After the pleasant previous evening, and with my girls safely tucked away in Kassandra’s manor for the moment, I took the opportunity to return back to Earth and get more work done on my new ‘house’ with orders from my excitable mouse kin lover to test out several new ideas.

  I’d remained behind long enough to have breakfast with the girls the morning after Kassandra had dragged me off to ‘christen’ her bedroom in the manor. All four of my girls understood the need to get work done while I could back at home, chastising me for even being worried they’d be upset before they ended my short-term summoning—and each of them had time to claim a discreet kiss—which sent me back to Earth for now.

  As soon as I got home, I checked my phone and the status of the Bitsy storefront.

  “Well shit, I guess I don’t need to worry too much about funds for the moment,” I muttered, looking at the mostly empty store.

  In the time since I’d last stocked it up, eighty percent of my products had been bought out. From the reviews that were on the site, people were happy with the reasonably priced jewelry and I was even getting returning customers picking up more pieces. There was even a private message from a woman asking if there was a way to place a custom order for matching earrings to give as gifts for her bridesmaids in the next few months.

  “I really should hire someone to do this for me,” I muttered while stretching and rolling my head on my neck, eliciting a pop from the joint.

  Kassandra had been in one of her super-clingy moods after we had bathed and gone to bed to sleep rather than have sex, which meant that she had wrapped all around me and squeezed tight in her sleep. Normally comfortable, but she’d managed to wedge her breasts just right to leave me with a crick in my neck.

  Not gonna complain about how I got it, but ow, I thought with a smirk while flicking through the other messages on my phone to figure out how I was going to spend the day.

  The girls were going to take most of today to just relax in the manor, and then go on a tour of the grounds tomorrow or the day after. Rieka and Kassandra were both planning to get some practice in with their spellwork while Jane inspected the library and Shayla got to do some drawing like Kassandra had promised her. After that, they’d start getting ready to head back out to finish their trip.

  So that meant that I had roughly a day, maybe two, to work on my new place and handle stuff back on Earth. The girls had wanted me to be there when they toured the grounds and countryside, since that was outside the secured space of the manor, so I was making my plans around what I could get done in a single day.

  Probably make a trip out to the new place. Maybe I can dig out a space for the truck? I’d need to swing by the hardware store to get supplies. If I’m going to be staying over at the new place and leaving my phone behind, I need something to provide power. Also need to pack up and ship out the items…

  I kept with the mental checklist as I gathered a few more items that I was moving to the new place—mostly canned food—and headed out to the truck.

  “Probably should have left my products at the apartment,” I muttered as I tossed the two cardboard boxes full of canned goods into the passenger seat of my truck. “Now I gotta drive out there, get whatever was sold, pack it up, then bring it back into town to the post office.”

  Grumbling under my breath, I got my truck started and pulled out of the parking lot of my old apartment.

  Since I couldn’t remember if I had enough of the standardized shipping envelopes, I stopped in at the post office to grab extras as well as packing wrap, tape, and the like.

  “Hell, at this point it might be worth investing in my own postage scale,” I grumbled under my breath as I juggled the packages while threading through the racks heading towards the front of the store.

  “Might be a good investment, depends on your volume,” said a familiar voice that made me jump and whirl about in surprise.

  Gloria stood behind me in all of her rough-and-tumble majesty. The Latina bartender was wearing a tight gray tank-top that left her twin sleeve tattoos bare while clinging to her full bosom and a pair of ratty blue-jeans tucked into a pair of battered cowboy boots. Her long, midnight hair was tied up in a ponytail rather than loose like she normally wore and it gave an odd studious counterpoint to her tough-girl look. Gloria had a stack of spiral-bound notebooks tucked under one arm and was giving me a curious look as she waited for my response.

  “Ah, hey Gloria. How’s it going?” I said with a relieved laugh. “Sorry, didn’t expect to run into you in a place like this.” I gestured to our surroundings, filled with various office supplies, shipping goods, and other business stuff.

  “Yeah, I found it’s better to buy my school supplies here rather than at the campus,” Gloria drawled with a half-smirk. “I swear, they mark everything up by a good thirty percent just because it has the school logo on it and they think that none of the students go off-campus.”

  “School supplies?” I asked curiously, shifting the pile in my arms.

  Gloria reached up to grab a bundle of packing tape before it tumbled free of my arms, then helped me sort and organize the pile while she explained.

  “Yeah, I've been taking courses off and on for a while. It’s what most of my tips from the bar end up going to financing. I refuse to take out loans, so it’s been taking a while,” Gloria said. “Started out as wanting to help my abuelo with the paperwork for the bar and has spread out since then. There’s so many little things to learn that I feel like I’m never going to get done.”

  “You are taking classes while working? Dang, that’s… well I hope it works for you,” I said with a slight frown. “I dunno if I’d have been able to do that when I was working on the loading dock. Too long of hours and too much manual lifting.”

