the industry. Even during the recession, women were buying skin care and makeup as though they weren’t pinching pennies. Some of the products that people loved…it made no sense to me, they were made with the worst ingredients and half of them were comedogenic. Before I dropped out, I was going to be a pharmacist. I had taken a lot of the prerequisites, but chemistry was my true love. I figured I could merge the two, so I took a huge gamble and started Eternal Beauty Systems.”

“That’s impressive,” Rick said, and Stephanie turned back to fall into step with him.

“Thanks,” Stephanie said, a little sheepish. “The official company origin story is that I found a calling and wanted to marry science with beauty, to bring people clinically tested products with proof that they work. It’s not a far cry from the truth…it just leaves out the unpleasantness.”

“Don’t you think if people knew the truth, they’d be more appreciative?” Rick asked.

Stephanie shook her head. “No, that sort of history is a sign of weakness. People are always looking for me to fail, I can’t show too many cards. If people know too much about you, they can use it against you. I’d rather keep it to myself.”

“I see,” Rick said, even though he didn’t. Cass knew everything about Rick, so did Zed. Rick was an open book. With the rest of the demon realm? Well, showing weakness was never advised.

“You think I’m being ridiculous, but the rules probably aren’t the same for you in Anathamea. Here, on Earth, women don’t get a lot of respect. People are cutthroat, and all it takes is the wrong asshole to know something and go public with it to entirely tank my brand.”

“Yes, I know how these things work in the human realm,” he said with a glower. “This social media trend of ruining someone has really put a damper on my business. Now a days you can just find some old piece of internet history and post it everywhere or make up a story on video and it will go virus. It used to be you summoned a demon to do the work for you.”

“Viral,” Stephanie said with a small smile. “Though virus does sound better, since that’s what it is.”

“Yes, whatever. It’s become more and more rare for my kind to be summoned, and we’ve made a lot of cuts in the department over the years. People have found their own ways for revenge,” he said with a shrug.

“Except my group of exes…please tell me William was one of them? I can’t stomach the idea of going on more of these dates, they were all ex-boyfriends for a reason.”

“He was not,” Rick said. “You should be glad. I would expect his idea of punishment to be very serious.”

“Is the one that’s been chosen for me…not serious?” Stephanie asked tentatively.

Rick shrugged. “I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Some would say it’s life-shattering, others would call it mild. I once had someone cursed to never see their stuffed bear ever again – to lose it and it never get returned. I thought it was a small wish for a big price. Turns out the stuffed bear was a gift from a dead relative, and it meant a lot to them.”

“That’s kind of fucked up,” Stephanie said.

Rick nodded. “Yes, some people are clever, others are just cruel. I’ve disfigured people, caused car accidents, all sorts of things.”

“And it doesn’t affect you?” Stephanie asked.

“What do you mean?” Rick asked. By now they were heading to the edges of the business district, further and further way from the bustle of the bars. Stephanie stopped in front of an ice cream place. “Well, you have to do all this awful stuff to people, doesn’t it put a damper on you? Like after you’ve caused a car crash or stolen an heirloom do you just go about your life as though nothing’s changed?”

Rick blinked at her. A memory of coming home to the condo he shared with Cass suddenly came to the forefront, one where he’d slammed the door to the bathroom and didn’t come out for three hours. Cass finally picked the lock and found him sitting in the long since cold bath water staring at the wall.