Page 43 of That’s My Orc, Tusk Off

Drogar picked up his mug and started for the door to the hallway. He paused beside my chair.

“You don’t have to earn her every day,” he said. “Some people stay because they want to be there. Not because you’re useful. Just because.”

The door swung shut behind him, then the front door as he walked toward his cabin.

I sat in the break room after he left, holding my mug.

The second chair at my table was still empty. I could still only picture one person sitting there.

Her. With a plate of cookies between us, and her hair I’d tucked behind her left ear and a smile that made my organizational systems feel unimportant.

I finished my tea, washed my mug, and put it away.

After making a final round through the building to ensure everything was settled for the night, I decided to check on Nix one more time. I found him asleep in the center of the fizzling clutch, his stripes dim and peaceful.

Back inside, I sat at Willa’s desk in the entryway, my tablet dark on the surface in front of me.

I kept thinking about her smile when she’d seen the cookies. The way her wrist had felt under mine when Nix shocked us both. How she’d said, no shame about the cookies.

The building was empty. Everyone had gone home hours ago.

I spoke to the silence.

“She remembers what I say.” My voice sounded too loud in the empty entryway. “Even small things.”

I stopped and listened to the quiet, letting it flow over me rather than trying to push it away.

“She hasn’t run yet.”

The words settled into the space around me. The truth, spoken to an empty room, because I needed to hear myself say it.

I sat with the feeling.

Headlights swept across the windows. A vehicle parked, and the engine went quiet.

Willa stepped through the front door and stopped when she saw me sitting at her desk.

“I forgot my purse,” she said. “I could’ve left it, but I need to get some groceries.”

“I was checking on Nix.”

She smiled. “Did he escape again?”

I lifted one shoulder. “He’s in the enclosure for now.”

“That’s good.”

She rounded the counter and opened the desk drawer, removing her purse, tucking it beneath her arm and straightening. “Did you find his escape route?”

“Yes and no. He keeps outsmarting me.”

“That must be driving you crazy.”

“Yes.” I paused. “No. I don’t know.”

She was looking at me differently now.

I was looking back.