Page 9 of Cookbooks and Demons

She gracefully took her crutches then and turned as Yosef opened the door for her, exiting without anything further. Yosef, for his part offered Helena a wink and a brief, “Thank you for dinner,” and then he was gone right behind her, reshouldering his bag of mysterious things. She made sure the door was shut behind them.

Helena floated all the way back tothe table.

“Well?” Cindy asked as soon as she came into sight. All the faces turned to Helena expectantly.

“I think I can … cautiously say,” she paused for her own dramatic effect, letting the smile take over her face, “that my first dinner was asuccess.”

Cheering went up around the table, and Helena let herself giggle for the first time thatevening.

Shortly after, everyone else left, the dam already broken by Scarlet. Her coworkers didn’t seem jealous, only speculative about what the meeting with their mutual boss could be about. Charlie dragged Chris out, who didn’t seem to really feel the effects of the wine he’d consumed until he stood up and it all went to his head. Cindy lingered the longest, insisting on helping with the dishes, but the demon had already whisked them away to the kitchen and so a quick argument about how tired she really was after doing so many shifts without a weekend convinced her to get going.

The quiet felt thunderous as soon as the door shut behind her friend and her duffle bag.

The night was over, butitwasn’tover yet.

Chapter 6

Do You Know How Demon Deals Work?

Taking a deep shuddering breath, Helena steeled herself and marched toward the kitchen. The dishes had already been cleared from the table and all that remained was the cloth and various crumbs.

Just before she pushed her kitchen door open, bile came up at the back of her throat and she paused for a moment to swallow it back. On the other side of the door, she heard the clinking of glass bumping glass. He was definitely still in there. Gently, she pushed the door so it opened a slight crack.

There he stood, still wearing the catering outfit, his back to the door. His hands were dunked into her kitchen sink, washing pans, while her dishwasher next to him hummed away on what she presumed were all the plates and glasses they had just used.

He looked so normal.

From this angle, she could see more of his hair from under the blue kerchief he wore, which was dark. No horns, no tail. Just a guy, who then turned around holding the baking sheet she had tried to use for her fish filets.

He moved to set the clean version on top of her stove when he paused. Lifting his head, his burning eyes stared at thedoorway.

He caught her spying on him.

Deciding to face the inevitable, she pushed the door the rest of the way in.

He jumped, dropping the baking sheet. It bounced off the edge of the stove and would have hit the ground except he caught it with his tail, which manifested into view. “Hell in a handbasket!” he shouted, which startled her back in return. “You scared me!”

“I… I scaredyou?” she challenged, trying to process that statement.

“Where the hell did you come from?” he said, turning away, then he snapped his fingers multiple times in the air while he blew out a shaking breath. It was a surprisingly human gesture for him. “Why are you sneaking around like that?”

“I… but you saw me?” Helena pursed her eyebrows as she gestured at the doorway where she had beenpeeking.

He blew another breath and turned another circle, calming himself down, then set the baking sheet on the stove top withhis tail.

“Is everyone else gone?” he asked, throwing a towel over hisshoulder.

“Uh, yeah,” she said, still standing there perplexed.

The demon caterer reached into the sink and pulled the plug, the water making aglub-glugsound as he did it. He ran the water and rinsed it out while she stood there watching him. “For the record, I didn’t see you. I just had that creepy feeling like I was being watched and was trying to figure it out when you opened the door,” he argued.

“But we made eye contact?” she pushed.

“Okay, we made eye contact,” he said, irritated. “I’m not goingto argue.”

Now she felt bad. “Do you… do you need any help in here?” she asked.

“No, just go sit down at your table and drink your wine. I’ll have this finished in a minute,” he said as he ran the water again, this time dipping wine glasses into the stream to wash. Once more, his tail manifested, appearing after a brief shimmer in the air, like a heat mirage, before wrapping itself around one of the used glasses. It carried the fragile thing over to her as far as it could reach. “Here. This one was yours.”

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