Page 75 of The Fae Menagerie
"Excuse me?" I must have misheard her.
"We're all very proud of you, and this excellent deal," they said.
Their eyes looked so familiar, except there were two instead of six. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch your first name."
"It's Chani." They gave me a slight bow, and a less-than-human smirk I recognized from my time in the menagerie. Doyle's cleaning fae owned a human tech company on the side. "It's time."
"Time?"
"Go back to the basement and call him home." I didn't want to ask who they meant, or to repeat, especially since everyone around us laughed like they'd made an innocuous joke about the deal.
"Yes, way to bring an excellent deal home to Moynahan Enterprises, Son." My dad's pats on the back were hard enough to make my teeth rattle, but this one was almost friendly.
"Thanks, Dad. We'll work out the details tomorrow. For now, I've got to run."
"Celebrate at home this evening?"
I met his hopeful gaze and wanted to say yes, but I didn't know where I would be, or even if I'd be in the human realm. If Mx. Bulsara was Chani, Doyle was real, and he needed me to summon him.
"We'll see."
I saw Bret skulking toward the elevator and caught up to him in a few strides, thanks to the meeting endorphins still wreaking havoc in my brain.
"What do you need to summon Doyle again?" I whispered as I shoved him into an open elevator. Luckily, the others had noticed Bret's body language throughout the meeting and guessed we needed privacy, which was just as well.
"Who is Doyle?"
"The fae you summoned this afternoon!"
"Fae? He's a demon, Parker! You shouldn't mess with him."
"I just spent the best months of my life with him, you tall, gangly turd. Tell me how to summon him out of the fae realm, and I won't fire you."
He sniffled. "You won't have to. Your dad already did."
"Well, you do suck at this job," I reminded him.
Still, I felt bad for him. Before I'd caught him cheating, we'd had some fun times. He liked to take me to dinner and a movie.He'd joked when I tried to pay half, saying I already owned his company car.
That meant I had a bargaining chip. "I'll let you keep your company car until you find another job."
He frowned at me, and then at his own reflection. "That would be really kind. Thank you."
"If you tell me how to summon Doyle."
I'd pressed the button for my floor, and Bret hit the button for the twelfth, where his office was located.
Edward tried to hop in the car when it stopped on my floor. His hands were full of snacks from the vending room by the elevators, his favorite stop after meetings, but I shook my head. "Bret and I need to resolve something quick."
He nodded and backed off, letting the doors slide shut again.
"Ed meant nothing to me," Bret said as we continued to the twelfth floor. "I'm sorry I hurt you."
"Bret, I’m demisexual." It felt good to have a label for it. I couldn’t deny my attraction to Doyle, and I’d felt nothing like that for Bret. "Which means you meant nothing to me." I shrugged, trying to take some sting from my words. "I'm sorry if I led you on. I'm not made for dating." Humans. I left that part off, not wanting to make this conversation even stranger than it was.
Doyle was the only one for me. Of that, I was certain. Now, I needed to prove it to him, too.
I expected a giant tome like one of the fae histories, but Bret handed me a book of sonnets, each page with fourteen lines. "Last page," he said.
