I looked at my phone. The brightness had me squinting but I refused to make it any less bright. Total clarity was needed for this moment.
My thumb hovered over the letters on the screen. Nathan’s name taunted me from the ‘Send To’ line.
With a deep breath, I typed out ‘ice cream’ and touched the chocolate ice cream emoji that appeared. I went to the keyboard again and began typing.
“Pretend it’s coffee flavored,” I read under my breath.
I placed the words in parenthesis and looked at it once more. It wasn’t the best, but I didn’t want to be too wordy in the first text.
Before I talked myself out of it, I hit the send button. I felt like I could finally breathe once the message was sent.
Instantly, my phone vibrated. I looked at it and his answering message was similar, except that he’d used a vanilla ice cream emoji and said to pretend it was cookies ‘n cream.
Smiling, I placed my phone on my nightstand and closed my eyes.
Darkness lured me further away from consciousness until blue began to make its way into my vision.
Crisp autumn air filled my lungs and I sighed in happiness. Not too many people liked the chill, but I did.
I shifted my guitar strap over my shoulder as I made my way into my favorite area of the park. It was a small hidden area beside the lake. People usually loved this spot, but around this time no one wanted to risk falling in because the water was too cold.
Glancing around, I noticed a few ghosts lurking around. It was less than usual but still too many for my comfort. However, they seemed to be enjoying the weather, too, so I didn’t pay them any mind.
Reaching my destination, I sat down on my favorite bench and pulled out my guitar to tune it. Once happy, I closed my eyes and strummed random chords. It felt like everything around me fell silent as the guitar sounds floated away with the wind.
A shadow fell across me and I frowned, halting the movements of my fingers.
“What the…?” I trailed off as I opened my eyes and saw Lucifer standing in front of me with two black dogs by his side. My eyes widened at the size of the animals, as they were nearly at his chest while standing.
Even more shocking was the appearance of the man in front of me. His black slacks were impeccably straight, but more impressive was his dark blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
Those arms had me feeling things.
With that thought jolting me out of my daze, I cleared my throat.
“Can I help you?” I asked politely, glancing around to see if I could find anyone who might save me should it come to it. Not that it would do much when a lowly human was against a demon (or devil, if Lucifer was to be believed).
No one was around, not even any ghosts. How?
He sat down beside me and crossed one leg over the other as his hands rested against the back of the bench.
“I’m just taking my dogs out for a walk, as any normal person would. Now I’d like to rest a bit. You don’t mind, do you?” he asked with a glimmer in his eyes.
I swallowed and glanced at his dogs. They were sitting now, but they still looked pretty big. They were practically at eye level with me at that moment. The dogs were both looking at me and if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought they were both within seconds of attacking me if I made one wrong move.
Slowly— the slowest I’ve ever moved in my life— I put my guitar back in its carrier.
“Why are you here?” I asked, turning my attention back to Lucifer once I was sure his dogs wouldn’t eat me. “Don’t you have a soul to torment?”
He glanced at his watch and shook his head.
“Not for another two hours,” he grinned.
I inhaled, trying to keep myself from freaking out. If this really was a demon or the devil or whatever, then there was a really high possibility that his words were true.
I didn’t know how to feel about that. I wasn’t going to think about that.
“I wanted to see how you were doing since our chat yesterday,” he said.
My eyebrows raised. “I don’t believe you.”
“Have I ever lied to you, Ms. Evans?” Lucifer frowned.
“No, but you’re not being completely honest either.”
He sighed and craned his neck back to look at the sky.
“There’s paperwork I have to deal with back in Hell. If I put it off long enough, my assistant will do it for me. She hates being behind schedule.”
My eyes narrowed at him.
“You’re taking advantage of her work ethic,” I accused.
“Oh, please,” he scoffed. “She knew what she was walking into when I offered her the job many years ago.”
“Nope,” I shook my head. “I’m not going to be the reason why she has to do extra work.”
“No?” he asked, moving his head to look at me sideways. “Not even if it’ll benefit you?”
I met his eyes. Stay strong, Venus, stay strong.
“What do you mean?” my mouth betrayed me.
“Well,” he started. “I’ll answer your questions. Any question you could possibly have, I’ll answer with nothing but honesty. All you have to do in return is pet sit Diego and Ella for me. It’ll just be one night.”
My mind was rushing to keep up with all the words he threw at me. All I could do while I processed was blankly stare at him.
Finally, I crossed my arms.
“So not only am I helping you get out of doing whatever paperwork you have to do in Hell, but I also have to pet sit for you? How is that an even trade?”
“I did take time out of my day yesterday to answer your summoning. You still owe me for that.”
“You didn’t even give me anything!” I glared. Although thinking about it, I did tell him to leave before we could negotiate more. I wasn’t about to admit that, though.
“I gave you my time— that’s more precious than anything else you could’ve received.”
I glared harder to the point where my left eye was twitching, as if that would somehow make him feel my annoyance even more.
Lucifer smirked.
I closed my eyes and inhaled.
He did say he’d answer any questions I had, which was what I originally wanted. Also, Diego and Ella seemed to be well-behaved. They hadn’t moved or made a noise since their arrival— their only flaw was that they were just a bit too big, intimidating. How could I hate on an animal for something they had no control over?
I could do this.
Opening my eyes, I met Lucifer’s gaze and nodded.
“Wonderful,” he grinned.
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