Page 27 of Demon with Benefits
He stabbed his fingers into the clay, trying to turn his horny brain off and let something come out of him. While Tupac sweetly serenaded—“Only God Can Judge Me”—he distantly wondered what fucked-up monstrosity he’d create this time.
An hour later, he had molded the thing into what was starting to resemble wings. There was a blob at the base of them that kind of looked like a person crouching, curled into a ball, so he was going with that for now. He took another sip of coffee—cold now—and had just leaned in to mess with the clay some more when the studio door opened and Jacqui entered.
“’Sup, Jacks?”
She headed straight for the coffeepot as predicted. The coffee was old now, but at least it was still hot. She took a sip and then came to stand beside him. “What are you working on?”
“Dunno yet.” He paused the music on his phone and spun his stool around to look at her. His eyes narrowed. “What’s up with you today? You look like shit.”
She gave him a look. “Gee, thanks.”
He shrugged. “You said as much to me the other day.”
“No, I didn’t. I said it seemed like you had a lot on your mind. It’s rude to tell people they look like shit, Meph.”
He was a demon and really didn’t care about manners. But he supposed he did kinda care about Jacqui, so he tried to be nicer for her sake. “Fine. What’s bothering you?”
She glanced out the window. “Nothing.”
He snorted. “That’s a crock of shit.”
She blew out a breath. “You don’t want to hear about it anyway.”
“Probably not. But that’s why it’s safe to tell me. No judgment ’cause I just don’t care, right?”
She managed a laugh and shook her head. Her smile fell as she dropped into a chair across from him at the other table. “It’s Dan.”
Meph’s lip curled automatically. “What about him?”
“He stopped calling.”
“I thought you weren’t speaking to him anyway.”
“I haven’t been. But he’s called almost every day since he left regardless. I know he doesn’t expect me to answer. I think he just does it to let me know he’s okay, or, well... that he still cares.”
“Wait. So you told him to get lost, but he’s been calling you anyway like a simp. Finally, he grows some balls and leaves you alone like you asked, and now you want him to come back?”
Jacqui’s face blanked as she stared at him. Then she shook her head. “No, that’s not—It’s more complicated than that.”
“How?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly tell him toget lost. It wasn’t like that.”
“It wasn’t? I thought you were pissed at him for lying to you for twenty-seven years and couldn’t forgive him.”
“Well, yeah.”
“So you told him to leave.”
“Yeah.” Jacqui seemed to be shrinking into herself.
“But he didn’t do what you wanted because he kept calling you every day.”
“Well, that’s not necessarily—”
Meph rubbed his forearm over his face since his hands were still covered in clay. This emotional shit never made any sense to him. “So youdidask him to call every day?”
“No, I didn’t.”
