Damsel Under Stress

by Shanna Swendson

  She laughed. “Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you tonight.”

  In spite of my assurances to Marcia, I couldn’t help but feel a little lost and lonely as I walked back out into the lab. “Is something wrong?” Owen asked.

  “No. It was one of my roommates. They found an airfare sale to go back home for Christmas and were letting me know in case I wanted to go, too.”

  “Are you going?”

  I shook my head. “Nah. It’s a weird schedule to get that fare, so I’d have to leave here tomorrow, then come back on Christmas itself. It’s several hours to the airport from my parents’ house, so I wouldn’t even be able to stay for Christmas dinner. My roommates are from around Dallas, so it’s a lot easier for them.”

  “You’re going to be stuck by yourself for Christmas?”

  “Yeah, but it won’t be so bad. It’ll be nice to have some peaceful alone time.”

  “You could come with me.” He said it casually as he uncapped his marker and moved toward the board to write something on it.

  “With you? You and your foster parents are just starting to work things out. You don’t need an outsider there.”

  “I’d love an outsider there,” he said, still facing the board, his back to me. “Think of it as a buffer zone.”

  “But would they want me there?”

  “You’ve already been invited.”

  “What?” This was awfully fast to be meeting the folks. We’d only just kissed for the first time when magic wasn’t involved a few days ago. Now I was already invited home for the holidays?

  “Not like that,” he said, finally turning around to face me. His cheeks had turned the shade of pink that meant he was very uncomfortable. He didn’t quite look me in the eye as he spoke. “I’d already told them about you—not as someone I’m dating but as a friend from work who’s relatively new to the city. When they invited me to come for Christmas, they suggested that I could invite you if you didn’t have other plans. Until now, I suspected you had other plans. But if you don’t, you’re welcome to come.”

  For Owen, that was a long, heartfelt speech. It also demonstrated that although he was a genius when it came to stuff like magic, research, and translation, he could be a little clueless when it came to women. If he’d talked enough about me for his foster mother to notice and feel as though she should invite me, then she was dying of curiosity about me and wanted to make sure I was worthy of him. And that made this a potentially tricky situation.

  “You’re sure it won’t be really awkward?” I asked.

  “Oh, it’ll be awkward. But it will be whether or not you’re there. It may be less awkward for me with you there.”

  “But what about me? I have a feeling it’ll be more awkward for me there than it would be if I stayed here.”

  He took a step closer to me and gave me the shy smile that had totally floored me when I first met him. “I’d really appreciate it if you came along with me.”

  He was impossible to resist when he was like that. I also couldn’t deny that I was curious about his foster parents, and I didn’t particularly want to spend Christmas alone in this city. “Okay, I’ll go,” I said. “What’s the itinerary, and what should I bring?”

  He grinned, and for a second I thought he’d kiss me or at least hug me, but we were at work, and Owen was nothing if not proper. “I was planning to take the train up the morning of Christmas Eve and come back the morning after Christmas. It’s about an hour-long trip. Does that work for you?”

  “Owen, we work at the same place, so we’re on the same schedule,” I reminded him.

  He flushed slightly, “I didn’t know if you might have any other plans. As for what you need to bring, well, they tend to be rather formal, so you can expect to dress for dinner, and a church service Christmas Eve night is mandatory. You won’t need to bring anything for the dinner. That will have been planned in detail well in advance.”

  “I should probably bring gifts. Any suggestions?”

  “You were the one who helped me buy my gifts for them,” he reminded me. I refrained from telling him that his gifts had been far, far out of my price range. Great, now I not only had to find an appropriate gift for him, but it had to be appropriate enough to give him in front of the closest thing he had to a family. And, I had to find something for them that wouldn’t make them hate me on sight. The way he described them, I pictured his foster parents as being very stern and forbidding. Still, they couldn’t be all bad for him to have turned out so nice. It wasn’t like there was a niceness gene. That usually had something to do with one’s upbringing.

