by Amy Star
“You could take a break now and then,” Ainslie pointed out, leaning back against the edge of the doorframe. “It’s not like anyone can tell you not to. It’s not like you can’t afford to.”
She got a low, acknowledging hum in return, and she left the topic at that. There was a fine line between pointing out the obvious and lecturing, and it was not a line she was keen on crossing, especially not with her boss.
“Anyway,” she continued, pushing herself away from the doorframe. “I’m heading up for the night. Try to get something like sleep tonight. Preferably not on the desk.”
“I’ll try, but I make no promises,” he offered in return, and though his tone was pleasant enough, his attention was already turning back to his desk.
Ainslie didn’t know whether she admired his dedication or found it slightly frightening. She tucked that thought away to ponder later and headed towards the stairs and to her room.
Christopher had once again taken up the entire middle of her bed, curled into a perfect ball with his tail over his face. He slept in the small of Ainslie’s back that night, a warm, solid, fluffy presence.
*
Ainslie knew, in a general sense, that Maria was in the house the next morning, but they managed to bypass each other without any issue. The way Ainslie preferred it, frankly.
It was as the girls were eating breakfast that things got a little strange, though.
“I just think she’s weird,” Lily sighed as Ainslie stepped into the kitchen, stirring her cereal in a circle with her spoon. “She always gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
“You’re imagining things,” Andy replied, not even bothering to look up from her essay. Like the rest of her project, it wasn’t due for days, but Andy was the only one Ainslie had never had to badger to focus. “She pretty much ignores me completely.”
Lily scowled at her in return. “Why does that mean she can’t be weird to me?”
“I’m just saying it seems pretty unlikely,” Andy returned, her tone bland, as if she was hardly even interested in the conversation.
Ainslie cleared her throat. “Any problems?”
“They’re sayin’ bad things about Mizz Maria,” Paisley informed her earnestly. And she was entirely heedless of the two matching glares aimed at her afterwards, hardly even sparing either of her sisters another glance.
“She’s always nice to me,” Paisley carried on, as if that was the end of that and the topic was supposed to be dropped.
“You’re a baby,” Lily protested. “Of course she’s always nice to you.”
“I’m not a baby!” Paisley practically shouted in response, her entire expression crinkling in outrage.
Andy rolled her eyes emphatically and ducked her head back towards her essay, her breakfast still only half-finished beside her. Lily, by contrast, seemed to be deeply contemplating flinging a spoonful of cereal at Paisley, at least until Ainslie cleared her throat pointedly. With a sheepish smile, she dropped the idea and continued eating.
The day was fairly normal after that, though Ainslie was slightly surprised that she wasn’t the only one a bit disconcerted by Maria. She contemplated mentioning it to Malik, but she let the idea go after only a moment of pondering it.
Ainslie was a newcomer and Lily was still in that stage where she was too old to treat like a toddler but too young to simply treat her like a small adult. It was entirely plausible that Maria just wasn’t sure how to talk to them and felt no reason to figure it out. Ainslie wasn’t her boss and Lily wasn’t her responsibility, and she seemed to get on perfectly well with Malik, from Ainslie’s limited exposure to the two of them together.
She forgot about it as the day went on. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have plenty to do to keep herself busy for the day, with Paisley as endlessly energetic as she always was. It was easy not to think about it, considering Maria tended not to be around if Malik wasn’t at work in the den or getting ready to head to work.
Besides, Paisley wanted to play in the sprinkler while it was still warm enough to do so. Ainslie had her hands and her thoughts busy for the day.
*
Half days, Ainslie decided, were glorious things. Every so often, it meant she could turn them into days off. Or at least partially days off. She still made sure everything vital had been handled and that the girls were unlikely to set the house on fire, but then she left.
Not to say she just ran off. She had Malik’s permission to take the afternoon off. Lily and Andy were both reasonably non-destructive if left to their own devices, and Malik was more than capable of getting work done while Paisley was in the den with him.
Ainslie hopped into the car—her car that time—and headed into Grey Chapel. The restaurant she had been to with Malik and the girls was a bit pricy for her tastes just for a late lunch, and she knew it would definitely be a bit pricey for Carrie’s wallet, but there were other cafes on Main Street.
Ainslie parked on the side of the road. She was nearly at the opposite end of the street from the cafe she was supposed to meet Carrie at, but there were reasonably few cars there, which meant she actually stood a chance in hell of parallel parking. The same could not be said if she parked on a more populated section of the street.
Besides, the weather was warm and the sky was clear, so she had no issues with walking to the cafe. It wasn’t as if she had to walk eight miles; it was only a few blocks.
Carrie was easy to spot. She was pale enough that even standing in the awning’s shade, she still nearly gave off snow glare, her eyes were bright green, and her hair was such a vibrant shade of purple that it could only be described as royal. It was shaved on both sides and what remained of it was gathered into a tail. Her clothing was bright and in nearly every color, and just looking at her could probably make someone go blind if they weren’t careful.
