Page 29 of Hexes From Exes

What the fuck is wrong with you, he thought, trying to act casual as he returned to Stephanie’s side a few minutes later. Her eyes flicked over him quickly, a small smile pulling at her lips. He was about to open his mouth to speak when he heard a familiar voice.

“Stephanie,” said the man, “You look great.”

Rick looked up to see Fred standing there, a drink in his hand, looking uncomfortable but hopeful. The panic in Rick’s chest transformed into anger. This was the very same man that cursed her, and now he was telling her how good she looked? Rick’s brows narrowed suspiciously.

Fred noticed, taking a small step back. “Uh, I’m Fred. You are?”

“This is Rick, he’s…”

“I’m her date,” Rick interrupted, feeling his chest tighten. He tried to keep his voice level but even he could hear the edge in it. “Nice to meet you, Fred,” he said, extending a hand. Fred offered his own tentatively, sucking in air as Rick gave him a bone-crushing shake.

“Do I know you? I feel like we’ve met before,” Fred asked Rick. Rick shrugged evasively. “You must not have been very memorable for me,” Rick said.

“It was great to see you, we should really get our seat,” Stephanie said, her hand closing on Rick’s wrist as she dragged him away from an open-mouthed Fred. Once out of ear shot, she turned on Rick, her face the picture of anger.

“What the hell was that?” she hissed.

“What?” Rick asked.

“You’re my date? You looked at him like you were some sort of dragon! I thought you’d start spitting fire!”

“Dragons don’t spit fire,” Rick said defensively.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “It’s an expression. Seriously, though, what’s your problem? Is this about Cass?”

Rick paused. He hadn’t thought about Cass much that week. After running into her, he’d decided to give her space to do whatever it was she was doing. If it was illegal, he didn’t want to be dragged into it, and he didn’t want to do anything that might give her away. He kept her little journey to himself hoping she’d keep their conversation secret in response.

“No, I haven’t thought much about her this week,” he admitted.

“That’s good. So, what is it? Why did you look like you wanted to kill Fred?” Then, her eyes widen and she asks, “Is he one of the ones that cursed me?” She dropped her voice to a whisper, her gaze darting around.

Rick felt the lie on the tip of his tongue. It would be so easy to just say no, to tell her that he’d never seen Fred before in his life. Or, better yet, that he’d cursed Fred for something unforgivable in the past. Give her a reason never to speak to him again.

“Yes,” Rick admitted between gritted teeth.

“Were you defending my honor?” Stephanie asked, amused.

Rick turned to look at her, surprised to see the hint of a smile on her lips. Her hand was pressed to her chest in mock modesty, drawing his eyes once more to her breasts.

“Look, I can fight my own battles. I appreciate you driving him off. He’s absolutely infuriating. I should have known he was one of the exes. I swear he comes to these things just to find a way to talk to me. We literally went on two dates, if you can even call them that! Suddenly he’s at every conference and is always ‘bumping into’ me. It started to get a little stalker like. I couldn’t prove it, but I think I saw him outside of my office a few times.” She shook her head. “Fucker. Listen, I’m not going on a date with him, I don’t care if he’s one of them. Leading him on would be dangerous.”

Rick felt a rush of relief.

“Okay,” he said, unable to form any other words. He could have easily told her that it was proof enough, Rick’s visceral reaction to Fred proved that he was in the wrong and Stephanie was in the right. Deal complete! Instead…

“C’mon, I don’t want to miss the food, it’s the best part.”

* * *

Rick felt the buttons on his pants straining against his stomach. He’d eaten everything placed in front of him with vigor. The food in Anathamea just didn’t taste the same. The longer he spent in the human realm and drank their drinks, ate their food, and sat in their sun, the more alive he felt. He hadn’t taken a nap in days. He slept through the night fully. The few days he’d been separated from Stephanie and stuck in Anathamea were the hardest for him. It was like whatever energy he’d gathered from the human realm was drained the moment he stepped foot back into his office.

Stephanie slipped away a few seconds earlier to head to the stage to give her presentation. She hadn’t told Rick anything about what she was speaking about. It’s not as though he would understand anyway, any time she explained R&D or whatever other acronyms she used for work he felt like an absolute idiot.

“Hello everyone, thank you for coming today. My name is Stephanie Porter, I’m the CEO and founder of Eternal Beauty Systems. Today I’m going to talk about a topic that you’re all familiar with – salary.” Rick heard the crowd murmur a bit at that announcement. Behind Stephanie was a large screen with words on it. Stephanie stood in front of it with a microphone headset and a clicker in her hand, looking entirely at ease in front of the crowd.

“Eternal Beauty Systems is a top 100 beauty company. When we went public our stocks opened at $120 a share, which is the lowest they’ve been, even with the recent dip in the market. Our products have been featured in magazines across the globe,” she said as she scrolled through images of the stock prices, clippings of newspapers, and internet articles about her products.

“There is a place that we’re noticeably absent,” she said. The next slide was a magazine of Phoenix Under Fifty, articles about the highest paid CEOs in the beauty industry, all of which didn’t feature Stephanie. “You’ll never see our CEOs, presidents, VPs, or sales directors in any of these magazines. That’s because we have a certain formula that we implement in order to ensure our employees are happy and well paid.