Page 62 of Bigfoot Boss
“I am Mimi.” She lowers herself to the ground beside me, with the slow creakiness of an old woman. When she sits we are face-to-face.
“Oh! I’ve heard so much about you!” I feel myself relax a little. “Thanks so much for hosting this party! And letting me come of course.”
“I am always happy to see a new face. I am glad Sacha has someone to bring, he was always special, he deserves a good mate.”
“He is special,” I say guiltily, watching as, across the field, he helps a Bigfoot family gather their two small children. “I hope he gets everything he deserves.”
“He is going to. This is for you.” Mimi speaks with a slow rhythm where each syllable feels carefully thought out. She presses a package into my hands, something wrapped in a linen bag and tied closed with a piece of twine.
“For me?”
“You are Sacha’s mate aren’t you?” Mimi asks.
“I’m not sure.” I tell her. The word has come up before, but never from Sacha himself.
“It’s pretty easy to tell.”
“Is it?”
“We Bigfoot know instantly. Open it now, my dear.” Mimi’s soft green eyes twinkle as she gestures to the package.
I tug open the bag, pulling out a statue carved from white wood. It’s small enough to hold in two hands, a stylized statue of a Bigfoot, holding someone else in its arms, a smaller figure, shaped like a softly curved woman.
Me.
It looks like me.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, tracing my fingers across the smooth wood.
“I’m glad you like it.” Mimi leans back against a tree trunk, “I make one every time one of my family members finds their fated-mate.”
“Fated-mate?” I ask. “What is that?”
“It’s forever,” Mimi says simply.
“Forever, as in…what, like marriage?”
“Bigfoots don’t usually do marriage.” She chuckles. “We don’t need it, we just know, as soon as we meet each other.”
“You think he knew if I was his fated-mate right away?” My eyes flick to Sacha, he’s never mentioned this before.
“Of course he did.” She grins. “We know, the second that we smell each other. It’s fate.”
“I’m not sure I believe in fate,” I say without thinking.
“If you don’t believe in fate then blame science. Hormones, pheromones, all the science stuff—” she lets out a low chuckle that ends in a grin full of terrifying teeth, “humans love their science. He already knows you are the one. He’ll love you forever.”
“Forever?” I catch Sacha’s eye from across the field, he passes me a grin as he helps another Bigfoot wrangle a small child and two folding chairs into the back of a Prius. He’s promised me so many things, surely he would have said something. If he knew. If we were meant to be forever.
“My dear Harry and I found each other almost a hundred years ago. I knew he was the one as soon as I sniffed him, but I still made him chase me.” She sighs longingly at the memory. “He’s been gone for almost twenty years. Never even saw the Decrypting. He would have hated it, was never a fan of human society. Probably would have liked you alright. He wouldn’t have tried to eat you, more than once, I’m sure.”
“That’s very…sweet,” I say, but my heart is still thudding loudly in my ears. “There hasn’t been anyone since then?”
“There will never be anyone else. He was my mate. That’s forever for a Bigfoot.” She rests a hand on a tree branch above my head, using it for leverage as she stands. “You two have a good night, it’s time for these old bones to get back into the woods.”
I try to keep my smile pasted on, even though my stomach feels queasy. “Thank you for this, Mimi. I’ll cherish it.”
She nods, heading into the forest. I watch until she disappears, her figure easily fading into the woods.