Despite the fact that it would be a statistical impossibility for Ainslie to miss her, Carrie lifted a hand high over her head to wave as soon as she spotted Ainslie on the sidewalk.
“There you are!” Carrie crowed once Ainslie was within reach to sling an arm around her shoulders. “I was starting to think I would never see you again!”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Ainslie pointed out blandly, letting Carrie tow her into the cafe without a fuss.
“Yeah, but I used to see you every day,” Carrie returned reasonably. “I was going into withdrawal.”
Bringing a hand to her chest, Ainslie let her eyes grow wide and said, as earnestly as she could, “I’m glad to know I compare to drug use. I’m honored.”
Carrie nodded once, eyes closed as a parody of peace settled across her face, at least until she nearly fell over when Ainslie extricated herself from Carrie’s hold to follow the hostess to a table. Carrie trotted a few steps after them to catch up before slowing to a walk again.
“So!” Carrie’s voice was too loud as she slid onto the seat on one side of a booth while Ainslie sat down across from her at a much more leisurely pace. “What’s the gossip?” she asked, resting her elbows on the table and propping her chin up in both hands as she leaned forward conspiratorially. “Something interesting has to be going on in that house.”
Oh, if only she knew. But that wasn’t something Ainslie could talk about.
With a snort and a roll of her eyes, Ainslie returned, “The fact that he has a stupid amount of money doesn’t automatically turn his house into a funhouse.” With a thoughtful expression, though, she tipped her head to one side slightly. “Granted, his personal assistant does sort of seem… strange.”
Carrie’s expression brightened with interest, and she hardly even spared the waitress a glance before she offered, “Two ice waters and two iced Vietnamese coffees.” She leaned forward even more, pale eyebrows rising. “Go on, you can’t just leave it at that. What did she do?”
“She didn’t really do anything,” Ainslie replied, and she had a feeling that anything she said after that was just going to sound paranoid. Even so, she carried on. “She just seem
s to want to get rid of me whenever we’re in the same room together, and Lily—she’s the middle kid—said that Maria—she’s the PA—weirds her out.”
“Maybe she likes your boss,” Carrie suggested after half a second of pondering. Coming up with conspiracies on the fly never took her too long. She probably could have made a job out of it, assuming there was anyone in the world willing to hire her based on that criterion alone. Admittedly, that seemed a little unlikely.
“You mean like-likes him, I’m guessing,” Ainslie returned dryly. “I’m not sure what that has to do with anything.”
Carrie rolled her eyes, but she didn’t answer immediately, waiting instead until the waitress set their coffees and waters down and wandered off again once she took their orders. When they were alone at the table again, Carrie took a long sip of her coffee with a satisfied sigh before finally answering.
“What if she’s been eying him?” she asked. “He’s not married. Not anymore, at least. And didn’t you say the last nanny left on maternity leave? Clearly, she wasn’t after him romantically, so this Maria lady wouldn’t have felt a need to hurry. And now here you are, young and attractive and good with his kids to boot. If she does like him, then you are like sixteen different kinds of threatening.”
Ainslie was silent for a long moment, taking a few sips of her coffee for an excuse to avoid speaking as she put her thoughts together.
She hadn’t considered things from that angle before. Even if she had no plans for Malik—and she didn’t, even if she couldn’t say she wasn’t interested—she supposed she couldn’t blame Maria for assuming she did. And Maria had known him far, far longer than Ainslie had. It wasn’t inconceivable to believe that she had developed feelings for him at some point. He was a charming and attractive man.
“I guess that’s possible,” she settled on eventually, setting her glass back down and running a finger in a circle around the rim of it. The gathering condensation began to trail down the sides of the glass as her finger moved.
Still leaning towards her, Carrie grinned and wondered. “So, what are you going to do about it?” There was something sly in her tone, as if this was the best entertainment she could hope for.
Ainslie snorted. “I wasn’t planning on doing anything about it,” she answered. “I barely see her most days. It’s not like it’s hard to ignore her.”
Carrie scoffed and prodded Ainslie’s shin with her toes under the table. “What if she tries something sneaky?” she asked, her tone dropping to a conspiratorial stage whisper. It wouldn’t be even remotely helpful if anyone decided to listen in on them, but when in doubt it was always better to assume that Carrie was aiming for dramatics rather than practicality.
Ainslie sighed and dragged a hand down her face. “Like what sort of something sneaky?” she asked, because if she didn’t entertain the topic then Carrie was just going to keep giving her the same expectant look until she finally took the bait.
Grinning, Carrie adopted an almost scholarly tone as she replied, “What if she decides to frame you for theft or something like that? To get you out of the house and hopefully have you replaced with another nonthreatening married woman.”
“Does your brain always function like a romantic dramedy?” Ainslie asked flatly, doing her best to sound as unimpressed as she could.
