“Karli?”
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Baby, it’s Chad.” He replied.
Oh Jesus. “Chad, what are you doing here?”
“Karli, I heard about what happened. Can I please come up for a few minutes? I promise I won’t stay very long.”
“Yeah okay a few minutes Chad. That’s it.” I said as I buzzed him in. Shit!
He hugged me tightly as soon as I opened the door. Gah! “Wow, this place brings back some old memories.” He gloated. “I remember when we christened every room in this house like it was yesterday. It was nice having all that extra space without the furniture wasn’t it?”
Oops, did I just sneer? This was supposed to be our apartment together…until I found out about his extracurricular activities. Chad wanted to move into a nicer building but I insisted on paying half the rent so we chose one I could afford. I already gave up my old place so I fought to keep this one. I really didn’t appreciate his reminder.“The clock’s ticking Chad.” I snapped. “What do you want?”
He reached for me again, but I sidestepped him, giving him the evil eye. “I needed to see that you were okay with my own eyes. I can’t believe you’ve been sucked into this too. I’m so sorry Karli. The last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt because of me.”
“You mean more than I already have?” Was he trying to piss me off?
“Kar, I already told you how sorry I am about that. Have you given any more thought to my offer?”
Ugh, hell no! “Sorry Chad, I’m still standing firm on this one. I appreciate your concern, but as you can see I’m fine.” I opened the door to let him out, and saw Vance, fast approaching.
He glared at Chad before looking at me and asking, “Everything okay in here?”
“Yes, Chad was just leaving.” I said.
Amazingly he got the hint and started walking out, but not without clipping Vance’s shoulder first. “Excuse me asshole.” He said to Vance. “Call me if you change your mind Kar. I love what you’ve done with our little love nest by the way.”
Vance closed the door behind him and asked, “What the hell was that about?”
“Nothing, he’s just being Chad.” I replied. “What brings you here?”
“My guy trailing him called me. He thought I’d like to know he was headed here.”
“So are you spying on me now?” I shrieked.
“No Karli, calm down.” He said. “We’re pretty sure Chad is the cause of this whole mess. He is the one person you should stay far away from. It’s a security risk. Nothing more.”
“Oh.” Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions so fast.
“You up for some new tricks?” He asked.
“I suppose.” What the hell? He was already here. “I was just about to make lunch. You want some?”
“I’d love some.”
I started moving around my tiny, U-shaped kitchen making tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Vance helped, finding every little excuse possible to brush up against me. When we were done eating he said, “Well, I already know you can conjure a wardrobe and shock the hell out of someone. What else can you do?”
“Not much really. Just basic stuff like clothes, hairstyle, make-up. I tried changing my crappy car into a Mercedes once while I was in college but it didn’t even last long enough for me to get inside. The shock was actually an accident. I was freaked out and it kinda just flew out of my hand.”
“Well, combat magic is actually pretty advanced. Why don’t we start on a smaller scale? You want to try changing an object again?”
“Sure.”
He walked over to my television. Shaking his head he said, “No, this just won’t do.” He closed his fist and opened it again, revealing a small mound of fairy dust. “Now watch. All I’m going to do is imagine what I want to see.” He sprinkled the glitter-like substance over my
26” set, changing it into a much larger model. “That’s much better. You need at least 50” to watch a game.”