Page 5

QETESH

There was always something nice about sitting in the corner of the hotel's coffee shop with my laptop.

Theoretically, I could claim one of the offices at Jinx HQ if I wanted to, but the idea of actually going into an office every day sounded terrible to me.

I liked the freedom of working for myself and on my own timeline.

The barista brought over a fresh coffee for me and I flashed them a grateful smile. Of all the things that had become available over the years, coffee really was one of the best. Whoever had dubbed it the elixir of the gods wasn't wrong. It was certainly something that kept this goddess going.

I resisted the urge to drink some of it, knowing that it was too hot, and focused on my work instead.

My coffee was nearly finished when I heard a familiar voice, and I looked up to find Jacob standing at the counter talking to the barista.

From the way they were interacting, it seemed like the conversation was going well, and that Jacob's choice of management style was working for him.

I couldn't help but be impressed. It took a certain kind of restraint not to start changing things immediately.

I was sure he had plenty of ideas for how to improve the way the hotel was run, and if I were in his shoes, I doubted I'd be able to do what he was.

He turned and caught me looking, flashing me a friendly smile.

I returned it, feeling a surprising surge of affection for the person I barely knew. Maybe it was just because he was Ella's brother. I'd heard her talk about him so many times that it was as if I knew him.

He finished his conversation with the barista and headed over. "Hey, Tesha. Hmm, is that weird?"

I laughed. "It's not."

"Oh good."

"Do you like Jacob? Or do you prefer being called Jake?" I asked curiously. I hadn't heard anyone refer to him that way, but maybe it was because he was at work.

"Jacob," he responded. "It made me feel important when I was a kid, and it kind of stuck."

I laughed. "Fair enough."

"Mind if I join you for a coffee?" he asked.

"Sure. I've just about finished this one," I said. "Though I was actually considering lunch."

"I've been meaning to try the food in the restaurant."

"I wasn't trying to insinuate anything..." I said quickly.

"You're not," he promised. "I really do want to try the food. I've tried samples in the kitchen, but it's not the same as sitting down to eat. Want to join me?"

"Are you sure I'm not an imposition?" I asked, even though I was the one who had brought up lunch in the first place.

"Eating alone is less fun than eating with someone. It's my treat."

"All right, but only because I've always wanted to try the chocolate bomb dessert."

He laughed. "Got it."

I powered off my laptop and slid it into the designated pocket of my handbag.

Even though there was literally no way that this was anything other than a work lunch, there were some unfamiliar butterflies in my stomach, ones that I'd heard other people talk about, but not experienced that much myself.

I looked over at Jacob, wondering if I was experiencing a kind of attraction I didn't usually. But even if he was clearly a physically fit man, with a handsome face, it wasn't really doing anything for me. Other than being pleasant to look at.

He caught me looking and raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry," I murmured.

He shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to it."

"That's not what I was doing," I said quickly. "I...can't really explain."

"One of the complicated things?" he guessed.

"Yes."

He nodded, and the two of us headed towards the restaurant. It wasn't particularly busy, which wasn't a surprise given that it was only just midday and a random Wednesday. Having seen it at other times, we were lucky.

A waitress showed us to a table at the back, where Jacob asked to be seated so we were out of the way of the other customers.

"Do you think you're going to get better service or worse because of who you are?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "Depends on how much the chef likes me. Normally, when I take a new job, I try to come and eat at the hotel before I start working there. That way I can get a totally unbiased view of the food and service."

"That's smart. And something I'll save in case I ever decide that I'm done working for myself."

"Is that likely?" Jacob asked.

"Not really. I've not always run Lock and Key parties, but I've worked for myself for longer than I can remember. Not that it was easy at some points in time, but I always managed. And it was better than being a wife."

He raised an eyebrow. "Not the getting married type?"

"It's complicated."

He chuckled. "I'm starting to think that's what you want people to think your main personality trait is."

"It's better than what they do assume my main personality trait is," I muttered.

He gave me a questioning look, but then glanced down at the menu. "So what do you have time for? Full three course meal and coffee?"

"Are you sure we have enough to talk about for three courses?"

"I should hope so if you're going to be at Ella's pre-wedding weekend," he joked. "And you did say you're complicated, I've found that can lead to a lot of conversation."

"Three courses it is." I scanned the menu, though I already knew exactly what I was going to eat.

The waitress reappeared and took our order, before disappearing to get our drinks.

"So, Ella's pre-wedding weekend," he said. "Any idea why she's calling it that and not something snappier?"