  “Then we’re set,” he said, smiling so brightly that I was glad I’d agreed to go. If it made him that happy, I was certainly game. “I’ll check the train schedule and let you know what time we’ll need to leave from Grand Central. In the meantime, what do you say to spending the day before that together?”

  I blinked, trying to catch up. “Huh?” I said, showing how smooth I was at this male-female communication process. He wasn’t the only one who had a thing or two to learn.

  “Well, we have noticed that the one thing that seems to bring Ari out of the woodwork is us together. What could be more tempting than the two of us, spending the day enjoying all the romance of Christmas in New York City?”

  “So you mean we’d be doing this as work?”

  He gave me that shy smile again. “We could have fun, too. That’s certainly allowed. In fact, it would work even better if we were having fun.”

  “I guess if we have to do it to get our jobs done, then I’m willing,” I said with a wink. “I should warn you, though, I think I’ve seen every movie that involves any kind of Christmas scene in New York, so my expectations are pretty high.”

  “I can’t guarantee a pretty snowfall—well, I probably could, but altering weather patterns is usually frowned upon—but I’ll see what else I can come up with.”

  I didn’t think he was likely to kiss me at work, but he was awfully close to me. Our heads were practically touching, and neither of us would have had to move much if we wanted to kiss. Then the sound of a throat clearing made us jump apart. Of course, that made us look guilty, like there had been something going on. I turned to see Owen’s assistant, Jake, who seemed to be trying to look anywhere but at us. “Uh, boss, just bringing your mail,” he said. From the way he acted, you’d think he’d caught us undressed and rolling around on the lab floor.

  Owen didn’t help matters when he turned several different shades of red and took the long way around the lab table to take the mail from Jake instead of walking past me. Looking guilty was a sure way of giving the impression that something was going on. “Thank you, Jake,” Owen said firmly, the implied dismissal clear in his tone.

  Jake didn’t move. “What’s this I hear about Ari getting away?” he asked.

  “Yes, she got away. Thanks for bringing the mail.”

  “Wow. I wonder how she pulled that off. That was quite a scene at the party Friday night.”

  I was pretty sure Jake was talking about the showdown that had taken place among Idris, Ari, Owen, and me instead of Owen kissing me, but I still felt my face turning red. I ducked back into my makeshift cubicle and let Owen deal with Jake. I had enough to worry about now that I was meeting Owen’s family.

  That evening was consumed by a flurry of packing as both of my roommates got ready for their trip home for the holidays. I got assigned Laundromat duty to help them get some last-minute loads done while they packed.

  “I hate to leave you alone like this,” Gemma said as she folded and packed the last load I’d brought back.

  I continued sorting through the laundry basket for the items of mine I’d thrown into the load. “Actually, I’m going home with Owen.”

  “You are?” She raised her voice and called into the living room, where Marcia was packing. “She’s going to meet the hottie’s folks!”

  A second later, Marcia was in the bedroom. “Really? He’s taking you home for Chri
stmas?”

  “It’s not like that. They don’t even know we’re dating. They just know that I’m a friend from work who was going to be alone for Christmas, and they invited me.” They looked at each other and rolled their eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I know. I don’t believe it either, but that’s honestly what he seems to think.”

  “They are totally going to be checking you out and trying to see why he’s been talking about you,” Marcia confirmed.

  “Okay, this is a minor emergency,” Gemma said, hurrying to the closet. “You may not be meeting the parents in an official girlfriend sense, but you are meeting the parents, and this is your only chance to make a good first impression.” She disappeared into the closet, then returned with a small suitcase. “This should do. It’s good quality but not covered with designer labels.”

  “I’ve got an overnight bag,” I said.

  “You have a glorified gym bag. Take this. Now, what do you know about them?”

  “They live in some village on the Hudson. I think they’re rich. And he says they’re pretty formal. They dress for dinner.”

