4 - Anything For You

“I need you to do something for me, Olivia.”

I perked up at Noah’s voice at work the next afternoon. I stared up into his gray eyes, a swallow working its way down my throat. I was doing my best not to fantasize about his words having a very different meaning...in a bedroom situation… “Sure,” I chirped. “What do you need?”

“I just emailed you a report that needs checking. I need it by 8am tomorrow morning. Sorry, I know this is last-minute but the client needs it by then. And I have to run out for a bunch of back-to-back meetings right now…” He sighed, looking at me earnestly. “Can I count on you?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Thank you.”

“Noah, we need to go!” his assistant called, already heading out the door with a laptop bag on each shoulder.

“Thanks, Olivia,” Noah said to me. “If you run into any problems, let me know.”

“Will do,” I murmured, watching as he took off.

I went to my inbox, opening up the report. “Jesus Christ...it’s a hundred pages long!”

Well, might as well get started. It looked like I was in for another late night tonight. I plugged in some music to shut out all distractions and slogged it out. Even so, by midnight, I was the last one in the office and still only two-thirds done.

“Oh, God,” I moaned. “This is beyond depressing.”

I packed up my stuff, including my laptop, and called a cab home. Opening the door to my apartment, I found the place dark and quiet. “Hello?” I called.

No answer. No Levi? OK, this was good. Perhaps there was a god, after all.

I set myself up at the coffee table, working a mile a minute to finish checking the rest of the report. I lost track of how many cups of coffee I drank. Numbers swam in front of my eyes and I began to feel numb.

The next thing I knew, I was no longer sitting at the coffee table but…

...I was being carried? That didn’t make any sense. I must have fallen asleep and I didn’t want to wake up. “Noah…,” I whispered as I felt myself being gently lowered onto something big and soft. My bed?

I rolled over, curling up into a ball and returning to my dreams. At least until my alarm went off in the morning a few hours later.

“Shit!” I leapt up from the bed, looking around madly. “The report!” I ran out to the living room, stopping in my tracks when I saw Levi seated calmly on the couch, nibbling a muffin. My muffin, to be exact.

“Oh, yeah, help yourself,” I went, throwing my hands up. “Make yourself comfortable.”

“Sleep well?”

“Oh, shut up.” I hurried over to my laptop, trying to remember how far I’d gotten before I’d fallen asleep last night.

Wait…

I remembered now. I did manage to finish my checks. All that was left now was for me to return the edited version to Noah. I emailed it to him right away, apologizing for the delay. “Thank God,” I breathed, leaning back against the couch. It felt like I’d just missed having a heart attack right there.

Now, I was somehow going to have to push myself to my feet, shower, get dressed and make it to the office in a little under an hour. I knew I needed to get moving, but my brain was just not getting the message.

A ping sounded on my phone just then. It was a message from Noah. ‘Got it, thanks. You must be tired. Why don’t you come in a little later? Take the morning off.’

“Oh, Hallelujah.” I put my phone away, glancing up to see Levi staring at me.

“Not much of a morning person, are you?” he observed.

I ignored him, getting to my feet.

“Who’s Noah?”

I whirled in surprise. “What?”

“Who’s Noah? Someone important?”

I stared back at Levi, feeling oddly exposed under his gaze. Then it occurred to me that he’d probably just seen Noah’s name on my phone, which made me relax a little. “He’s my boss.”

“Why did you react like that when I said his name?”

“Like what?”

“You got all excited for a minute there.” He perked a brow at me. “You’re hot for him, aren’t you?”

“D-don’t be ridiculous!” I took off to go get ready. At least, Levi’s nosing had seemed to give me a second wind, oddly enough.

When I emerged again a while later, Levi ran an eye over me - outfit, bag, shoes. “Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Where?”

“To look for a way to get rid of you.”

“I’ll come with you.”

I groaned but didn’t say anything to try and stop him. I knew how futile that would likely turn out to be.

