Olivia skidded the van to a halt beside the HeHeHe employees spread out on the imitation beach. “I brought help,” she shouted as she stepped out the driver’s side door and opened the sliding door behind it. Six children between the ages of thirteen and nine, a mix of elf, human and troll, jumped down to the ground. Each had a sports style duffle bag in their hands with the medical red circle on it.

  “First Aid, scheme three,” Olivia instructed the children who nodded in acknowledgement before spreading out to check on the injured. “No tourniquets without my permission. I’m looking at you, Eddie.”

  “I thought I sent you for help,” Mac challenged Amethyst as she came around the front of the van.

  “Aye, and I brought it, laddie,” Amethyst replied.

  “These are children!”

  “Are you challenging my training program?” Olivia looked up from her close observation of Scruffy.

  “Training program?”

  “What do you think we do all day? Field strip automatic weapons and play games?” Olivia contended. “For ancients’ sake, you’ve even had the tour.”

  “They’re… just… children,” Mac protested weakly.

  “Which means they learn quicker than most adults,” Olivia stated the obvious before pulling open Scruffy’s eyes to check his pupils. “Besides, we just finished refresher training last week, and this provides a wonderful opportunity to practice.” She then added half to herself, “Just children… Seriously? The most magical creatures in existence, and he calls them ‘just children’. What I could do with an army of such at my command…”

  “Auntie Olivia, you told us to stop you when you start monologuing,” one of the elven twins interrupted as he knelt down to pass her a pair of high-tech looking glasses.

  “So I am, thank you.” Olivia blushed then tossed her golden curls so she could slide the glasses on. It looked like there was some kind of light on the lens.

  “She’s beautiful,” Mac whispered aloud as Joe stepped up beside him.

  “Not my type.”

  “Oh…” Mac turned to look at the interloper with a worried look on his face.

  “Don’t worry, Champ,” Joe nudged him with his elbow and added softly, “I certainly won’t fight you for her.”

  “Uh… thanks?”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “Would you kindly do the same for me?”

  Joe Campbell rubbed his chiseled jaw in thought a moment then replied, “I’ll do even better than that.”

  “No. No need,” Mac protested softly.

  “I know we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, Champ, but think I can make things up to you.”

  “I’m fine, really.”

  Joe scratched briefly behind his ear then replied. “You will be.”

  “This dog make you mad?” Grist asked pointedly as he stepped up behind the two.

  Joe huffed in annoyance once, took a step back, and lowered his head, “I’ll be going over there… to help the kid… with the bag.”

  “All strength, no brain,” commented Grist softly with a shake of his head once Joe was safely out of earshot.

  XXXXX

  The cafeteria was rather empty that evening as Mac found himself sitting across from an unusually quiet Natalia, which emphasized the silence even more. Obviously, he had offended her, but the vampire wasn’t letting on how, deigning to only occasionally look up from her food and glare at him darkly. It was probably a good thing Mac had built up some good will with her, or he might already be dead judging by her current mannerisms.

  The moody vampire wasn’t even trying to manage Janessa, whose eyes repeatedly turned to her in anticipation of being told to stop whatever ill-advisable thing she was about to do. At some point, the mischievous trollip was going to make a serious miscalculation such as going against a Sicilian with death on the line or something worse, as she consistently raised the stakes despite Mac’s raised eyebrows in her general direction. He was quite surprised when Janessa gave her vampire minder one last disappointed sideways glance and actually ate the contents of her spoon with an exasperated sigh.

  Finally, some peace… relatively. Mac closed his eyes to enjoy a particularly good bite and was interrupted by somethings soft and a bit damp striking his forehead. He opened his eyes to fix the grinning trollip in his vision even as his hand reached for a napkin. So, it had been a ruse.

  “I told you to just flick one or two,” Zach admonished his peer even as she reloaded her spoon for another shot. “That many makes it too hard to hit.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  There was the sound of footsteps behind Mac just before the large hand rested on his shoulder, “Hey Champ, as much as I like finding extra food on my plate, I’m not a fan of being hit in the back of the head by it. That’s just disrespectful.”

  “I’m sorry,” Mac apologized for Janessa, “I’ll pay more attention.”

  “You’re still distracted by that girl, aren’t you?” Joe Campbell rationalized for Mac. Natalia’s eyes glanced up from her plate to watch his response.

  “No, no,” Mac replied, waving him away. “She’s cute and all, but I doubt I have a chance.”

  “If it helped you reduce the friendly fire, I could set you up on a date,” Joe offered. “I can be persuasive.”

  “Really, I’m good. She’s quite obviously out of my league.”

  “You’re barely two… three levels down from me,” Joe corrected himself. “That’s still above her. Besides, it’s not like your present company would object.”

  Mac imagined he heard a huff and glanced back at Natalia who seemed to be studying something on her plate so intently it might have contained the solution for world hunger. With this chef’s cooking, that was a distinct possibility. It surprised Mac that she decided to eat with him today despite how clearly upset she was at something he had done. He would probably never know what it was, though. Vampires could be secretive like that. It was probably just for Janessa’s sake that she was even at the table. Speaking of whom… “Janessa, down the hatch… now.”

  The young trollip removed her finger from the edge of her spoon and reluctantly ate the contents.

  “What do you say, Champ?” Joe Campbell called Mac’s attention back as he patted Mac’s shoulder almost like you pat a dog, “Let me help you this one time. I’ll scratch your neck, and you can scratch mine.”

