Gregor didn’t look pleased, but he wasn’t turning green or growing fangs, either. He was probably glad to get rid of me. Kim wasn’t going to be happy, but that wasn’t really my problem. I hadn’t even seen Kim since I’d been working out of R&D.
Owen grinned at me. “Congratulations,” he said. I wondered if he’d known in advance.
“Thanks. Wow. I don’t know what to say.”
“You’ve earned it, Katie. I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather have working at my side,” Merlin said with a warm, grandfatherly smile.
A bottle of champagne appeared on the table, followed by glasses for all of us. Minerva opened the bottle and poured, passing the glasses around. “You know it’s a good day at the office when you’re drinking before noon,” Gregor muttered. I couldn’t believe he’d actually made a joke. At least, I hoped it was a joke.
Merlin raised his glass. “To my new assistant. May she continue to provide me with wise counsel.”
The others raised their glasses and echoed him. I felt proud and embarrassed, all at the same time. I’d toiled for a year in my previous job without so much as a raise. Now I’d been promoted barely a month into this job. It was a distinct improvement. Rod and Owen had been right when they told me at the beginning that I’d be valued here. I doubted even they had imagined I’d do this well. I wasn’t sure I believed it yet.
The impromptu party broke up as the group returned to their offices. Owen pushed himself out of his chair with a visible effort, and Merlin stopped him with a hand on his arm before he could make it to the door. “You, go home now and rest. I don’t want to see you again until Monday.”
It was a sign of just how tired Owen was that he didn’t protest. “Okay, then, I’ll see you Monday. Have a good weekend, Katie, and congratulations again.”
“Thanks. You, too. Get some rest.”
“I should let you get settled, and then we’ll talk about your new role,” Merlin said. He walked with me to the outer office, where Trix sat at the reception desk. “Trixie, can you show Katie to her new office?”
“Right away, boss. And remember, you have a lunch meeting with Amalgamated Neuromancy.”
“Ah, yes, that. I’ll get back to you this afternoon, Katie.”
Once he was gone down the escalator, Trix dropped her professional manners and squealed with delight. “Congratulations! I’ve known since yesterday, and I thought I’d burst from not being able to tell you. It’ll be fun having you up here. Let me show you your new office.”
She fluttered to a doorway opposite Merlin’s office, and I followed. This office wasn’t quite as big as Merlin’s, but it was enormous, vastly superior to every other place I’d worked. For one thing, it had windows. The view was mostly of lower Manhattan, with the tall buildings getting in the way of anything truly scenic, but I was glad to have windows at all, no matter what the view was.
There was a large desk, with my computer already on it, a desk chair that might as well be a throne, a small conference table with chairs near one of the windows, and a big, overstuffed sofa along one wall. “Wow” was all I could say.
“Your stuff’s already up here. The boss had me take care of that while you were in the meeting. If you need any books or decorations, let me know and I’ll take care of it. I can also get you lunch, coffee, or whatever.”
She then handed me a set of keys. “Here are your keys to the building, to this floor, and to your suite. Oh, and the bathroom’s behind that door next to my desk.” She gave me a mock pout. “Looks like I don’t have a bathroom to myself anymore.”
“I’ll try not to hog it.”
“Okay, then. I’ll leave you to get settled in, and I’ll let you know when Mr. Mervyn is ready to meet with you.”
I had remarkably little to do for someone with such a supposedly important position, but I imagined that was likely to change soon enough. For now, I enjoyed having an office with windows and a door that closed. Even without much to do, the day passed relatively quickly. Merlin had to postpone our meeting until Monday when he got stuck in some tricky negotiations, so before I knew it, it was time to go home, and I had very little to show for my day, other than my new office. “Want to have a celebratory drink?” Trix asked when I passed her desk on my way out.
“I have to get home. I have my first Project Boyfriend date tonight, so my roommates need to make me over.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Thanks. I have a feeling I’ll need it.”
If I had to meet a guy Gemma was sure was the One—with a capital letter—today was as good a day as any. The day’s events had left me feeling bold and confident, which was better than the nervous way I usually approached dates.
Gemma was already home when I got there. She must have taken off early, just for the occasion. “Are you excited about tonight?” she asked.
I didn’t have to fake excitement. I just had to fake what I was excited about. “Yeah. It’s already been a great day.”
“Get in the shower, and then you can tell me all about it while I do your hair and makeup.”
Half an hour later I sat in front of the dresser in our bedroom with my hair up in a towel while Gemma worked on my makeup. “I’m going for a fresh-faced girl-next-door look, so you just look nice, not like you’ve got a lot of makeup on,” she said. “That should appeal to Keith.”
“He’s a guy. If he notices the nuances of my makeup job, he’s probably not straight.”
She acted like she didn’t hear me. She was too busy taking the towel off my head and combing out the tangles. “I wish we’d had time to do highlights.”
“If he hates me on sight because I don’t have highlights, I don’t want him.”
Still ignoring my bad attitude, she asked, “So, what happened today that had you so excited?”
“I got a promotion at work. A big one.”
“Congratulations! What’s your new job?”
