Page 12 of Knocked up By the Minotaur

Loathing. His face settles on loathing as he looks to Oli, his eyes burning up a storm. “This isn’t over.”

Then he turns and heads for the exit, ripping the door open before dramatically looking back to me. “I love you, Gracie!” he shouts, and now I’m wincing with embarrassment on top of everything else, as people turn to look at us. “I’m not going to let you go without a fight! Not to him.”

And then he’s gone, and I sink into Olistaire’s side with a groan. “Dear Jesus…”

Have I just made everything worse?

Chapter 6

Olistaire

Grace slumps into my side, shoulders drooping with what looks like pure exhaustion. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, I revel in the softness of her curves pressing against me.

“Well,” I say after several long seconds, keenly aware of the dip of her waist beneath my fingers. “That male is wholeheartedly a jerk.”

“Right?” She finally pushes away from me, and I reluctantly let her go. “I’m so sorry, by the way, for the way he spoke to you… Those ‘animal’ comments were way out of line.”

I sigh and wave my hand in dismissal, more than used to the way some humans still hold prejudice against fae, and not holding it against Grace in the slightest. “I’m not concerned with what that lump of soggy cereal thinks about me.”

She snorts, pressing her fingers over her mouth and staring up at me with eyes that are slowly regaining their humor. “Soggy cereal, huh?”

“The male is limp,” I say, not knowing how better to describe him. “He’s a bowl of milk, Grace. A glob of rice pudding on the sidewalk. He’s a beanpole without the beans.”

When she starts giggling, almost as if in spite of her better judgment, some of my previous ire softens.

What the fuck did I just witness? Is this the sort of thing she’s been dealing with for her entire relationship with the human? I was already aware of his uselessness from the little gleans of information I’ve picked up throughout the months I’ve known Grace, but today just unveiled a whole new level of disgust I now have for the male. As far as I’m concerned, after everything I’ve just witnessed, he can rot in the deepest labyrinth for eternity, and society would only benefit from his absence.

“None of that makes any sense,” Grace says, and at least she’s smiling now. “But somehow, you’re one hundred percent on point.”

I huff through my nose and stare down at her. “You deserve better.”

Her smile slips and she turns away, looking down to fiddle with the plate of our untouched dessert.

“Surelyyou have to go back to work by now,” she finally says, changing the subject. I let her, because I can see the way her eyes are flashing with hurt, and I don’t want to prolong the moment for her.

“I am expected somewhere soon, actually,” I say, pulling out my wallet and throwing a few notes on the table. “Did you need a lift home? Or are you planning to spend more time in town?”

Grace starts as she stares at the money, before looking back up at me. “You don’t need to pay for all of it,” she says, eyes blinking rapidly before she turns to grab at her own wallet. “I can put in for mine and Lucas’s portions, hang on.”

My lips curl down in further disgust and annoyance—not at her, but at her pale little flap of an ex. When Grace had made her comment about the internet bill, such a surge of anger had coursed through me at the implications, I’d almost stood up and punched him in the jaw then and there. Was he making her pay for everything? Was he expecting it, demandingit? Did he really, seriously, only bother to come and ‘fight for his love’ when he’d lost the monetary benefits she provided to him?

Reaching across the space between us, I lay my palm over Grace’s hand, holding her wallet firmly shut beneath our fingers. I’ve decided that she will not pay for a single thing ever again, for as long as I’m around. It’s the least I can do for her.

“Please,” I say quietly, offering a soft smile so she doesn’t think the annoyance I’m feeling is directed towards her. “I want to.”

“But—”

“Are you going to make me beg?”

“But—”

“If you let me pay now,” I interrupt, “I might let you do it next time.” I absolutely will not, but she doesn’t need to know that yet.

Her shoulders loosen and she stops trying to open her wallet. “Next time, huh? That’s pretty presumptuous.”

“Of course,” I say, satisfied, giving her hand one last squeeze before letting it drop. “You forget, in the eyes of everyone here—and therefore, the eyes of the entire town by this afternoon—I am your male now.”

Her nose scrunches in the cutest little expression. “Oh, god, I’m so sorry, Oli! Of course you don’t have to keep up with that dumb ruse, I shouldn’t have pulled you into this in the first place.”

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