“I’ll tell you what. I’ll find you what you seek if you give another woman a chance. One I pick out and set you up with. One date. Go on one date with both of these women and if you still choose the vapid one, I will let it go.”
I almost fell over. “You’ll… let it go?”
She nodded.
“Just like that?”
She made a poof motion with her hands. “Just like that. But if you renege on our deal, I reserve the right to have dinner with your parents and tell them all about our conversation.”
From the expression on her face, I knew she’d do it.
“One date? That’s it?”
She grinned, a sharp-edged thing that made me worry about the deal I was making. “That’s it.”
Before I could change my mind, I stuck my hand out. “Deal,” I said.
She slipped her slender hand into mine and gave it a firm shake. “Your first date will be in three day’s time.” Portia motioned to my face. “Do something about...that.”
My hand flew to my face. “What? About what?”
“That peach fuzz you young men think is actually a beard.”
With a feral smile, she snapped her fingers and disappeared.
While I was relieved she was gone, something about the whole exchange felt somewhat off to me. On one hand, I was very excited to meet someone who met all the specifications I wanted. I deserved to be happy and if it meant taking a wife to make my parents happy, I would do so. The whole children thing, though...I could stall them on. We were immortal, after all. They could afford to wait awhile.
Shaking my head over the entire exchange, I shoved my phone in my pocket and hurried into the building. We were meeting this morning about the storm. Shaw and Jeremy said they talked to someone who was a witness to the whole thing. I couldn’t wait to hear what they said.
Jeremy was again nursinghis coffee like a little old lady sips at a small cup of wine. I jogged over to the coffee station, relieved more than I could explain not to see the annoying barista there, and ordered a large black coffee. I didn’t like it when people put the cream and sugar in, so I always made sure I asked for extra room so I could do it myself.
The woman handed over the mug with a frown and took my money without even counting it. She shoved it into the register and pulled out exact change.
My mouth dropped open. “How did you -”
“Magic,” she said, her tone as dry as the desert.
I held my hand out for the money and took my mug, speechless for the moment. What kind of paranormal had a head for numbers like that? Especially without even looking.
I doctored my coffee to my liking and headed over to the table where my friends sat. As soon as they saw my expression, they both grinned.
“Savant,” Jeremy explained. “They’re rare.”
“A savant? A savant of what?” I asked.
Jeremy shrugged. “Of everything. From what I can tell, she’s a witch. A super powerful one, truth be told, but I don’t think she realizes it. She’s got an attitude for sure.”
Shaw snickered. “I once asked her for a little more cream and she told me to shove my head up my ass and breathe in.”
I choked out a laugh. “Wow. She hasn’t been fired yet?”
Shaw shook his head. “Nah. She’s in a building full of nerds and she isn’t too hard on the eyes. She’s the most entertaining thing we’ve seen in months, even when it’s at our expense.”
Neither Jeremy or Shaw were hard on the eyes, but they did fit the other categories of nerddom quite well. Shaw usually wore an ink-stained shirt with a pocket protector and half the time he ran into things because he wasn’t paying attention. Jeremy was ridiculously well-versed in most things, but had the social skills of an aardvark trying to play chess. When confronted with someone reasonably attractive, he either completely failed to notice or went into nerd hyperdrive, spilling everything and stumbling over everything he said.
I was a cross between Jeremy and Shaw. I didn’t care enough for flirting, though I always tried to be polite, and I could recite basically every word of every episode of Firefly. These were the things I didn’t tell my parents or my siblings. None of them were nerds. I was still trying to hold onto cool points by being one of the Luna family, but I still needed somewhere to let my nerd flag fly.
I looked back over to the sullen witch and wondered what it would be like to possess magic. Real magic, not the kind that grew teeth and fangs once a month, but the kind that could turn someone into a frog if they pissed you off. That would be cool. I mean, I guess I could eat them if they made me angry enough, but I'd be picking sinew out of my teeth for a week, and I really wasn't the kind of person who ate people.
