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I repeated the words over and over to myself as I hurried back to my wall to finish my own paint job, trying to keep some kind of distance.
But that distance disappeared when Archie suddenly appeared at my side with his roller.
“Here,” he said quietly, starting to stroke up and down my unfinished wall. “I’ll help you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Archie
Iwasn’t sure whatwould bring me to my knees first. The lack of sleep from bending my schedule to try to be at Maggie’s place as much as orcly possible. Or the crushing weight of my rapidly developing feelings for my new human neighbour.
It was a rather alarming conundrum, considering she’d only been here for a week.
A week that had flown by in a blur of painting and cleaning and building. Most of the time I’d spent with Maggie so far had included her friends – Sophie and X. Every once in a while their toddler, Theo, showed up too, dragging his Navaret birdwoman nanny by the wing. But even though I had barely had any alone time with Maggie so far, I’d managed to learn a lot about her.
There were the things that I’d sensed about her right away that had only solidified in my time with her: her cleverness, her strength, her kindness. An independence that was almost to her detriment, as it seemed awfully difficult for her to accept help sometimes. Other things I’d learned? She had a tireless work ethic to rival a chimera’s and had a caffeine tolerance to rival an orc’s. She worked so hard each day, fuelled mostly by coffee and her unique brand of inner grit, that she often forgot to eat, only remembering when Sophie showed up with food or I jogged next door to retrieve lunch for us. I also now knew that she preferred goldenberry to blueberry, that she had worked in the manufacturing district of New Toronto on Terratribe 1, and that, best of all, she had no husband, partner, or mate.
As that first week bled into the next, I was desperate to make progress with her. I wanted to get to know her even more intimately. To get a sense of her feelings for me, if she had any. I wanted to woo her, to please her. To take care of her.
Blasphemous mountains, I wanted to strip the clothing from her strong little body with my tusks.
But I also didn’t want to distract her. She had to be just as bone-weary as I was from all the work being done, and the looming deadline of opening her bakery before Christmas cut more and more into our days. The snow-battered sleigh of time waited for neither human nor orc, so I vowed not to let my personal desires and feelings get in the way of Maggie accomplishing her goals.
So I kept working alongside her. Kept offering whatever she would take. My physical labour. My friendship and flirtations. It would have to be enough.
For now. Once the shop is ready and she’s established, all bets are off.
It was that thought that had me returning to Maggie’s for the second time on December 21st. Usually, I helped out in her shop all morning and into the afternoon before heading over to the pub to cover the evening rush. But that night, I couldn’t shake the urge to get back to her. Her shop was so close to being ready, now. Only a few small things left to do before she officially opened for business on the 23rd.
I made my excuses to Penny, who rolled her eyes. We were well-staffed, though, so I didn’t feel bad about slipping out of the pub.
The din of the pub, and the station at large, seemed to dampen and dim as I stepped into Maggie’s shop. The forcefield was down, but the lights were off. The blue of the walls looked smoke-grey, the back wall a muted burnt orange beneath the shadows. In the middle of the back wall, the doorway into the kitchen was a glowing rectangle. The sound of humming caught my ear, the sweet notes winding down into my chest.
There she is.
I strode to the doorway, pausing there, taking in the sight.