"I don't think she's come up with a better name for it, and she hates the term hen party," I responded. "I think the intention was to find a better name, but now it's next week and she hasn't come up with one, so it's kind of stuck."

"Fair enough."

"I didn't realise you were going."

He nodded. "I was always supposed to be," he said. "No doubt she was planning on introducing us then, but our jobs beat her to it."

"They really did."

Our drinks arrived, and I smiled at the waitress. Not having eaten here before, I had no idea if this was her normal level of service, but it felt like it. And it was still good.

"So, how are you finding working for Jinx?" I asked.

"Great, actually," Jacob said, picking up his sparkling water and taking a sip. "I wasn't sure what to expect, especially when I found out that Aine is a first-time hotel owner, but it's all running smoothly so far."

"It might be her first time owning a hotel, but it's far from her first time owning a business. That's the thing with gods, we tend to have a lot of experience."

"Aren't you supposed to say that in a suggestive tone?" he joked.

"Would you be able to tell if I did?"

"Of course. I'm ace, not clueless," he said. "What about you?"

I froze. "What?"

He gave me a curious look. "Are you okay?"

I opened my mouth, but the words got stuck in my throat. I wasn't even sure precisely what I wanted to say to him. Did I want to brush him off again? Or tell him that it was complicated when it really wasn't?

Or did I want to tell him the truth? It didn't mean anything if I did, it was just that he was one of the first people I'd spoken to who might actually understand what was going on in my head. Or not the first, but the first I actually knew for sure would understand.

The starters arrived, cutting through my thoughts, but not alleviating the concerned expression on Jacob's face.

"I feel the same," I blurted out the moment the waitress left.

"About not being clueless?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. I could still change the topic of conversation, but maybe for the first time, I didn't want to. "About being ace," I said softly.

Surprise crossed his face, but it disappeared quickly. "That makes a lot of sense, actually."

"It does?" There was no hiding the panic in my voice.

"Don't worry, not to anyone who isn't paying attention," he said quickly. "It's just how you've been reacting to certain statements. And why you knew about my ring."

I took a deep breath. "Yeah. Well, people don't know."

"I figured you're not out." He picked up one of his battered prawns and dipped it in some sauce, reminding me that I was supposed to be eating my starter.

"I've never told anyone," I said. "It felt like it had to be this big secret."

"Thank you for telling me," he said, offering me a genuine smile. "Do you want to keep talking about it?"

I shook my head. "Maybe another time. If that's okay? But not now. Not here."

"Of course."

"Thank you." I smiled.

"So, how did you meet my sister?" he asked. "I'm curious now."

"Oh, that's a tale as old as time, at least for dryads. I'd just moved here, and I was looking for a new plant for my greenhouse. I searched for a nearby nursery and found your sister's. I only went in for one thing, but I spent hours there after we bonded over a calla lily."

He laughed. "That is very Ella."

"Now that I know her better, I know that's true," I said. "We kept talking about plants, I bought a few more, she looked after my plants while I went back to Egypt for a few weeks, and then she came to one of my Lock and Key parties and met Nadia. The rest, you've pretty much surmised."

He nodded. "She could have told me that she met her fiancée at a party run by a goddess. Or by Jinx."

"She probably just didn't think to mention it," I said. "She never told me your name either. You were just the mysterious brother."

"I should be glad she didn't refer to me as Captain Snowpants."

I raised an eyebrow. "You have to know how many questions that raises."

"When I was ten, I got these pyjamas with snowflakes on them for Christmas. We barely even celebrate, but I loved them and refused to take them off for a week."

I wrinkled my nose. "Not great."

"Not really. She started calling me Captain Snowpants after that."

"What did you call her?" I asked as I speared the last of my goat cheese and beetroot starter with my fork.

"Ella-Tella, because she would blurt out every secret anyone ever told her. She got much better at keeping them to herself as she got older, but I pretty quickly learned not to trust her with anything too important."

"Oh, I think I've met Ella-Tella," I joked. "She really doesn't know when to not share sometimes." I smiled at the thought of my best friend, knowing that she wasn't the kind of person to mean anything by it. She was just overexcited and had very few boundaries.

"That's my sister." The way he smiled made it clear that he held a lot of affection for her, which did make sense. Everything she'd ever told me about him made it sound like the two of them were close, even if she hadn't actually shared his name with me.

And everything she said seemed to be true. He had a good feel about him, something that made me want to open up to him, which wasn't exactly something I could say about anyone.

It was making me look forward to Ella's pre-wedding weekend celebration more. I didn't know many of her friends, but if I did know Jacob, then at least I'd have someone to talk to when Ella was busy.