Page 124 of How Not to Date an Angel

Rami still had good to do; they couldn’t lay around with Julian forever.

Rami rescheduled and confirmed appointments with a new vigor, which didn’t take long at all.

They would resume in three days, just in time for the new work week to begin.

Rami would just have to find somewhere to put Julian. Maybe they could send him to the grocery store.

Their lips quirked at the idea. They’d give it two days before Julian ended up on the news for assaulting some human.

Rami was staring into space, laughing to themself, when they heard a coo and a tap on the window panes.

A bird was sitting on the other side. A dove, to be specific, and it was holding a letter in its beak.

Their heart dropped.

“Oh dear,” Rami said. They’d forgotten all about the correspondence they’d sent to Heaven, asking after Julian.

Took them long enough,they thought, even as they also wrestled the guilt of essentially checking up on Julian.

They rolled out their chair before crossing the office and pushing the left pane of the window open.

“Hello there,” Rami said softly to the little bird.

They gently accepted the envelope and stroked the back of a finger along the dove’s head before it flew away in a flutter of white.

“Now, let’s see what we’ve got here,” Rami murmured.

They were more interested to see what Heaven said than they were concerned about the demon’s purpose now.

Warmth flashed through them at the memory of Julian whining beneath them.

How absolutely inappropriate to be thinking of such a thing while holding Heaven’s property, and yet Rami found themself not caring.

They plucked open the envelope and pulled out the letter with silver scrawl on it. They read it aloud as they walked back to their desk.

“Thank you for reaching out—blah, blah— the demon in question is in fact Julian from the Sixth Region of Hell, previously from the Seventh, blah, blah…”

A word caught their gaze as their eyes skipped ahead, and they paused, one hand on the desk.

Temptations.

Rami blinked, then started from the beginning to absorb all the context.

The letter read, “Current job description: Temptations. Current location: Earthbound. Status: Active.”

Rami didn’t breathe for a long moment, reading the letter again. And a third time. Then a fourth.

Julian was a temptation demon. Not a messenger.

The assignment began on the date Julian first arrived. And apparently it ended…

Tonight.

Their hand tightened on the desk, and they sank into their seat, legs going weak.

Demons usually tempted humans. So what was Julian doing here, with Rami?

He’d hardly left their side the whole week.

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