Page 13 of By the Fae

Actually, it was probably a good shout I hadn’t sat on the leather gamer chair. Things were already starting to get a touch damp inthatarea. Wouldn’t want to leave any evidence behind on a chair that probably cost the same as my car.

While the laptop booted itself into life, Seth took something from his pocket, a compact mirror. He opened it and peered at it as though he were looking at himself for the first time. Or like he’d just had a haircut, and the stylist had actually listened to what he’d wanted. He made a surprised “Hmm” sound, clicked the compact closed and flashed me another moisture-making smile.

I opened the document. Just a plain-text document with names and lines of speech and narration. Without context, it all seemed rather random. Ten minutes into the task, I still had not spotted any errors, giving way to a gnawing suspicion that this entire thing was another leg of their weird kill-me-with-boredom game.

I looked over to Seth and found him on his phone. Sitting forward, with his elbows on the desk, and on the screen, Faebook. His finger idly flicking upwards, occasionally pausing for a second or two on a photo of one of his female “friends”.

My stomach dropped. Was it disappointment that he’d left me to complete the task without him? Irritation that he wasn’t taking this seriously? Jealousy over the women on his screen?

Fae women, like fae men and fae nonbinary folk, were improbably flawless. Entirely unattainable for a human like me. Always tall, always perfect bone structure, zero percent body fat. Then, add on the ability to cast glamour, those coveted pointy ears, and none of them seemed to have a modicum of self-doubt. What did that equal? The opposite of me. That’s what.

I should have pulled my focus back to the error-less document on the laptop, but my eyes stayed glued to his phone, Seth’s own face somewhat hidden behind the inbuilt seat-speakers.

A blonde, a brunette, a redhead, seemingly wearing fewer clothes in each photo. I was nothing like these fae girls. I didn’t have their perfect bone structure or their glossy hair or their curves. Unless you counted the singular curve that was my soft rounded tummy.

An icky feeling settled somewhere deep in my gut, and I found my mouth moving and words tumbling out before I had the sense to reel them back in. “I don’t think you should be looking at—” I began, but that moment his phone rang.

Seth spun his chair, held up a finger, and gave me a pointed look. It said,I’m going to take this call, you continue with my menial labour. He got to his feet and crossed to the sofa.

“Hey, Luke.” Seth raised his sexy as heck voice to approximately three-thousand decibels. The same volume my mum reserved for phone-calls to her sister.

Unluckily for me, Luke was on a video-call and also spoke like a boomer with a faulty hearing-aid. Weren’t all fae senses supposed to be highly attuned?

“Yeah, alright mate? You coming on Saturday? Ky’s got the stuff you asked for.”

“Obviously. We meeting at yours?”

I tried to zone it out. Tried not to listen, but it was impossible to tune out completely. I caught snatches here and there. Heard the name Abysm. The super-hot fae men were all planning to go to Remy’s most exclusive nightclub on Saturday. Pre-drinks at Luke’s, somebody was bringing edibles, Luke would wear shorts. Okay, but who wore shorts to Abysm? I’d never been, but it definitely didn’t seem like a shorts place to me. Though, who was I kidding? My best evening outfit comprised of my nicest cotton dungarees.

I pulled my eyes back to the laptop. It was none of my business. Even if part of my brain had begun conjuring a daydream in which I procured an elusive Abysm ticket, a magnificent, jaw-dropping, preferably designer dress, and an extra four inches to each of my femurs; and turning up unannounced. Maybe Seth would spot me from across the dance floor. I would pull my glasses off and shake out my short brown curls with my purple highlights, and he’d fall in love with me on the spot.

“Anyway, how was your date last week?” said Luke, yanking me from my fantasy. My spine stiffened. “Human, right? Did you take her back to yours?”

My heartbeat kick started.

He dated humans?

Seth dated humans!

This was singularly the most exciting and terrifying piece of news I’d ever heard.

“Yeah, was fine. Went back to mine,” Seth said, bored.

A moment ago, they had been talking through megaphones. Now, I was straining to listen over the pounding blood in my ears.

“And how was she?” Luke was laughing.

Seth paused. “Meh,” he said.

“Inexperienced?”

My stomach flipped.

“That’s the polite way of putting it.” Both guys laughed.

“You gonna see her again?” Luke asked.

“Probs not,” said Seth. “Anyway, what did Ally say when you told her about Saturday?”

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