28
He stepped aside and she walked in. She slipped off her shoes when she saw him in his socks and followed him down the hall into the living room, her eyes growing wider, taking in the lovely décor.
“Your place is gorgeous! Very… minimalistic but classic… Japanese?” she asked looking at him finally.
“Yes… I like it,” he finished lamely as it was the truth and he had no way to explain how all this furniture got here.
She glanced towards the open bedroom door and squeaked in surprise as a lovely woman in a kimono stepped out of the room and approached. She couldn’t take her eyes from the lovely creature.
“Ah, this is Yuko. She’s my-”
“Fiancé,” Yuko finished as she took the dish of brownies from Sandy’s hands.
“Housekeeper! A naughty one at that! Wait, I didn’t mean it like that! ‘Naughty’ in the way she spoke out of turn… just then.” Stanley stumbled over his words, his face turning a deep red with embarrassment. “My company hired her to take care of the place,” he finished in a mumble.
“I… see. Well I just came to deliver this and to invite you again for Saturday but if you’re busy-” she said looking over at the lovely young woman.
“No! I mean, yes! I will be coming on Saturday!” he blurted.
Sandy smiled at him and he began to relax.
“Good! I’ll see you then. It was nice meeting you Yuko!” Sandy said, smiling at her and received a small bow from the woman which delighted her. She grinned back at Stanley and headed for the door where she slipped her shoes back on.
“Thank you for the brownies!” Stanley said as he let her out and she grinned happily back at him. Once she was gone he locked the door, leaned back against it and shivered. That was close! Scowling, he headed back to the kitchen where he saw Yuko heading with the brownies.
She was closing the fridge door and turned to look at him.
“The fiancé thing ends here. If you want to lie to your parents leave me and my friends out of it. I will not lie to your parents if they ask me for the truth. I understand you thought you had valid reasons for doing this but you dragged me in without regard for my feelings or asking if I’d be a willing participant. I am not. Is this understood?” he said sternly.
She stood before him, head bowed, hands clasped before her. She looked… very sweet. He felt the tug again and pushed back against it. He resented the fact that she’d tried to manipulate him and she embarrassed him in front of Sandy.
“Why did you tell Sandy I was your fiancé?” he asked.
“She’s Human. You cannot have a romantic relationship with her so telling her I’m your fiancé should help her understand the boundaries of your relationship from the beginning. Is this not helpful?” she asked looking up at him from under her bangs.
He wanted to argue but suddenly the whole situation was just too much and he was exhausted and wanted to go to bed. “Listen, we can talk about this in the morning. I’m too tired to eat or to deal with this. Once you’ve cleaned up you should go.
She began to say something but her voice came out as a squeak and she just tipped her face down.
“What is it?” he said wearily.
“I no longer have a place to go,” she muttered.
He looked at her incredulously. “What did you do?”
“I gave up my apartment. All my belongings are here,” she whimpered.
Stanley’s stomach knotted. Shit, she burned all of her bridges.
“You can stay here tonight but tomorrow you get your apartment back. You need to find your own way out of this mess. I’m going to bed. Or whatever that thing is in there. Tomorrow you find all the furniture you moved out of here and get it back as well. That stuff belonged to VRL.”
“It went back to VRL today,” she said quietly.
He paused. “Including my bed?”
“That went back to the store. They have an excellent return policy.”
He sighed. What a mess.
Stanley brushed his teeth and took a quick shower to freshen up after their little romp on the floor. When he was ready he stood naked in an open space in his bedroom and closed his eyes. He twisted the ring and when he opened his eyes he was a Satyr once more. He laid down on the cushions and pulled the sheets over himself. It was surprisingly comfortable.
He was beginning to nod off when he heard his bedroom door open and close. He saw the petite form of Yuko approaching.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” he said.
“May I sleep here tonight?” she asked.
“Uh… maybe that’s not such a good idea.”
“Please,” she begged quietly.
Stanley sighed. “Ok, fine. But no funny business. Oh, I forgot. You don’t like my Satyr form.”
She quickly slipped under the covers and pressed her small body against his side much to his surprise.
“I did not say I disliked your Satyr form. I said I would not have sex with it.” She was quiet for a moment but he got the impression she wasn’t finished. Finally she sighed as she let the truth out. “Your penis is too big for me in this form. Only the Human one will fit.”