  “Okay, got it.” She disappeared into the closet again, then returned with an armful of sweaters. “You have to have cashmere. I’d suggest going with subdued and classy—nothing too obvious, but definitely not bargain bin or trendy. That’s the safest bet for meeting any parents for the first time.”

  “And then I have to come up with some gifts,” I said.

  Gemma groaned. “Oh, we don’t have time to do this right. I wish I wasn’t leaving town.”

  “If you weren’t leaving town, this wouldn’t be an issue. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I can shop for myself, you know.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but Marcia said, “Yeah, Gemma, she’s a big girl now.” She went back to her own packing, and I spent the rest of the evening listening to Gemma rattling off ideas for presents.

  I was looking forward to some rare private time when I got home from work the next evening, but I’d barely had time to take my coat off before the intercom buzzed. I hit the button, and it was Philip’s voice asking for Gemma that answered me.

  “Gemma went home for Christmas today,” I told him. “Didn’t she tell you?”

  There was a pause, then he said, “No, she didn’t. May I speak with you?”

  This was my first good chance to have an honest heart-to-heart, magic and all, with Philip, so I said, “Come on up,” and buzzed him in.

  He knocked on the door a few seconds later. “Would you like some tea?” I asked as I took his coat.

  “Yes, please,” he said. He looked exhausted and utterly miserable. “When did she leave?” he asked as I put tea and a plate of Christmas cookies in front of him. He reflexively stood as I moved to take my seat across from him at the table, then resumed his seat when I sat.

  “Today during the day. She’s coming back late Christmas night. This whole trip was very sudden. She just found out about the last-minute fare sale yesterday, and last night she was so busy getting ready that I guess she forgot to let you know.”

  He sighed and bit the head off a gingerbread man. I couldn’t help but flinch. “Perhaps,” he said.

  “Look, I don’t mean to pry or get into your business, but as you may recall, I do know something about what you really are, and I suspect most of your issues with Gemma have to do with that. You’re out of your time, which has to be disconcerting. Things have changed a lot, particularly the courtship rituals. For example, engraved invitations and chaperones aren’t really necessary these days.”

  “Yes, she made that clear to me.”

  “We have other ways to communicate,” I went on, but before I could start on the wonders of the cellular phone, he pulled a tiny flip-phone model out of his breast pocket. It was even fancier than Gemma’s. “Okay, you’ve figured that part out for yourself.”

  “I suspect she’s feeling neglected,” he said, snapping a leg off his gingerbread man. “I have been busy, but I can’t explain to her why I’ve been busy.”

  “What’s keeping you so busy?”

  “I’m trying to regain my family business. An unscrupulous associate of my father’s was the one who enchanted me, and then when my disappearance was never explained and I never returned, he inherited the business upon my father’s death. His descendants are still running the business, and I must take back what is rightfully mine.”

  “Yeah, that would tend to keep you busy,” I agreed. “And you’re right, it would be hard to explain. But have you told her you’re busy at work? She should understand that much.”

  He reassembled the headless gingerbread man on his plate, shoving the broken leg back into place with his index finger. “I’m not even certain that us being together is a good idea at this time. She came across me when I was feeling very lost, and she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Now, though, I have business I must attend to, and her association with me could put her at risk from my enemies. I cannot expect her to wait for me, either.”

  “You know, I work for the big guns in the magical world, so I’m sure I could get you some help if you needed it.”

  Hope flickered in his eyes. “I could use your assistance with something. As I understand it, you’re a magical immune.”

  “That’s right.”

  “I’ve scheduled a meeting with the new head of what should be my company. He doesn’t know who I am, simply that I’m a potential investor. It might be useful to have a magical immune present to help me determine if underhanded means are being used.”

  “I guess I could do that. When’s the meeting, and what’s your excuse for having me with you?”

  “The meeting is Thursday afternoon. I thought perhaps you could pose as my wife or lady friend.”