Carrie nodded cheerfully. “You already know the answer to that.” She prodded Ainslie’s leg with her toes again. “But seriously, at least keep an eye open for anything weird. Make sure nothing goes missing only to conveniently show up in your room or in your purse or whatever. Jealousy’s a bitch and so are jealous people.”
It was solid advice, as strange as it was to get that from Carrie. Even if Ainslie didn’t expect anything to come of her unease about Maria, paying a little more attention wouldn’t hurt anything.
Their conversation drifted to more typical topics after that, and their food arrived soon enough. All in all, it was a good afternoon. As strange and as slightly overwhelming as Carrie could be, it was good to get a chance to spend time with her. By the time Ainslie was headed back to her car, she felt refreshed and clear-headed and ready to take on the rest of the week.
*
Ainslie poked her head into the den where, just as expected, Malik was as busy as a bee at his desk. “I’m back,” Ainslie reported, leaning halfway around the doorframe rather than stepping into the room. Paisley napped on a recliner, which was likely the only reason she didn’t try to throw herself at Ainslie like a cannonball as soon as she peeked into the room.
Malik offered her a smile over his shoulder. “Enjoy your luncheon?” he asked, and though he sounded slightly distracted, his curiosity seemed genuine enough.
“Oh, yeah,” Ainslie answered with a quick nod of her head. “Carrie’s a, uh…” She cleared her throat. “She’s a trip.” She lifted a hand and dragged the tip of one finger in an X shape over her chest. “I solemnly swear not to let her close enough to corrupt any of your children.”
Malik nodded solemnly, but the expression cracked soon enough, replaced with a lopsided smile. “I’ll hold you to that,” he informed her.
Ainslie offered a sloppy, sarcastic salute with two fingers. “Nothing to worry about, sir,” she assured him wryly, before she pushed herself away from the doorframe. “I’ll let you keep working. Who knows what might happen if someone tore you away from it for more than a few minutes.”
As she turned to walk away, Malik called after her, “It’s not that bad!”
Ainslie’s snort of laughter was most likely enough of an answer.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Checking her room each night to make sure nothing out of the ordinary showed up became something of a ritual for Ainslie, but other than that, Ainslie more or less forgot about her objections to Maria. Like she had told Carrie; they barely saw each other.
Life passed as expected. For a while, at least. And then things went into a bit of a spiral.
“Would you like to go with us the next time we head to the girls’ grandparents’ house?” Malik asked over breakfast. There were still two weeks until the next full moon.
Ainslie stared at him for a moment, until she registered that he did actually expect an answer. “Won’t someone need to keep an eye on Andy?” she asked.
“I was hoping that you could convince her to go, too,” he admitted sheepishly, shrugging one shoulder. “Her grandparents miss her. And if you’re there then she won’t feel like the only one uninvolved in everything that’s going on.”
“I thought she said her grandpa couldn’t transform either,” Ainslie wondered, words laced with quiet bemusement.
“He can’t,” Malik confirmed. “But he babysits Lily and Paisley. They’re still too young for anyone to be comfortable letting them run around in the woods all night, but it wouldn’t be fair to their grandmother to ask her to just stay in the yard. Especially since wolves are more prone to going a bit feral during a full moon than bears are. Either way, it means he doesn’t have time to keep Andy company unless she decides to help babysit her sisters.”
“Then… I’ll see what I can do,” Ainslie agreed. She didn’t really need to think long and hard about it. The entire family was pretty rapidly becoming dear to her, and if she could help them then she would.
And she couldn’t deny that a part of her was curious to see what a full moon was like for were-animals, as long as she could keep a safe distance. The word ‘feral,’ even when applied to a wolf as small as Paisley, didn’t sound like fun.
Of course, she didn’t bring it up that morning. There was no reason to distract Andy before school, especially when Ainslie knew she had to present her project that day. There was no sense in disrupting her entire day right out of the starting gate.
*
Paisley was searching for bugs in the garden when Andy got home. A harmless enough activity, and it meant that Ainslie had something approximating privacy to talk to Andy.
“How did your project go?” she wondered,
because she knew how long Andy had been working on it. Just putting the poster board together had been an impressive feat, considering how much information had been loaded onto it.
“Pretty good,” Andy answered simply, waving it off as if she had thrown it together in a couple hours. “I’ll probably get an A. I was talking about how Yellowstone’s ecosystem has been changing since wolves got reintroduced and everyone else was doing, like… easy stuff. Talking about why extinction is bad and stuff like that. We all know why extinction is bad.” Realizing that she had started babbling, Andy closed her mouth abruptly, her teeth clicking together.
Ainslie smiled and huffed out a quiet laugh. “Good to hear,” she replied. Nudging Andy with her elbow, she added, “And maybe now you can stop hyper-focusing. Before you turn into your dad.”