We hopped on a bus, where I deliberately sat next to someone else so Levi wouldn’t be able to sit next to me. Or so I thought.

Levi smirked at me before nodding at the middle-aged man beside me. “You. Out.”

“No, you don’t have to do that!” I tried to tell the stranger, but it was no use.

Gathering his things, the man filed out obediently, bumping past my knees with his big bags.

“Ow,” I grumbled.

“Move over,” Levi ordered.

With a sigh, I scooted to the inside seat, allowing him to drop down next to me. “So...how come you’ve never played that mind trick on me?” I asked, curious.

“I tried. Several times. It doesn’t work on you.” He held my eye for a moment, his lip curling. Was he impressed? Amused? Or both? “Not bad for a witch.”

“Right,” I mumbled, fiddling with the bracelet around my wrist.

“So, where are we going?”

“This place in town. I looked it up.”

“What’s so important about this place?”

“You’ll see.”

A short while later, we stepped into a hole-in-the-wall shop packed with books, herbs, charms and who knew what else.

“Hello! Welcome to Lovecraft,” the man behind the counter greeted me. He paused, his smile faltering slightly as his eye flicked over to Levi. With his weird eyes and dark, flowing clothes that showed off flashes of skin, Levi was...quite a sight.

It made me realize how used I had gotten to him lately. Kind of like a bizarre, not-to-be-trusted roommate.

“Lovecraft,” I repeated, looking around. “Like the writer?”

“That’s one interpretation. Is there anything I can help you with today?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, removing my shades and tucking them into my shirt. “Do you have anything on, um...you know, witches and spells?”

“Of course. It’s our bread and butter.” He gestured to a big shelf along the wall.

“Thanks.” I squeezed my way over, Levi following at my heels like some puppy.

“Do you mind?” I complained as he hovered next to me. He was standing so close, it was making me nervous.

Levi ignored my comment, picking up a book and flipping through the pages. “A lot of this looks like drivel.”

“Well, I don’t think these books were meant for you.” I chose a few titles, going over to a little nook in the back to sit down and read. Levi yawned but followed, hanging around as he studied the shop interior.

“I feel like I’m back in school, cramming for a test,” I sighed.

“Got anything yet?”

“Not really.” I paused as a particular paragraph caught my eye. ‘*Magic abilities are almost always passed down from generation to generation*.’

By that logic, were my mom and dad witches too? Or just Mom? Was it true that only women could be witches? What about warlocks? Was that a thing?

“This is so confusing,” I said, shaking my head.

Levi grabbed another chair, turning it around and sitting backwards on it to face me. “You don’t even know what you are.”

“If I even believe you.”

“How else would you explain what you did to me?” He frowned, growing frustrated. “I know you saw what I saw.”

“So what? We probably just had a shared psychotic episode or something. Like those people who think they get abducted by aliens.”

“You know what?” Levi snatched the book from me, tossing it down on the table with a loud smack. “You don’t need this stuff.”

“What?? I thought you said you wanted me to help. Well, this is me trying to help.”

“You didn’t need a book to cast that spell, so you don’t need one to undo it. At least that’s what I believe.”

I started to say something, but the shop assistant came over, smiling tightly at us. “Everything OK over here?”

“Yeah...we were just leaving.” I got up, shouldering my bag. Levi and I walked out, standing for a moment under the afternoon sun. “I should probably head over to the office now,” I said, checking the time.

“Let’s go then.” He casually draped an arm over my shoulders, which I was quick to shrug off.

“Stop that!” I exclaimed, embarrassed. “Just go home, Levi.”

“And do what?”

“Whatever it is you do. I don’t care. Just stop following me.” I marched off, shooting him a warning look to stay away.

When I made it into the office, I looked around hopefully to catch a glimpse of Noah but couldn’t see him anywhere. He was probably in a meeting or something. With his busy schedule, he wasn’t in the office as much I would like.