  “Eh,” Gloria said with a one-shoulder shrug. “It’s not so bad. It’s not like I’m working full time. The bar could do without me, but I can’t find a job that pays better in this economy. Not one that isn’t going to treat me like shit at least. I’m not doing SimplyFans, that kind of thing has a way of coming back to bite you in the ass.”

  Gloria finished the statement with a scowl and I remembered her mentioning once in passing that a cousin of hers worked for the cam-site as well.

  Probably passed on first-hand knowledge of what to expect, I thought with a smirk as Gloria tossed her head towards the front of the shop with a questioning raise of her eyebrow.

  The gesture made her hair bounce and sent a familiar set of pearl earrings dancing where they hung from her earlobes. The fact that she was wearing my gift casually like that made me smile as I listened to her ramble on about work issues.

  A thought that had been coalescing in the back of my mind crystallized as we walked up to the self-checkout stands where a bored-looking clerk kept watch to ensure we didn’t try and steal a ream of printer paper or something. Or at least he was supposed to be keeping watch, but I saw his hands moving under the counter while he stared down at it, so figured he was on his phone.

  “—biggest issue is the hours. Most of my classes are before noon, and when I’m up until three or four in the morning with the bar, it makes it hard to focus. Thankfully, it’s just two days a week and I can usually trade shifts,” Gloria was saying as she scanned her notebooks through the machine.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “But you are able to cover rent and your schooling costs on a bartender’s tips, that’s not bad at all, right?” I asked, and Gloria rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah, by sharing a house with four other girls who are all working part time. I’m just glad that I found them when I got fed up living with my parents. Two of them are Internet streamers, those ones who have the funny cartoon characters rather than a camera in their face. The other two work in hospitality, one is a bartender like me at a different place, while the other one deals cards at a casino up north,” Gloria answered without looking up as the machine accepted her card.

  To not get left behind, I picked up my speed of scanning items while we talked. Gloria finished first, since she had far fewer items than I did, but she waited for me to finish.

  “Sounds like a good situation. I couldn’t find roommates I could trust,” I said distractedly while I ran my card.

  “I mean, I can’t trust the streamer girls to not hog the Internet on the nights that I’m not working, but that just means my shows need to buffer a bit more between episodes or my doom-scrolling is slower to load. We got things worked out, so it’s not so bad,” Gloria said with a shrug and a small smile that told me she was more fond of her roommates than she was suggesting.

  “I’m betting you don’t get insurance through the bar, right?” I asked, gathering up my pile of office supplies and indicated the door with my chin.

  The shop assistant glanced up from his phone long enough to mutter a ‘have a good day’ but was back at whatever game he was playing before either Gloria or I could respond.

  “Nope,” Gloria said with a rather cute snorting laugh. “I know my abuelo would if he could afford it, but insurance is expensive. It’s partially why he employs mostly family too. We get by, but there’s a reason I stay in shape. Harder to get sick this way.”

  Gloria lifted one tatted arm up and flexed, showing off lean muscle underneath the colorful tattoos.

  One thing that always intrigued me about Gloria’s tattoo’s was that she hadn’t gone with what would be considered ‘typical’ tattoos for someone in her situation. Rather than portraits of the saints, rappers, dead relatives, or the like, instead she had elaborate scenes done in the same style, but of cryptids and fantastical creatures in various poses. Her left biceps, which was the part closest to me, had an image of a werewolf leaping through a window while a sasquatch was hefting a car further down.

  “Fair point there,” I agreed as we both emerged into the cool afternoon air. “Hey. I know this might sound weird, but how tech-savvy would you consider yourself?”

  “I get by as much as anyone in our generation,” Gloria said with a shrug, wandering along at my side as I angled towards my truck. “Why do you ask? You need help setting up a router at your place or something?”

  I hesitated for a moment, considering what I was about to ask and offer my friend here before giving a shrug and just deciding to go for it. My instincts told me I could trust Gloria, and they hadn’t been wrong yet. Plus, she couldn’t be any worse at managing the storefront than I was.

  And if she does prove me wrong and tries to steal from me, well it’s not like I can’t find ways to get even, I thought calmly, though my stomach did a twist at the thought of a person I believe to be a friend being that false with me.

  “Actually, I was thinking of offering you a job helping with my Bitsy store,” I said, fishing my keys out and unlocking my truck to start cramming supplies into it.

  “I don’t need charity, Liam,” Gloria growled, and I glanced over my shoulder to find her glaring at me as well, her formerly happy mood gone.

  Thinking quickly, I settled on blunt honesty to prevent a Latina-flavored explosion that I could see was brewing from my friend. Well, at least the parts that I could tell her.

  “I wasn’t offering charity,” I answered quickly. “I’m being serious, Gloria. The shop is taking off and I would appreciate someone I trust taking over some of the work like managing the storefront and shipping the pieces out.”

  Gloria didn’t respond immediately, but the angry wrinkles that had formed in her forehead began to smooth out slowly as she thought.

  “Basically, I spend so much time between making these things, finding materials, and the processing and shipping that I am starting to run out of hours in a day,” I said, lying just a little bit. “Add in the fact I’m working on some big projects at the moment, which is why I’ve been away from town so much, that having someone in town to handle the Internet stuff would be nice.”

