“Karma?” The name rang a bell.
“Yeah. She and her mate own Animals.”
“The one in the desert or the one in Louisiana?” I heard they were opening another on the East Coast, but that could easily be a rumor.
“All of them. Anyway, she called and said I needed to have you come in and go over all of this with me. So I agreed.”
“So, she’s your boss?” I supposed it made sense since she was the owner, but how could she micromanage three places at once—and telling him to have me come in sure seemed like micromanaging to me.
“Pretty much. But even if she wasn’t, when she says things need to happen, there’s always a reason. I’d be foolish to ignore them.”
“Is she human?” Something gave me fae vibes about what he’d just said.
“In theory, yeah,” he said. “But between us, she knows a bit too much to be just human. But that’s neither here nor there.For whatever reason, she thought you needed to be here, which was why it didn’t surprise me too much when you didn’t show up yesterday.”
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. She told you I needed to be here, so you weren’t surprised I wasn’t here?”
“More like, it was no surprise you found some people you wanted to spend time with.”
If we had been anywhere else, I could not be having this conversation, but this was Animals, where shifter was the norm. It was easy to talk to him, and I decided to open up. I admitted all that had happened from the time we were to have our initial meeting, until now.
He responded by telling me how happy he was for us.
“Don’t get too happy yet,” I warned. “We haven’t figured out anything.”
“Logistics aside, you figured out the important things. You three are mates.”
“Maybe, but it’s not like I’ve told them yet.”
“And are they pressuring you to?”
“No.”
“Then you’re just where you need to be. Don’t worry about it. When do you see them again?” He grabbed his coffee, leaning back in his chair, the work long forgotten.
“Griffith is gonna meet me here for lunch before we go to our afternoon meetings. I don’t know the plans after that.”
“Did you want me to cancel the meetings?”
“You would do that?” This was so unlike any work meeting I’d ever been on.
“Sure. Do you want me to?”
“I guess I wouldn’t hate it, but I do need to put in the hours.” My boss was less flexible than Zevo. “I don’t want to get stuck paying for my hotel room.”
He laughed and laughed before he realized I was serious. “They would make you pay?”
“Yeah, my boss is kind of a dick.”
We went back to work, stopping only when my alarm went off. “I’m gonna go find my date, if that’s okay with you.”
We made a plan to meet up in two hours, and I wandered back to the front entrance, where Griffith was already waiting.
I wasn’t sure what the correct etiquette was for a first date, especially after they’d already seen you as your beast and you’d already dated their boyfriend. So, I went with a hug. He hugged me back, and his chest vibrated, his bear growling. Freaking hot.
“I have two hours. Should we just eat here?” Being in San Diego, there were plenty of options, but every foot away from here we went, we’d need to take back. That was precious time I wasn’t loving using on transportation.
“Here sounds great.”