  “Do you really think she’ll agree?” the disbelief was evident in Mac’s tone.

  “I’ll set it up as a blind date,” Joe planned aloud. “She won’t even know it’s you till she gets there.”

  Seeing that his food was getting cold, Joe wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer, and that logically there was no way such an amazing woman would ever agree… Mac gave in with the comforting knowledge that there was no way anything would come if it, “Fine, go ahead and try.”

  “I’ll pass you the details later, Champ,” Joe smiled and punched him in the shoulder hard enough to hurt as he went back to sit down. “…. And please, keep an eye on that trollip.”

  Mac turned back to see Natalia’s beautiful brown eyes glaring at him. He quickly averted his own eyes. “What?”

  “So, you’re going to ditch me, just like everyone else?” Natalia challenged sulkily.

  “It’s only for one evening. It’s not like she’ll even show up,” Mac reassured her. “I’ll have Zach be on his best behavior if you have to watch him at all.”

  “And what if you hit it off really well, and… fall in love, and… I get stuck eating… here… all by myself?”

  “I’ll be here,” Janessa chimed in as she pretended to ready an empty spoon with a villainous smile. “We can team up on the other tables.”

  “It’s not like we’ll stop being friends, Natalia,” Mac surprised himself with his statement. He smiled unconsciously as he realized it was true.

  “Yeah, I guess we are,” Natalia replied and ended with a tight-lipped sigh that could have meant anything.

  XXXXX

  “Hey Champ, the details,” Joe slipped a piece of paper to Mac two days later as they sat down after a break in the training room turned clinic. Most of the three bolts had their beds half way up so they could see the trainer a bit easier. Training time was precious.

  “Seriously?”

  “You can usually get what you want if you ask the right person in the right way,” Joe explained uselessly.

  That meant… “When?”

  “I got it set up for tomorrow after training,” Joe explained. “You’ll pick up some food and meet her out at “the beach”. It should be early enough that the kitchen staff aren’t there yet. The details are all in that note. Good luck, Champ,” Joe smacked him on the shoulder with an open palm. The buff man turned back, “I would probably go a bit casual if I were you.”

  “I’m going on a date with Olivia,” Mac began to panic. What will I do? What will I say? What do I wear? Is this even okay? What about my Ex? “I can do this. I can do this,” Mac tried to psyche himself up. One evening was not enough time to plan a first date. It was, but it wasn’t. Sure, the actual planning would take less than two minutes, but Mac knew he needed to be in the right frame of mind. That could take weeks, but he only had a day. “I can’t do this.”

  “Sure you can,” Grist patted him gently on the shoulder causing a strained muscle to finally spring back into place. “Just how to count cash for when work front room. Change rate easy to know.”

  Wait what?! How long had Mac spaced?

  “You fine? Look pale,” Grist commented.

  “Yes. I mean no. I mean I don’t know. It’s been so long.”

  “Fifth grade math still easy,” Grist shrugged. “You will learn once more.”

  “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.”

  “One plus one is two,” Grist whispered back with a friendly smile beneath far too intelligent eyes. “You will do not bad.”

  Not bad. That wasn’t exactly good either. Just what had the annoying hunk of walking muscle told Olivia to get her to agree? Was it possible Olivia actually liked him?

  “I sure hope not. It would be better to avoid her,” Haley was sitting on Mac’s desk in front of him with a skirt covered leg to either side blocking his view of the instructor. He had to raise his eyes to meet her green digitized eyes.

  “That’s not a particularly lady-like way to sit,” Mac thought back at her. “And what are you doing here?”

  “I’m not a lady.”

  “Answer the question, please.”

  “You demonstrated a raised heart rate and emotional stress,” Haley looked down at him. “Those are usually signs of an emergency.”

  “A personal emergency.”

  “The deal was for emergencies. And besides, a date with that she-dragon constitutes an emergency on my part.”

  “That’s not a nice thing to call Olivia.”

  “There’s got to be some way we can get you out of this,” Haley placed a finger on her cheek to think.

  “What if… What if I don’t want out of this?” Mac challenged hesitantly as he approached a momentous decision.

  “Why would you not?” Haley seemed genuinely confused. “You could do so much better than that she-dragon.”

  “Enough with the name calling. She’s kind… and sweet… and strong… and she genuinely loves children,” Mac countered. “You’re just afraid of her.”

  “I really don’t think you two could make it work. Trust me.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  “You should. We have an agreement.”

  “Which you are violating as we speak… sort of.”

  “So, this green dress isn’t really your style, is it?”

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  “So, you do like the dress. But, I was thinking it might work better if I used some pleating.”

  “I’m going on the date with Olivia, and that’s final,” Mac concluded. “Now if you would excuse me, I’m supposed to be training.”

  “Anyone but her,” Haley almost pleaded. “Why not the blonde waif of a girl you kissed by the lake.”

  “That was CPR.”

  “Or the dark-haired one?”

  “I refuse to date vampires, especially if one seems like a friend.”

  “Not that one… but point taken.”

  “I’m sure we could set you up with…”

  “…I don’t want to be set up with anyone, so please stop trying.”

  “But Joe just…”

  “Haley.”

  “What is it?”

  “You’re polluting my view.”

  The AI rolled her eyes then disappeared in a puff of smoke as she shook her head.