  “And you want me to do what exactly?” Gloria asked, her tone flat, but a quick glance told me she wasn’t angry anymore.

  “Handle the storefront, list items, and ship purchases out to the buyers.” I said with a shrug, tossing the last bundle of envelopes into the truck and turned back to Gloria.

  Crossing my arms, I leaned back against the side of the truck and studied my friend while she thought it over.

  “How many hours a week are you willing to pay me for? And what rate?” Gloria asked after a moment, staring at the ground in front of me.

  Since I’d been working on improving my intelligence, it only took a second to think over her question and come up with the best answer I could.

  “Honestly, I could pay you an hourly rate for whatever time you spend on it. Or I could cut you in on a percentage of the profits. That way, since a lot of what I do is custom work or individual pieces, you are incentivized to get the listings up quickly and show them off the best way possible.”

  Gloria looked up at that, locking eyes with me and studying my face for several long seconds. She didn’t speak yet though, clearly expecting me to continue.

  “Basically, you’d be paid the same whether you spend a hundred hours or ten hours in a week working on it. Efficient and intelligent is the most important part for me.”

  “And how much risk is there with this? You aren’t fencing stolen jewelry by passing it off?” Gloria asked, one hand going unconsciously to the earrings that I had gifted her.

  “Nope,” I answered with a laugh. “Believe it or not, all the materials are sourced by me. It’s one-hundred percent legal and above-board. No stolen merchandise.”

  “And you don’t care how long I spend on it per week?” Gloria cocked her hip to one side and rested a hand on it thoughtfully.

  “Spend as long as you need. If one week is only three hours because you are efficient, then you get paid the same as thirty hours,” I said with another shrug. “Honestly, I offered because it’s the kind of gig you can get extra cash with but wouldn’t require you to quit working at the bar.”

  “Unless I wanted to,” Gloria said firmly, to which I shrugged again.

  “Up to you, Gloria. I’m not going to tell you what to do with your time outside of the business. If I link your pay to a percentage of the profits, then it means you are both rewarded for doing well and to make sure things are taken care of in a timely manner.”

  “Okay… and you think you can trust me on this? What makes you think I’m not going to just steal all this and pawn it myself?” Gloria asked, her thoughtful tone turning harsh.

  I stomped on the urge to immediately reassure her and considered her question for a moment before answering.

  “Because,” I started slowly. “I’ve known you and your family for a while, Gloria. Jameson and I have been going by your abuelo’s bar for years now, ever since the two of us could drink. I’d like to say that I know you well enough that I can trust you.”

  “My parents would skin me alive if I was caught stealing,” Gloria said dryly. “Not to mention what my abuela would do. But people judge.”

  Gloria gestured with both arms, as if indicating the tattoos that she was normally so proud of and I nodded in understanding.

  “Do you think you’d be interested?” I asked after she went quiet and thoughtful once more. “No pressure, it’s just something I’ve been considering and you happened to run into me while I was buying supplies to ship out the latest load of orders.”

  “To be honest, I recognized your truck when I was walking by and figured I’d stop in and see if I was right,” Gloria admitted with a roll of the eyes. “And you go and offer me a job.”

  “Opportunity presented itself,” I said with another shrug, quietly hoping that Gloria would accept. Having someone else to help me out with this would balance things nicely, and since Gloria actually lived in town, it would improve my shipping speed. That would, in turn, boost ratings and hopefully sales.

  Plus, one less thing I have to think about and do rather than spending time working, I thought while tucking my hands in my jeans pockets.

  Watching Gloria go through the offer in her head, I could see the different stages as she weighed the very vague offer I’d made her. Weighing the pros and cons, deciding if the offer was in earnest, considering if her workload would allow her to.

  I’m getting better at reading people. At least better at reading people without animal ears and a tail to act as signals, I thought.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket and I fished it out while Gloria nibbled on her thumbnail thoughtfully.

  It was another notice from Bitsy, telling me that a necklace I’d made just sold for three-hundred and twenty dollars.

  “What’s got you smiling? Your girlfriends send you some naughty photos?” Gloria asked curiously.

  Glancing up, I chuckled at the thought of how Gloria might react if she actually did see one of my girls in all their glory.

  Pushing back that thought, I just turned the phone and flashed the sale completed page to her.

  “Just a sale notice. One more item I need to pack up and ship here soon.”

  “Three hundred!” Gloria gasped, her eyes going wide in surprise at the number before her eyebrows came together and she looked up at me seriously. “What sort of percentage were you thinking?”

  My grin returned and I didn’t even try to hide it now.

  I had my assistant.

  I have a ! Feel free to hop on and chat or ask questions.

  website for links to my other work as well as updates on this one. It has links to all the other places to find this work too!

  Amazon, I'll be editing and pulling down the files as time goes on, but I'll let folks know here ahead of time.

  Patreon! Additional advance chapters will be available there as well as art and some future projects I'm working on.