I trotted over to my cubicle, where I found Alison waiting for me. “Hey!” she piped up, gesturing her coffee cup at me. “I heard about the Grifton Report. Did everything turn out OK?”

“Yeah. I got it to Noah just in time.”

“Good, good,” she went, giving me a long, searching look. “So, uh, where’s that guy?”

“What guy?”

“That boyfriend of yours.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“So, that guy who was here yesterday…?”

“Oh, crap. He’s nobody, OK? Just forget about him.”

Alison pursed her lips together for a moment. She looked disappointed. “So, the two of you aren’t…?”

“Don't you have work to do, Alison?”

She made a face, but marched out of there to return to her cubicle.

Ugh...when was my life going to go back to normal? I wished I’d never met Levi. More than that, I wished he’d never laid his hands on me…

I shook my head fiercely, hoping that would help get the memory out of my head. I did my best to put all thoughts of Levi out of my head so I could focus on work.

Close to the end of the day, I was getting something to drink from the pantry when I heard voices nearby, rising every second. They were coming from the conference room nearby.

*That’s Noah and our director Mr Gleeson. It sounds like something’s wrong. I wonder what?*

I moved closer, trying to listen.

“...that information should not have been there for them to see!”

“You’re overreacting,” Noah shot back, sounding tired and frustrated. “I'm sure they didn’t even notice.”

“This is unacceptable, Noah. You knew how important the Grifton report was!”

*The Grifton report? Shit! Was it my mistake?*

I listened to Mr Gleeson going on and on, pretty much making Noah his own personal punching bag. That was how it had always been. Noah could be harsh, but he was nothing compared to Mr Gleeson. I often wondered how he could take it.

As I listened, my own frustration grew and grew. It wasn’t fair that Noah should take the blame instead of me. He didn’t deserve that.

Before I could lose my nerve, I marched up to the door, pushing it open.

Noah and Mr Gleeson were standing on opposite sides of the room, facing off like two men about to duel each other. But they stopped and turned to look as I made my entrance. Noah’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, while Mr Gleeson’s face simply crumpled in annoyance. “What do you want??” Mr Gleeson demanded, his tone of voice pretty much telling me what he thought of me.

“Mr Gleeson...I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to overhear but I know you’re talking about the Grifton report. If there was a mistake - ”

“Olivia,” Noah interrupted sharply, catching my eye. “Is that for me?”

“What??”

He came over, practically snatching the cup of water from my hand. “Thanks,” he said, taking a long drink before tossing the cup into the trash. He stood in front of me, turning back to Mr Gleeson. “Alright. I take full responsibility for what happened.”

Mr Gleeson lifted his chin, looking triumphant. “Damn right. You didn’t have to be so fucking hard-headed about it.”

“Well, you know me.”

“No, wait, but I was the one who - ” I started.

“Excuse us a minute,” Noah said, taking my arm and leading me out of there before I could say another word.

Once we were outside, Noah let go of me, heaving a big sigh.

“Why did you do that?” I asked, frowning at him. “I made a mistake.”

“It’s not your fault. You worked round the clock to give me that report. I should have checked it myself more carefully.”

I stared at him, feeling oddly touched.

But it was silly, right? Noah was just trying to protect his employee - me. It didn’t necessarily mean anything more than that. Did it? “Even so, you didn’t have to do that for me.”

“It’s OK. I wanted to,” he said quietly. He folded his arms over his chest, doing a shrug. “Besides, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. Better to let Mr Gleeson chew me out than you.”

“Why? What does that mean?”

He shrugged. “Nothing, nothing. I’m just thinking out loud.”

A few feet away, the conference room door opened and Mr Gleeson peeked his head out. “Hey, Noah! We’re not done yet!”

“Be right there,” Noah replied. He turned back to me momentarily. “Alright. Back to work, Olivia.”

“Yeah, sure. But are you going to be OK?”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me.” He strode back into the conference room with his head held high, almost like a man about to face the firing squad.

Seriously, how could I not worry about him? Especially after the way he’d just worried about me?