They left the Mall and headed for the little Italian grocery store that did deli orders and made things like handmade ravioli. It always smelled so good in the shop that Meg was tempted to lick the walls. Mrs. Giovanni took their order, and gave them each a piece of tiramisu as a treat. Meg and Ginny headed for the door licking their fingers and waving goodbye.
“The cocoa on top isn’t going to make you sick is it Ginny?” asked Meg.
“No, just give me the burps for a while,” said Ginny. “Where to now?”
“Not sure. I want to buy a nice dress and some sexy undies,” said Meg. “We probably should have done that at the Mall, but I forgot.”
“We could go to Carter’s over by the box stores,” suggested Ginny.
“Hmmm, haven’t been there in ages. Yes, let’s go.” said Meg as she started the car and backed out of the space.
*
Carter’s had just the right undies for Meg and a little black dress that would fit the occasion. Ginny found some new undies too which she finally bought after Meg teased her into it. They headed home and had just gotten all the bags in as Luc arrived home.
“Looks like you two had a good time shopping,” said Luc.
“Yes, and I’m off home to see what trouble those kids got into this time,” said Ginny. She grabbed her bags and headed out the door. “Bye Meg, and thanks for the lovely day,” she said.
“Bye Ginny,” said Meg with a wave.
“Wow, did I forget deodorant?” Luc asked.
“No, but that was amazing. She was really civil for most of the day. A little touchy around Andrew, but otherwise she was fine,” said Meg.
“Ohhhkay,” said Luc.
“Okay what?” asked Meg.
“Okay as in she really needs to get laid if she gets grouchy every time she’s around a male shifter,” said Luc.
“Oh,” said Meg. “Want to see what we got?” she asked. Luc nodded and they started unloading the bags. The dinner was in two weeks. When they got to the box from Andrew, Luc looked at it puzzled.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Andrew said it was for you,” she said. “His assistant gave it to us, so I couldn’t ask him.”
“Hmm,” said Luc. He took the package and read the label. “To Luc, Use it in good health, Andrew”. Luc tore through the wrappings and opened the box. Inside was an ivory colored ring about three inches across with a silver handle. Luc picked it up and started laughing.
“What’s so funny Luc?” Meg asked.
“Oh, it’s just Andrew’s way of telling me to be careful,” he said and handed the piece over to Meg. “It’s a teething ring.”
Meg took it and started to laugh. “He said something about a teething ring when we dropped off the chain. I never expected him to actually give you one,” said Meg.
Both of them collapsed to the bed giggling.
*
Tuesday morning, Cal stuck his head into Luc’s office. He didn’t say a word, just smiled and gave Luc a thumbs up sign. Luc nodded. It was the prearranged signal that Cal’s cousin Patrick would be coming by some time today. They had decided on silent communication because Ginny seemed to hear everything said in the office lately. It had brought most conversations to a halt, and Luc had had just about enough. He really hoped that Patrick and Ginny hit it off. The phone rang and Luc answered it as Cal headed out the back way to the warehouse.
“Yes ma’am, we certainly can install new Cat5 cabling at your flower shop. Cost is by the foot, and whatever supples on top of our minimum hourly. Yes, that’s right. Just one minute,” he paused and then wrote down the address. “One of our techs will be out to you in 45 minutes,” he finished and then hung up the phone.
Luc gathered his tools and headed for the front door. As he passed Ginny, he waved and disappeared as quickly as he dared. He knew that the customer management system would let her know where he was going. Meg could tap into it too if she needed him. Meanwhile, he was off to do what he enjoyed; doing tech work.
*
Thirty minutes later, Kevin left on a job as well. He had a computer client in one of the suburbs that kept getting hacked. He had what Luc called a little black box solution for this business. It was a tailored router and firewall. He went out the back door to avoid Ginny. He was still on her shit list for reasons he had yet to figure out.
Meg had shut her door when Kevin left, knowing that she was the only one in the main office and while her workload was light today, the last thing she wanted was to be interrupted. She was crunching data for a state job. Her frustrations with economists that don’t understand the formulas behind their data had reached a new high.
Peter and Cal were working in the loading bay when a beat up Subaru pulled up. At first Peter thought it was Luc coming back, until he noticed that it was a lighter shade of green than Luc’s.
“Hey Cal. I think your cousin is here,” he said.
Cal looked up. “That’s him. Now we see if there’s fireworks or a dog fight,” he said. The two of them watched Patrick walk into the office.
“Did you ever tell your cousin what’s going on? That we’re trying to set Ginny up with a date ’cause she’s crazy in need of a fuck?” asked Peter.
“Sorta. I didn’t want to say too much. Just that our receptionist was a nice gal and that maybe he’d like to meet her. Plus, dammit Patrick, how long has it been since you’ve been laid?” said Cal.
Peter smirked. They moved to the corner of the yard that was just out of sight from the front office, but close enough to hear if Ginny exploded in a ball of fury.
*