Page 26 of Jack Frost
"Sorry about that." He grins an apology. "Did you sleep well?"
"I did, thank you." Though not until after I took care of certain physical cravings in my own way. Jack doesnotneed to know how horny he made me.
"Glad to hear it." He keeps walking at my side.
"Um, Jack? What do you think you're doing?"
"Going to work with you."
"You can't do that. You don't work here."
"Don't worry, I'm invisible to everyone but you right now. No one will know I'm here."
"ButIwill know."
"And that's a problem because..."
"Because you'll distract me! I won't be able to focus!"
"But I'm so curious about what they do here. I will be quiet, I promise. Silent as a frozen corpse."
"Ew. No, you can't come with me. And don't give me those pathetic puppy eyes." The entrance to my building is just a few strides away. "I'm ignoring you now. Shoo!"
I breeze into the building with a smile plastered onto my face and a "good morning" for Janet, the woman at the front desk. When I glance casually over my shoulder, Jack is gone. Relieved, I continue to the office I share with three others. One of them is out sick today, and the other coworker, Alice, who seems to assume that she's also my boss, assigns me to more RSVP follow-ups and some check-in calls with the caterer and other vendors.
Around mid-morning, Alice leaves for a meeting about an upcoming excursion into the mountains. It sounds like a fascinating session, but I haven't been invited. I suppose I'm too new. Sighing, I swivel in my chair, surveying the empty office. Three plain desks, plus we have the distinction of hosting the copier. There's a box of auction lists beside my desk, which I'm supposed to fold. "Before lunch, preferably," Alice told me with a stiff smile. I get the feeling she doesn't like me much, although I can't imagine why. I was nothing but amenable yesterday. Okay, maybe I talked about my Antarctica trip in too much detail at lunch, but I've had no one but Karyl to talk to. Mysterious frost gods don't count.
I plop a stack of auction lists on my desk and take the first one, setting its edges together and running my fingertip along the fold to create a crisp edge.
"Well, this is a lot less exciting than I imagined."
My body jerks in response to Jack's voice. "Oh. My. God. You have to stop doing that, you absolute asshole!"
He's sitting on the edge of Alice's desk with his boots propped on her chair. I'm learning the differences between his two forms—when he's imperceptible to humans, there's a snowy splendor about him, a faint frostiness to his skin, and an icy sharpness to his features. In human form, his ears are rounded instead of pointed, and though his hair is still white and his face is still flawless, he looks slightly—earthier. More physical, less ethereal. Right now, he's flaunting his icy, unearthly gorgeousness.
Jack crosses his boots at the ankles, and crusts of snow dribble off them onto Alice's chair cushion. "I've been wandering around this place, and it really feels like your average human company. Lots of busywork being done, very little actually accomplished. And you—you're...folding paper?"
"Auction lists," I snap. "So people know what's available, and the numbers, and everything."
"Seems like something you could do digitally, and save paper."
"That's what I thought, but I'm the newbie here. I didn't make the decision, did I? At this point, it is what it is."
Jack kicks the chair expertly, making it spin around on one wheel twice before settling his boots back on it.
"You're getting snow on the seat," I point out. "Alice is going to think I spilled something on her chair."
"I'll dry it off before I leave. A quick blast of wind, and it'll be fine." His blue eyes arrest mine. "Does this feel important to you, Emery? Does it feel like you're making a difference in the world? Helping the planet?"
"I mean, sure. This kind of work isn't glamorous. It's slow and painful. It's contacting people with power, developing allies, legislating change. The upcoming benefit will raise money for those efforts, give the conservancy the funds it needs to keep protecting and managing natural spaces."
"Managing natural spaces," Jack repeats slowly.
"Yes, and we have just a couple days left until the benefit, so at this point, we have to make sure that everything is in place and that we've thought of every detail."
"You've already got the rhetoric down." His wry tone carries a tinge of sadness. "You'll fit in well here."
I fling aside the paper I was about to fold. "What else do you expect us to do? We're human, Jack. We don't have special woo-woo powers like you do, that can alter temperatures and weather patterns. We do the best we can with what we've got. And unfortunately, for humans, that's a lot of red tape and networking."