“I’m assistant to one of the top executives.” I decided against saying I’d been promoted to be the top boss’s assistant because that was so big it would raise too many questions. People just didn’t rise from being an ordinary administrative assistant to being the CEO’s right-hand person in the space of one month.
“That’s super! See, I told you that last place you worked didn’t appreciate you. Now, hold still.”
I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the curling iron and goodness knew what else she was doing to my hair to make it look “natural.” Then I reminded myself that I was going through this so I could get to a point where I wouldn’t have to go through this as often. That fantasy of wearing sweats and watching an old movie was looking better and better.
Finally, I met with Gemma’s approval. Marcia got home from work and gave her thumbs-up. “I still can’t believe you’re sending me out on my own like this,” I complained before they shoved me out the door.
“When you meet in a group, it takes on a just-for-fun atmosphere,” Gemma explained. “One-on-one is serious. Now go and be brilliant.”
That was easy for her to say. Dating came naturally to her. I could talk easily to the guys at work, but put me across a table from a man in a situation where there were no legal pads or PowerPoint presentations involved and I froze. I couldn’t remember the last real one-on-one date I’d been on. I was twenty-six years old, and there were high school freshmen with more dating experience than I had.
At least they’d picked a restaurant fairly close by, near Union Square. I could make an escape without having to hail a cab. As I walked to the restaurant, I noticed a gargoyle on top of a nearby building, and I’d never seen one there before. I didn’t think it was Sam, though. This one had a different profile, more of a birdlike beak instead of Sam’s grotesque humanlike face.
It was a chilly night, and a blast of hot air hit me in the face when I entered the restaurant. The place was already crowded, packed wall-to-wall with people waiting for a table. How was I supposed to find my date in this mob?
A tall, handsome man with wavy chestnut hair walked toward me. I automatically glanced behind me to see which supermodel he was approaching, but he looked me in the eye and said, “Katie Chandler?”
I gulped. Gemma didn’t mess around when it came to looking for the One. “You’re Keith?” I didn’t mean it to sound like an incredulous question, but that’s the way it came out. I never got set up with guys like this.
He gave me a smile that turned my insides to jelly and reached to shake my hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Uh-huh” was all I was capable of saying.
He didn’t notice my awkwardness, or if he did, he was gentleman enough to pretend not to notice. “Let’s see if our table’s ready,” he said.
I followed him to the host’s stand, then nearly tripped over my own feet when I noticed a party of fairies and sprites come in. Damn. Why couldn’t I escape from magic for one night? I hoped it wasn’t anyone I knew and that they’d leave us alone. I wanted to make a good impression on this guy. Before I had a chance to see if I recognized anyone in the group, the host led us to our table.
Once the host was gone, Keith grinned at me. He had warm hazel eyes that lit up when he smiled. I could definitely imagine cuddling on the couch with him. “Gemma said you were cute, but I had no idea,” he said.
I wondered if he meant cute as in attractive or cute as in “just like my little sister.” I knew I was blushing, which probably increased the “like a little sister” impression. “Gemma didn’t tell me anything about you,” I admitted.
“Then it’s very brave of you to take a chance on me in the blindest of blind dates.”
Me, taking a chance on him? He had to be kidding. He was also way too good to be true. Maybe Gemma had hired him to go out with me, but that would defeat the whole point of Project Boyfriend. She knew I didn’t need dates just to have someone to go out with.
We discussed the menu for a few minutes. He didn’t have any weird food quirks that he felt the need to mention. He wasn’t on any wacky diet, and he didn’t reject menu items because they contained some food he hated. After too many blind dates with men who reminded me of toddlers on food jags, that was refreshing. I just hoped the conversation held up after we ordered.
The waiter came to take our orders and took away our menus, and we were left to work without a net. “So, what do you do, Katie?” he asked. It was the obligatory first question on any date. I wasn’t sure why, when most people claim to hate talking about work.
“I’m just a secretary. Nothing interesting.” I’d decided the best way around that tricky job question was to make my job sound so uninteresting that no one would want to ask more questions about it. “What about you?” I hoped turning the tables quickly would help move the conversation away from any possibility of me having to skirt the magic issue.
It didn’t work. I’d found a guy who actually wanted to talk about me. “What company do you work for?” he asked.
“It’s a small company. I’m sure you wouldn’t have heard of it.”
“Try me.”
“It’s called MSI Inc.”
“You’re right. I haven’t heard of it. What do they do?”
I wished I could remember the way Owen had described it in that first meeting, which seemed so very long ago. “Oh, it’s some kind of services stuff,” I said at last, playing airhead. “I just type memos and make coffee. I don’t pay much attention to what we actually do.”
As boring as I tried to make it sound, he didn’t look like he was about to fall asleep. If he wasn’t truly interested, he was faking it well. For a moment I wanted to really wow him by telling him I was Merlin’s assistant and I worked with wizards and magical people, but I had a feeling that would lead to the kind of commitment that involved padded cells rather than diamond rings. Ordinary Katie would have to do. I just hoped ordinary Katie would be enough.
