This seemed to uplift their spirits somewhat as they fist pumped each other encouragingly.
The main office door creaked open, and the room seemed to shrink to half its size as Fate entered. His head turned to me for an infinitesimal moment before he took in the rest of the room. For a while I’d thought I was imaging that he did that, sought me out first, until it happened over and over and over again.
I kept walking toward my table where he seemed prepared to intersect with me. I’d told him of my plans to approach Harold again, for one last ditch attempt, over dinner last night. He hadn’t said anything; he had simply raised his eyebrows at the mention and taken another bite of his steak.
I leaned a hip on the table as he came over and he did the same beside me. He didn’t say a word but I told you so was written clearly in the shrug of his shoulder and one raised eyebrow.
“I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
He didn’t say anything about it and I didn’t continue with the subject.
Of course, the Jinxes were there so it wasn’t case closed until they got their say in. “The guy’s a total douche. Not sure what you expected,” Bobby said, his blond locks shimmying with the shaking of his head. The Jinxes were always useful for saying the things most people were thinking but tried to hold back.
Murphy walked over to where we were gathered and Buddy was all over him as soon as he approached. “Hey, Sloppy Jo, you trip me this morning?”
Murphy rolled his eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you, you’re a klutz. I don’t get the urge with any of our kind.” Murphy took a chair nearby and crossed his legs, looking like someone had plucked him right out of a detective show from the fifties. Trench coat and hat, I could imagine him pulling out a badge at any moment. This morning, he looked like an episode where he’d been on surveillance all night.
Death, who was only now entering the office, looked closer to a rerun of Mr. Rogers, complete with sweater, and was probably finishing up a grief counseling session. I’d recently learned he charged over three hundred an hour. I guess knowing the deceased personally gave him a certain edge in effectiveness.
Death saw the group of us and came over. It didn’t take long before almost everyone in the building had made their way to that portion of the office. Of course Lady Luck was there, looking as tousled as ever. Her dry spell, which had coincided with Kitty’s disappearance, had ended the night she found out Kitty was okay. She’d been going strong ever since, trying to make up for lost time and missed pillow talk.
The Tooth Fairy and his assistants had come by, Santa appeared with some of his elves in tow, Mother brought her gardeners and Jockey popped in; in essence, the whole awkward gang was there.
The Jinxes were still carrying on with their tirade over Harold’s less than desirable traits. They had got the group so rattled that by time Cupid showed up that no one even made a run for Harold’s office.
The truth was, Harold was merely a scapegoat for the real problem. We were all alarmed at the turn of events lately and the state of the humans. There wasn’t a day that went by when someone wasn’t walking in and saying, “You’re not going to believe what they did now,” and it took a lot to surprise this group.
So when Cupid walked in slowly, palms raised, and said, “I won’t do anything, I swear. I just want to know what’s going. Those mortals are getting weirder by the minute,” no one ran. We put aside the past.
He was nervous, like the rest of us, and no one had the heart to exclude him. Plus, right now we needed the numbers. I turned to Fate. “We’ve got to let him stay.”
“Agreed.”
Luck came and stood beside me. “Cupid’s right. It’s getting real strange. I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years on the job.” There was a lot of grunting and agreeing noises after her statement.
Santa stepped forward and addressed the group. “I just stopped by to let you all know that Mrs. Claus and I have decided to head up to the North Pole for an extended leave. Things are getting too rough around here, and I’m worried for the safety of Mrs. Claus and the elves. We’ll seal up the entrance until things calm down.”
Santa was leaving? It felt like first grade all over again when I found out from my classmate, Susie Wilkins, that he was made up. All the grief that girl had caused me. I should track her down right now and give her a piece of my mind for spreading such lies.
It wouldn’t change anything though, as Santa made his goodbyes and his elves handed out candy canes as they left. As I watched his departure, the only thing that repeated over and over in my head was, what if things never did calm down? Screw everything else, what if Santa never came back?
“How am I getting good cookies now?” Luck asked. “I can’t go back to store-bought. All of this because of that angry guy?”
Everyone in the office knew Malokin, or Angry Guy, as Luck called him. After Kitty and the hotel incident, Harold’s determined lack of cooperation, and things getting strange and violent, everyone in the know had sat down and decided there was no more hiding. Malokin was a threat to all of us. Everyone deserved to know what was out there.
Luck took a seat on my table beside us, a pout in full bloom. “I don’t like that angry man.”
“None of us—” A loud crashing sound, coming from behind Harold’s closed door, interrupted me. The high-pitched sound of his screaming came next. He was plenty loud but I still couldn’t make out what he was saying. There were no other voices. I’d left him in his office alone not more than fifteen minutes ago.
Maybe he was on the phone? Or—the more interesting possibility—maybe someone had come through the retirement door, the one that had an inch gap underneath that glowed funny light. I’d never seen or heard of anyone using it.
My eyes scanned the rest of the group, and they, like me, couldn’t stop staring. The only one not paying attention was Fate. He was looking at his phone.
“What are you doing?” I tried to look over and see what was on the screen.
“Nothing,” he said as he tilted his phone away from me.
“Are you playing a game?”
“Maybe.”
“Aren’t you concerned?”
“No.”
He certainly didn’t seem it.
The sound of a door slamming echoed through the office, but Harold’s door hadn’t budged, nor any other in view.
Instead of moving closer, I perched on the table, nudging Luck over slightly. “Maybe we should go in?” I asked but no one was moving forward or doing anything other than making themselves comfortable as they watched Harold’s office for signs of life.
“It’s fine,” Fate said, distracted, as he sat on the table next to me, squeezing us both over a bit.
“What if something really bad is happening in there?” I turned around and looked for the chips I’d been snacking on earlier. Luck had already snagged the bag and was sharing them with Murphy, who stood next to her. I reached out a hand and he tilted the bag in my direction.
“Ugh.” Fate grumbled from beside me and pocketed his phone.
“Lost?”
“Don’t worry, I always win in the end,” he answered as he grabbed my wrist and directed the chip in my hand to his mouth, grazing my finger with a nip of his teeth.
A sensation I’d become all too familiar with churned inside me. What the hell was going on with him these days? His sexual overtures were becoming a daily occurrence and picking up steam.
Harold might be getting bludgeoned to death as we sat here. Had he no shame? I tried to muster a look of moral disgust but couldn’t. I didn’t know if I cared that much either.
But still, as dilapidated as the office might be and as dysfunctional as the staff definitely was, we were at work. “Harold could be getting murdered in there,” I said, trying to sound as disapproving as possible and failing pathetically. It didn’t matter at the moment. This had nothing to do with Harold and everything to do with Fate screwing with my head.
“I can’t help if I’m hungry.” It was the “so sue me” tone he used so often.