Page 38 of How Not to Date a Demon

Galen did. Maybe he was the one who wasn’t handling this well.

As he began to speak, Maeve mapped her trail out in the living room, beginning to pace. Tension lined her shoulders, and beneath all the anger and snappy remarks was Maeve. Scared and unsure. He had to remember that.

“I was born an angel. Fun fact.”

Her steps faltered by the window, and he paused to wait for a question. It was still dark out, still the middle of the night. Seemed appropriate for all the secrets he was about to spill. But she didn’t say anything, didn’t even face his direction. All he got was a wave of her hand to continue.

“That didn’t work out, obviously. So I fell. That’s why my coloring is weird.”

“The color of what?”

“Me. Well… demon me. My skin and wings and horns and stuff.”

She turned to him slowly. “To be fair, I was kind of blinded by your LED light show, so I didn’t really get a chance to study you in the shadows of the sketchy alleyway.”

“Oh,” was all he could come up with, paired with a wince. “I can show you again?” he offered, slyly glancing up to see her reaction.

Her glare was trained in his direction.

So that’s a no.

Galen clasped his hands together and braced his forearms against his knees. But his face was aimed in Maeve’s direction, studying her reactions as he talked.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

He paused. “Changing into a demon?”

She nodded once, and even after Galen was turning her world upside down, she was still concerned for him.

Fuck, he loved her so much.

“It doesn’t hurt. Just kind of tingles.”

“Okay. Go on, keep talking,” she urged, but the panic was gone from her voice.

“After I fell, I landed in Hell, but it’s not like… lava and burning people alive all the time. It’s nothing like they teach here. And it’s not like being an outcast either. Yeah, it is kind of like a demotion, but it’s more like… ah, how do I explain it?” He racked his brain for a good analogy. “Like changing locations at a job. It’s like I started working at a different office. And when I got to the new office, I started out at the bottom of the totem pole. Until now. I’ve finally worked my way up to where I want to be.” Should he even tell her the good news?

“So the promotion shit was real?” she asked, having trekked her way near the door again, staring at him.

He frowned. “Yeah. I’ve been working my ass off.”

“So you work in Hell? What do you do?”

He scratched a hand through his hair, already missing his horns.

“Right now I process all the paperwork for transferring souls. But the promotion… I’ll be more like an overseer. A manager. Less hands on and more delegating. More time off. And—”

He cut himself off, getting too excited about the possibilities. But it was Maeve he needed for those possibilities to even matter. Without Maeve, the promotion was nothing. She just didn’t know it.

“And what?”

His cheeks heated. “You can’t be mean to me when I tell you,” he warned.

Maeve spun on him. “For someone who’s lied the entire time I’ve known you, you’re expecting a lot.”

Galen swallowed. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s just… going to sound silly. It’s not like human customs.”

“Tell me!” she urged.