“Oh! Why didn’t you just say that? I got the impression you didn’t like Satyrs,” he said in surprise.
She snuggled in closer. “That is silly. I have never met one before. How could I dislike them? Besides, you are Stanley-san no matter which form you are in,” she sighed happily and was soon breathing deeply.
He was secretly pleased by her acknowledgement of him being himself in both forms but he puzzled over something she’d said earlier. He explicitly recalled her saying she wouldn’t have sex with the ‘beast’ yet here she was happily cuddling him…
By ‘beast’ she couldn’t have been referring to his… no.
Stanley suddenly realized he wasn’t feeling that tugging sensation any longer. Maybe it only affected his human form?
His thoughts spun around in his brain until sleep finally took him.
Stanley felt pleasantly stuffed as he rode the train to work. Yuko had gotten up early and made him a wonderful breakfast as he’d missed supper the night before. He’d discovered that whatever she’d done to him with her tears did not survive his switch between his human and Satyr forms. Apparently, it broke the link for her as well. A handy thing to know.
Before he’d left he told her she had to get her place back and move out. She pouted but finally nodded.
He made his way into the building and immediately headed for Sigrid’s office. He nodded to her executive assistant then Sigrid waved him in. He closed the door behind himself.
“Good morning! Can we talk?” he asked with a raised eyebrow and glanced at the ceiling.
“Good morning to you, Stanley! Yes, it’s safe to talk here,” she said with a smile.
“I’m not sure if you were informed but all of the borrowed furniture is back in VRL’s possession and the lovely bed you bought for me went back to the store yesterday.
“What? Why did you do that?” she asked in surprise.
“It wasn’t my doing. It was Yuko, the Kitsune you hired to be my housekeeper,” he said with exasperation.
Sigrid froze. She reached over and picked up her phone.
“Camila? Do you have a minute to talk with Stanley and me? In my office, yes. Thanks!” She hung up. When Stanley was going to ask what’s up Sigrid just raised her finger for him to wait.
There was a knock on the door and Sigrid pressed a button on her desk to unlock it. Camila stepped in and closed it behind her. She walked over and took the seat next to Stanley with a curious expression on her face.
“Good morning!” he said.
“Good morning! What crisis has arisen today?” she asked cautiously seeing the tension in Sigrid’s face.
“Stanley, start at the beginning,” Sigrid asked.
He sighed and decided the beginning was when she woke him up staring at him from the foot of his bed. He filled in the two women on what she’d said and how he reacted and how she reacted when he told her he was firing her.
“Oh my god Stanley! You touched her tears?!?” Camila cried.
“Hey! It’s ok! The effect wasn’t very strong and since I switched forms it’s gone,” he said to the two upset women. “It would have been nice to know you shouldn’t touch a Kitsune’s tears though.”
Sigrid and Camila shared a guilty look.
He continued by describing what he found when he got home and what Yuko had told her parents.
“Fiancé?” Sigrid blurted.
“Her father is some important member of the Japanese government and he’s already paid for the wedding gift, the furniture. She can’t tell him it was a lie as he would lose too much stature from the scandal. I told her I wouldn’t be a part of the lie,” Stanley explained. He looked between them again. “Why did you hire Yuko?”
“I didn’t! I hired a housekeeper from a Brownie service,” Sigrid exclaimed
“Brownie? Isn’t that a Girl Scout organization?” he asked in confusion.
“Wrong kind of Brownie. They’re one of the Hidden Races.” Camila said but Stanley just scowled and shook his head in frustration. “Taking care of people’s houses is what they specialize in.” Camila continued.
“Seriously I need some kind of who’s who guide for all these different races.” Camila just shook her head with a frown. He sighed. “Ok, so you hired a Brownie and I got a Kitsune instead. Somebody changed the order. I’m hoping nothing nefarious happened to the Brownie who was supposed to do the job.”
“I’ll call the service,” Sigrid mumbled.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
Stanley nodded. “Listen. I don’t know what’s going on. That’s pretty clear. I do know I want nothing to do with whatever ‘game’ that might be ‘afoot’. I just want to do my job which I really need to go do right now. So, if you don’t mind I’d like to get back to it.” Stanley pointed his thumb over his shoulder.