  “Undercover work sounds like fun, and I get off early that day. Maybe I could be the daughter of a Texas oilman with money of my own to invest.”

  The blank expression on his face reminded me that he’d never seen an episode of Dallas. He nodded politely and said, “Whatever you think is best. The meeting is at two in the afternoon. Shall I call for you here?”

  “Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

  “I appreciate your assistance. And I thank you for the tea.” He put on his coat and hat and left, and I finally had the apartment all to myself. Talking about Gemma’s relationship issues reminded me of my own. While I was looking forward to living out all of my romantic holiday fantasies now that I finally had someone to share them with, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. I was about to meet Owen’s foster parents, and I knew they’d see this as a big event. I had to find gifts.

  If ever there was one, this sounded like a time to call on a fairy godmother. I went to my nightstand to retrieve Ethelinda’s locket from the jewelry box I kept in the back of the drawer. I hesitated, though, as I sat on my bed and prepared to open the locket to summon the fairy godmother. I was almost always a hit with the parents of men I dated, even if the men weren’t so crazy about me. In fact, back home I’d been the number-one choice of parents for their sons’ girlfriend, which was one of the reasons I’d had so few dates in high school (three overprotective big brothers were among the other reasons). It wasn’t as though I needed a fairy godmother to help me with that sort of thing.

  I put the locket back into my nightstand drawer and closed it. A firework then went off right outside the bedroom window. That window faced a narrow air shaft—so narrow I was sure if the people across the air shaft needed to borrow a cup of sugar, we could easily pass it over. It was unlikely that anyone was shooting off fireworks in that confined space. I went to the window, raised the blinds, opened the window, and leaned my head out to see what was going on.

  Five

  I jumped back in surprise when I saw Ethelinda hovering right outside my window. “I can’t enter your home magically,” she said. “Your young man does very good wards. I couldn’t find a single chink in them.”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I didn
’t summon you. There’s no need for you to come inside.”

  “You don’t have to summon me. I’ve been watching your case, and it seems to me that you’re in need of advice.”

  “No, not really, thanks. I’ve got it under control.”

  “Have you eaten?”

  “Huh?”

  “Tsk, tsk, what kind of response is that, Kathleen? It’s better to say, ‘Pardon,’ or ‘Excuse me.’”

  “What does me eating have to do with anything?” I clarified.

  “It’s better to discuss these things over food, don’t you think?”

  No, I didn’t think. Eating meant being in public with a fairy godmother who seemed a bit ditzy. I could never be sure she’d remember to hide her magic from the rest of the world. Never mind the fact that I didn’t need her there. “That’s not necessary,” I insisted.

  “Nonsense. You’re meeting his family. This is important. If this goes wrong, your future together may be doomed. Put on your coat and meet me outside.” She vanished in a shower of silver sparkles before I had a chance to argue. There went my plans for a quiet evening at home alone, but I didn’t feel I had much choice. She’d probably set off more fireworks and annoy the neighbors until she got her way. I got my coat and purse and went downstairs to find Ethelinda waiting for me on the sidewalk.

  This time, she was dressed like the Sugar Plum Fairy in a really old production of The Nutcracker, from back when they wore their tutus almost down to their ankles instead of in a little ruffle around their hips. Her previous outfits, including the rose velvet and green silk, hung out from under the hem, and the blue satin of her bodice was so faded it was almost white. It was missing a few pearls around the neckline, the threads that had once held them hanging free.

  I hoped she had a good illusion hiding all that from the rest of the world. If not, I supposed I could pass myself off as a good Samaritan taking a bag lady out to dinner. Speaking of which, I wondered if I was expected to pay for the meal. I wasn’t sure how much money I had on me. None of the etiquette lessons my mother had taught me covered how you were supposed to interact with your fairy godmother, and I didn’t recall Cinderella ever going to a restaurant with hers in the stories. Technically, Ethelinda had invited me, but she didn’t seem like the kind of person who carried cash.