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CHAPTER THREE
Archie
“You were absolutelyuseless tonight, you know that?” Penny said with a sigh. She re-tied the braid that had come loose during our busy shift, her strong arms and shoulders flexing beneath the thin straps of her sleeveless black tunic as she fixed her hair.
“I was not,” I scoffed, holding open the door for the last customer, a stumbling old orc named Brakmoore. I closed it behind him, locking it and enclosing my sister and me in the now-quiet pub.
“You were!” she cried, her dark green eyes flashing and growing wide. “Even after she left, you kept mooning about in front of her place at the bar. I was certain I would turn around at any moment and find you licking the countertop where she’d rested her hands.”
“Well, that would be silly, not to mention unhygienic,” I said, collecting glasses from a nearby table and carting them beyond the holoscreen door and into the kitchen. Our cousin, Reginald, nodded in thanks as I dumped the glasses down next to him. He got to work rinsing them and then loading them into the light-based dish disinfecting cube.
“Youweresilly. That’s what I’m saying,” Penny said, close behind me with her own load of dirty dishes. She passed them to Reginald, then planted her now-empty hands on her hips. “You were wandering around the place, fluffing your feathers like an Orc-Orok pheasant in rutting season. And when you weren’t trying to show off, you were all ale-eyed, staring at her.”
“Even ale-eyed, I’m still twice the worker most men are, Penny,” I said.
“Oh, please. Then why are my muscles jigglier than pancreas pudding? I was picking up your slack and you know it.”
I rubbed my hand along my jaw thoughtfully, giving her a once-over. Then I grinned, my hand whipping forward to pinch her bicep.
“You must be losing your touch, then. Good thing you got some strength training in tonight.”’
Penny batted my hand away with such force that I knew her claims of muscle weakness were false.
“Absurd. Absolutely absurd,” she said. “I’m telling you Reg, you should have seen him.”
“I did,” Reg said, turning from his spot at the disinfectant cube. “I was watching while I was out there playing the barrel-pipe. I’m sorry he hindered your work tonight, Penny. But he certainly helped mine. He was quite the inspiration for my music. Every love song was played with twice the usual energy. I felt as if I were serenading only him and his new human lady love.”
I quirked a brow and crossed my arms, but I knew I couldn’t argue with either of them. I hadn’t neglected Penny as badly as she’d claimed, but there was a soft echo of truth to her words, and Reginald’s. From the moment I’d glimpsed Maggie seated at the bar in my pub, I’d been distracted in a way I was not accustomed to. I had many friends – it came with the territory for a pub’s hall-father. I was used to making conversation, often with beautiful women. But I was not usually so affected. I did not usually wait on one guest above all others. Did not look longingly at her empty place long after she had left for the night. There was always a distance between my gold-givers and me, no matter how friendly I’d become with them or how lovely they were. But Maggie’s face, glowing in the golden light; her warm, clever gaze; her hearty laugh; and her finely sharpened wit had collapsed that distance in a moment.
“Well, of course I should treat her with special care,” I said, uncrossing my arms and helping Reg load more dishes into the cube. Pulses of blue light cleaned the dishes as we spoke and worked. “She’s our next-door neighbour now. We have to foster close professional connections with the nearby businesses.”
Penny gave me a flat look.
“Just when, exactly, was the last time you traipsed around totally besotted after our neighbour Grakby, then? The poor beetleman’s never gotten any treatment like that.”
Reg grinned at Penny. “Aye, but Grakby isn’t lovely as a dew-flower at dawn.”
“She isn’t just lovely,” I shot back, my voice turning uncharacteristically serious. Maggie was a beauty, to be sure. But so much more than that intrigued me. Whenever I’d gotten the chance, I’d returned to her spot during her meal and I’d gotten some more information about her and her plans. There was a deep intelligence in her, as well as a humble, gritty work ethic I admired deeply.
The unusual bite in my tone was enough to silence all the banter.
“Didn’t mean it that way, Archie,” Reg said.
I felt Penny’s gaze burning into the side of my head.
She could tell I was getting unusually sensitive about this issue. I could tell that I was, too. It wasn’t like me. I knew when to take things seriously, but I still did so with a smile on my face. I wasn’t smiling now. I could feel the foreign set of a frown on my lips.
Finally, Penny sighed and threw up her hands.
“Well, I don’t care if you fall in love with some human, Archie. For what it’s worth, in the short time I talked to her, I really liked her. Just make sure we’re staffed better on the nights you want to prance about like some fever-struck git.”
“Noted,” I said, feeling my smile return. “Now, let’s get this place cleaned up and get out of here.”
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BETWEEN THE THREE OFus, closing duties were finished by 2am station time. We turned out the lights and locked the Orc-Orokish-style door behind us.
