Page 8 of Hexes From Exes

She ignored the whole thing.

She finally got out of a bed and showered, packed her food, and headed to her office. She was exhausted so she doubled up on coffee on the way to work, sitting down in her chair for the morning at 8:53am. She was early.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. She had her R&D meeting, and they’d come to the conclusion that collagen powder was not the market they wanted to delve into just yet, especially given that research showed it was a different subset of customers. They’d have to redo a lot of their advertising, and they were already trying to cut advertising spending in favor of giving the employees a bigger holiday bonus.

Lunch came and went, and Stephanie sometimes forgot about the red demon thing that was sitting across from her desk just the night before.

Dinner came and went, and she left the office with everyone else, not wanting to repeat the interaction.

Three days passed, and it was Friday evening, and there were no more visits from a mysterious red demon.

She’d landed on option A - someone played a good prank on her, one that managed to unsettle and anger her. If they wanted to scare her, they did a damn good job, but she wasn’t easily cowed. She’d half a mind to figure out who it was so she could get them back, but it was a little trickier than that.

A few years ago, she’d been sent a chocolate penis in the mail with a very angry letter. The letter was threatening her life if she left her home, coinciding with a very important conference she was supposed to speak at. She was able to reach out to the company and through the threat of a lawyer find out it was from a leader from their rival company hoping to scare her away from presenting at said important conference. If she backed out, this leader got the spot.

Needless to say, she didn’t back out, and made sure to gift everyone in attendance with a chocolate logo of the company…except the leader, who got an empty box that said, “I already ate the one you sent - sorry!”

Friday and Saturday came and went.

Sunday, she felt normal enough to go back to her typical schedule - a 9am yoga class on a hot Sunday morning was exactly what she needed to fall back into her routine. Solo brunch down the street at her favorite little health cafe was the perfect complement to that, and she even splurged on their chocolate protein drink that tasted more like chocolate than protein.

By Monday morning any thought of the demon was far, far from her brain…

…until 6:34pm, when he appeared across from her desk again.

“Fuck!” she yelled, standing up at her desk quickly. One minute the chair was empty, the next he was sitting in it.

“Hello Stephanie,” he said, relaxed and reclining in the chair. Stephanie collapsed back onto her chair, shaking her head. “Listen, I don’t know who put you up to this…”

“I told you, I cannot divulge that, it’s part of our pact,” he interrupted smoothly. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’m calling security this time. I don’t know how you figured out how to get in and out of my office without alerting anyone but…”

“I portaled,” he said simply.

“Right, whatever that means,” she said, reaching for the phone at her desk to dial security. When she picked it up, she was shocked to hear no dial tone. No matter how many times she punched the buttons, nothing happened. “What did you do to my phone?” she hissed.

“We have a deal, the magic will interfere as it needs to,” he said, waving his hand. “Have you started to collect potential dates yet?”

“Collect potential dates? No, I haven’t. I’m not convinced this isn’t some elaborate prank,” she said.

He nodded, “Yes, I’ve had this problem before. There are several ways we can square this away and move forward.”

“Like what?” she asked.

He shrugged. “That depends on you. Every human has a different threshold of disbelief. I thought portaling would do it for you, but it seems you’re not easily swayed. It makes sense, being in charge of such a large company, especially a scientific one. You need evidence, I understand this need of humans.”

“And demons just take things at face value?” she argued.

A look of momentary confusion passed his face, but he shook it off quickly. “We just don’t need to make a fool of ourselves in the process of discovery. Here, I will perform acts of minor magic to show you that I am not a human, and that I am serious about our deal.”

He stood and Stephanie tilted her head up, observing his full height for the second time. It stole her breath, looking up at his broad bare chest, his scaled skin. He caught her eye, and she thought she saw the flicker of a smile on his face, making her blush and look away. If he wasn’t a fucking demon, he would have been attractive, she supposed.

“I need you to watch,” he said. “In fact, come closer. There must be no doubt in your mind.” He waved her over at that, nodding along like it was the most logical thing in the world. She frowned before standing and skirted the edge of her desk, sure to keep a sufficient distance between them. He sighed and reached out to grab her wrist, pulling her close to him.

Stephanie was taller than the average woman at 5’11”, but he still managed to make her feel like a tiny thing. At 240 pounds, she was no willowy maiden, yet against his thick body she felt shadowed. It was a foreign feeling, and she couldn’t help the surge in her stomach at the assessment. He was a man that could throw her around a bit.

Demon. Whatever.

He let go of her wrist and nodded, closing his eyes. She expected him to disappear again, but to her surprise he changed…into a human man.