Page 131 of How Not to Date an Angel

They were so tender with one another it hurt to watch. They might as well just break his other horn off.

I must be corrupt, otherwise how could I love someone like you?

God, what had Juliandone?He was so stupid! He should’ve come clean as soon as he started to feel something for the angel. But he hadn’t.

And now he was stuck here.

In Hell. He’d never see them again.

“Catch you later,” Maeve said to him, and then she was gone with a wiggle of her fingers as she slipped out the door.

“Alright!” Galen said with a single clap. He perched his ass on the edge of his desk. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“What’s the point? You’re not my boss anymore; you can’t help.”

“Tell me anyway. I take it the assignment didn’t go well?”

Julian deflated, sank into the couch along the opposite wall of the desk, and tried not to think about the bodily fluids—knowing those two—he was probably sitting on.

“They assigned me an angel,” Julian began.

Galen cocked his head to the side and sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk, spinning it to face Julian.

“They do that now?” Galen asked.

This must be what Rami’s clients feel like,he thought with a pang.

“Apparently,” Julian muttered.

“Sounds like something Carl would do,” Galen groused. “Tough mark?”

“They were, at first,” Julian admitted.

And then the whole tale spilled out of him.

The beating, which tightened the lines around Galen’s eyes. Meeting Rami. He got a laugh out of the therapist nonsense, just like Julian had.

He told Galen how the angel had tentatively nursed him back to health, and how the angel had slowly grown on Julian, infuriating as they were.

The simple, Earthly pleasures. Theotherpleasures.

Because if Julian had to listen to Galen and Maeve’s sexcapades for the past two years, there were no secrets between them.

“And before I knew it, I was in too deep and I realized I didn’t even want to finish the stupid assignment. But I fucked up,” Julian groaned, and buried his face in his hands. “I tempted them anyway and it almost worked, and I felt sick about it.” Julian pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. “Then they figured it out—why I was there. And I confessed everything and now they hate me and Carl won’t even give me the promotion and now I’mstuck here!”

Julian finally lifted his head, spreading his palms wide as if to say,well, there you have it.

“I fucked up.” Julian finished, and stared at Galen. “And now I have this stupid short horn as a permanent reminder of my failure. That’s how the Sixth is going,” he spat.

Galen’s expression was crestfallen, and suddenly Julian felt a little guilty for venting. “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t mean to dump this all on you—“

“I asked,” Galen reminded him, and Julian snapped his mouth shut. “I knew Carl was an asshole and I let you go anyway. Sorry,” he said, one corner of his lip quirking in sympathy.

“S’not your fault,” Julian said. He crossed his arms and leaned back. “I should’ve known better. There’s no way outta here. I just gotta accept it.”

He’d never see Rami again, and by the time Julian ever got back to Earth, the angel would’ve moved on and Julian would never find him.

His throat hurt.

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