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I flushed. “No, I know. I mean, uh, he’s just… uncool? But not in a bad way,” I rushed to add. “In a cool way. Like Ethel. You know?”

The expression on Seb’s face told me he didn’t actually know, but he just nodded once and opened the door for me. Trying not to get offended by what seemed like his way of dismissing me, I wandered inside and took a greedy gulp of my hot chocolate.

Shit, that’s good. Sooo much better than coffee.

Setting the cupholder down on my desk, I flopped into my chair and got out my phone. I was getting ridiculously good at Moth Simulator now, and I was determined to beat Kit—a mothperson wrestler who went by The Night Light and was also obsessed with the game.

After about five minutes, I realised I’d forgotten to take Holt his coffee. Hoping it was still somewhat hot, I scrambled out of my chair and grabbed it, then knocked on his door.

“Yo yo, boss man, got your piping hot coffee here,” I announced cheerfully as I opened the door, because I figured the most important aspect of my job was just keeping things nice and upbeat around here. Not, like, all the emails Holt asked me to reply to and stuff. I hardly ever actually did that part, but seeing as the club was still running smoothly, they couldn’t have been all that pertinent to the role.

I paused when I noticed the other person in the room. “Oh, hey, Axel.”

I’d forgotten he was here. Axel was an ailyn—a being who could, for lack of a better term, fuck with the timeline in people’s heads, making them forget things, wiping out chunks of time. During that little mix-up with Taylor a few weeks ago, Holt had made me call him to come down to the club and remove Taylor’s memory of ever entering Goliaths, but Axel had been on a cruise with his girlfriend.

It had all worked out fine in the end though, so Holt literally could not hold it against me. Besides, Seb hadn’t noticed that Taylor wasn’t a lampyr either. He’d smelled like lemons thanks to the lemon cake frosting smeared on his cheek. And he’d been an exact match for Holt’s stripper request for the night—sad office worker forced to attend a colleague’s birthday party. He’d been wearing the little party hat and everything. Anyone would’ve made the same mistake.

“Hey, Lark.” Axel gave me a cheerful wave as I handed Holt his coffee. “How’s it going?”

Oh, totally fine. I’m about to start having fuckletics classes with the werewolf outside. He’s going to teach me how to suck his big werewolf dick. I’m super excited, but also really nervous? But looking forward to putting all my new skills to use with some of the wrestlers. How about you?

“All good,” I answered Axel absently. “Same old. Not for Holt, though,” I added slyly, smirking at my boss. “Has he told you about his new ‘friend?’”

As Holt shot me an unimpressed look, Axel chuckled. “Oh yeah, I’ve been hearing all about Taylor. Good job I wasn’t in the country a few weeks ago, huh?”

“I know, right? I mean, when you think about it, boss…” I perched on the edge of Holt’s desk. “I’m the whole reason you even met Taylor. That’s got to, like, guarantee job security forever, right?”

“You’d think,” Holt answered dryly.

“I’m basically your romance guru. If you ever need any more advice…” I gave him a kind smile, but he just stared at me blankly over the rim of his coffee cup.

“Get your ass off my desk, Lark.”

I huffed and stood up. “There’s no reason to be embarrassed, boss. Some people just need a bit of outside help in their love lives. Especially once they’re of a more advanced age…”

“Thin ice, you little turd.”

Axel burst out laughing. “You think Holt’s of an advanced age? Shit, I don’t want to tell you how old I am.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “How old are you?”

The ailyn winked at me, his eyes that creepy, endless black. “Old as time, bro.”

“Really?” I asked a little breathlessly.

Holt huffed. “Larkin, you can’t honestly believe that Axel is literally as old as time. He’s fucking with you. Don’t you have some work to do?”

“Eh.” When Holt narrowed his eyes at me, I pasted on my excellent-employee smile and added, “I mean, of course. Only the bits I haven’t got to yet.”

Which was most of it.

“I’ll go do the inventory for the bar,” I told him in the deferential professional voice I was pretty sure I’d perfected. But Holt must have been extra nervous about his plan to offer Taylor a job later, because he glared at me instead of telling me what a great assistant I was.

“You were supposed to do that last Wednesday. Before last week’s shows.”

I waved a hand, making a hasty exit. “Yeah, well, we didn’t run out of anything, so it was fine. Bye, Axel!”

I heard the ailyn chuckle. “Later, Lark.”