As if to reinforce the weirdness of my life, the party of sprites and fairies walked past us on the way to their table and I recognized Ari. She winked at me as she passed. I forced my attention back to my date while I wondered how big a coincidence it was that one of my coworkers was at the same restaurant I was, especially given that Ari claimed not to like dating her own kind. Why did they have to pick this restaurant, tonight of all nights, the one time when I wanted to go back to at least looking normal again for a little while?
“Now, what do you do?” I asked again, but as interested as I really was, I couldn’t stop my attention from wandering over to the table of fairies. They didn’t seem to have noticed me, for which I was grateful.
He finished explaining his job to me, then opened his mouth to ask another question, but his water glass tipped over. He hurried to right it, then attempted to blot up the water with his cloth napkin before it could spill onto the floor. “Oops, sorry about that,” he said. “I can be a real klutz.” Fairy laughter tinkled in the background. I immediately suspected magical interference.
I tried to help him blot up the water and said, “They need to put a few more sugar packets under that table leg to keep it from wobbling.”
He didn’t seem to think anything too odd was going on, so I tried to calm down. A disastrous first date could be a real bonding experience if you handled it the right way. Fortunately, this place had good service, and we were quickly surrounded by waiters replacing napkins and water glasses. Soon, our salads arrived. Keith managed the delicate balancing act between eating and sustaining conversation. I wished I could do the same thing, but I was so sidetracked I couldn’t help but wonder what Ari and her friends might do next. I soon found out.
One of the sprites came over to our table. Even though I knew it was a pretty good bet that Keith couldn’t see the wings, it still felt weird having a conversation with someone like that around someone who was supposedly normal. “Sir, I understand you’re having a problem with your table,” the sprite said. Then I realized the sprite was posing as the restaurant manager. I wished there was a way for me to know when someone was using an illusion. Seeing reality was handy, but it would help to know when I was supposed to be fooled.
“It was nothing. Everything’s okay now,” Keith said.
“Sir, I must insist. We can’t allow these things to occur, so please tell me what happened.” I could hear Ari giggling in the background.
“Well, okay, I think the table may have a little wobble to it.” Keith proceeded to demonstrate, trying to shake the table back and forth so it would wobble, but it remained steady. Peals of fairy laughter echoed through the room. Could everyone else hear that, or did they mask the sound, as well? That did it.
“Could you excuse me for a moment?” I asked, then grabbed my purse and headed for the restroom, hissing at Ari as I passed, “I need to talk to you.” She got up and followed me back to the ladies’ room.
“What are you doing with that loser, Katie?” she asked before I could get on to her about her meddling.
“Loser? I’ll have you know this is the greatest date I’ve had in a very, very long time. He’s got real potential, and I like him, so it would be very nice if you and your friends would quit interfering.”
“But you don’t want to be with someone like him.”
“Why, is there something you know about him that I don’t? I’d know if he were really an ogre in disguise.”
She shrugged. “He’s just boring. You can do better. We’re doing you a favor.”
“Believe me, I am perfectly capable of getting rid of a bad date without any help. But this isn’t a bad date. At least, it wasn’t until y’all started playing games. What are you doing here, anyway? You’re not stalking me, are you?”
“Nah. Remember, I live around here, too. We just saw you and thought we’d have some fun.” I noticed she didn’t quite look me in the eye, but she also looked sheepish and ashamed of herself, so I couldn’t tell if her evasion was because of embarrassment or because she was lying. “We’re okay, aren’t we? You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”<
br />
I sighed. “Yeah. We’re okay. Just lay off it for the rest of the evening, okay?”
“Okay,” she said grudgingly.
The fake waiter was gone by the time I got back to our table, and our food had been served. “Perfect timing,” I said as I slid into my seat. Now that I no longer had to worry about magical interference, I could relax and enjoy the date.
“I hoped you weren’t sneaking out on me,” he quipped.
“There’s no danger of that,” I said, daring to meet his eyes. I wished I was a better flirt. I really wanted him to know I was interested. This was no time to play coy and risk sending mixed signals.
“Good, because I wasn’t ready for this evening to be over so soon. I’d like to get to know you better.”
“What would you like to know?” I asked, trying for some eyelash batting and hoping it didn’t look like I had something stuck in my eye.
“It would be good to know what kinds of things you like doing. That might help me plan future dates.”
I tried not to hyperventilate. He’d actually mentioned future dates. That implied he wanted to see more of me, and that he didn’t think of me as a little sister. Things were looking very, very good.
There was a commotion at the front of the restaurant and I tried to ignore it. It was probably just the fairies, up to their usual hijinks. As long as it didn’t affect me, I wasn’t going to worry about it. But then a man in a tuxedo rushed to our table, thrust a bouquet of red roses at me and began singing something that vaguely resembled an opera aria, sung off-key and with my name sprinkled liberally throughout.
It was Jeff, the Naked Frog Guy. He had incredibly bad timing. I wanted to crawl under the table. And cry. Or maybe sit under the table and cry. This was so not fair. I chanced a glance at Keith, who was staring in shock at Jeff. After a while he turned to me. “Friend of yours?”
I wanted to play it cool and swear I’d never seen him before in my life, but I knew that wouldn’t work. “My stalker,” I admitted. “I thought I’d got rid of him.”
Enchanted, Inc. Page 22
