Fae Second Chance

Chapter 2 - Trained Monkey Pt. 2

Chapter 2

John comes storming into the apartment. He is throwing his jacket on the ground and chucks his briefcase across the room. I am looking at him like he has lost his mind. He is pacing back and forth in front of me acting very, very angry.

He stops in front and my fisting his hands, “Guess what Clark did today?’

Oh no, I knew all his bad-mouthing Clark would come back and haunt him, “What?”

“He convinced everyone to make a new committee position that would be stationed in the Border City. Apparently, they need representation too and since the non-humans cannot vote themselves, we will assign a congressman to live there every 2 years and report back here during sessions.”

“That does not sound too bad to me,” It actually sounded like a good idea, unless the government wanted the magic side of the wall to leave and start their own country. There have been rumors that the magic creatures have wanted that for years.

“You don’t understand, the person chosen cannot be on any other committees and it is almost a guarantee that you will not be re-elected next year.” He begins pacing again. He stops and glares at me, “Clark ‘nominated’ me for the position and everyone else voted to accept it! We leave at the end of this session to go to the Border City. My career is done for.” He kicks the table and sends it across the room. Its flipped over but does not break, thank goodness. John stares at the table, angrier that it didn’t have the decency to break into a hundred pieces. He finally stops pacing and sits on the couch with his head in his hands, “What am I going to do? This ruins everything.”

I sit next to him and put my hands on his shoulder, “You are going to do your job and we will find a way to make sure it does not end your career.”

He shakes his head and turns and hugs me, “You are right, there has to be a way I can keep my constituents and represent Border City.” He then gets up and pulls his phone from his pocket and starts to call ‘his people” to figure out a way to spin this new development.

For a few moments, I am excited, a new city away from the magnifying glass of D.C. Someplace I may finally be able to do something more with my life. But as John paces around the apartment talking strategy with his chief of staff, I realize that my life will not change. It will be the same as always just a new place. Picture perfect barbie on his arm as he talks to Border City convincing them that he is not the devil incarnate but their friend. I stare out into the city, wishing I had chosen a different path.

Border City is nothing like I expected. I had always assumed it was a depressing gray city, like the pictures of Detroit after all the car factories closed. It is not, it is shiny and new. As we drive into the city, we see the slums. It is funny those are on the human side of the border. The newer nicer areas are on the magic side. But even Border City slums are nicer than DC’s. Our car pulls up to a large office building full of glass windows. It is not the tallest building, but it is multiple stories. The Border City logo is over the main door. The driver turns and states, “The mayor wanted to meet you as soon as you got here. Then I will take you to your apartment.”

John looks a little annoyed. I know it is because the mayor had the audacity to order him there first instead letting John take the lead. I smile up to the driver, “Thank you so much, I can’t wait to meet him. Do you know if his married?” I get out quickly. I know this driver will probably report everything back to the mayor and if John is hostile towards him then he will be starting on the wrong foot immediately.

The driver smiles up to me, “Yes ma’am he is, she is a lovely dark fae. I think the two of you will be great friends.”

I can feel John tense, I grab his hand and start pulling him out of the car. We know the mayor is human, we did not know he married a fae. This is the first time I have heard of a human and magic being together. But I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. Border City has existed with both magic and human for years, surely some of them have managed to get together.

“He married one of them, how am I supposed to work with that,” he whisper yells at me. “And who does he think he is ordering me to him as if I am some lackey.”

I grab his arm and stop him before we enter the building, “Am I sure he is just being polite and you need to calm down, if you make an incident, it will affect your standing in Congress.”

He glares down at me and then takes a deep breath before he plasters on his politician smile. “You are not going to be friends with that thing,” he mutters out between clinched teeth.

His words make me want to walk in there and hug this woman and declare she is my BFF, but I know that will accomplish nothing, so I just smile up at him and say, “whatever you think is best, dear.”

John nods his head and we start towards the door again.

The mayor’s office is very tasteful decorated with a large wood desk and bookshelves lining the walls. The window behind his desk is a lovely view of the city. He has multiple photos on his desk but they are turned towards him so I cannot see what they are of.

“Your office is lovely,” I tell the mayor.

He smiles back at me, “Jordan decorated it, she will be joining us later, she had some problems at work and had to handle them before coming here.”

John shifts in his seats, “It’s been a long flight I was hoping to get set-up first before we had our official meeting.”

I turn and glare at him. He is being so rude. The mayor doesn’t seem to notice or at least pretends not to notice, “The apartment will not be ready till this afternoon, so I thought you both would like to have a nice lunch first and then I can show you where your office will be. By then the apartment should be ready.”

I garb John hand to silence him, “That is so sweet of you. So, your wife is joining us for lunch, I can’t wait to meet her.”

The mayor happily smiles back at me and starts directing the conversation to me instead of John. We talk about Border City and the different activities the city has to offer. A few minutes later, a lovely really pale woman walks into the office. Again, what I thought things would look like was not the case. She was beautiful, older, with brown eyes that were almost black. Her black hair was pulling into a graceful bun and they only reason I knew she was fae was her ears.

“I am so sorry, I am late. Work issues.” She bustles around the office and kisses her husband on cheek before turning towards us. “My name is Jordan, and you must be Amelia.”

She reaches her hand over her husband desk towards me. I stand and grab her hand. She has a firm handshake not like the society ladies I have been dealing with. It was refreshing. “Yes, it is nice to meet you Jordan and this is my husband, John.” I nod to john who is fake smiling up to her.

The mayor stands and wraps his arm around Jordan’s waist, “Well, now that you are here, dear, let’s head to lunch.”

John stand and clutches my hand so hard I think he may break something. “Yes, let’s” he states.

The restaurant is an expensive looking French bistro. We sit at a secluded table in the back. I look at the menu and see many items I would love to try. When the waitress approaches the table, I see she is not human. I am not sure what she is, she does not look fae. Her features are tiny, and her skin has a pink tint to it, and I swear I see small horns at her hairline. John is glaring at the young woman.

He clears his throat and states he is not really hungry. I smile at the young lady and ask for the fruit crapes and water. John turns towards me and grabs my hand, “Are you sure you are hungry, dear, we ate on the plane remember.”

I pull my hand free, “Remember DEAR, I did not eat much, so I am actually hungry.” I smile back at the mayor and his wife, and they start to order.

Lunch was a wonderful meal, except for John silent stares throughout the meal. The mayor and his wife kept up a lively conversation with me, talking about how they met and what there was to do for families in the city. Once lunch was over, we all stood and headed outside. Jordan links her arm with mine and states, “Why don’t we let the men head back to the office and I can show you around the city.”

John straightens and I can see he is about to protest. I lean up and kiss him on the cheek and state, “That would be perfect. You and Peter can start talking about what your roll is going to be here and I will not be in your way.”

He glares daggers at me but knows he cannot say anything without looking like a fool now. The mayor, Peter, claps him on the shoulder and states, “That’s a wonderful idea.”

Jordan turns us to walk towards the downtown area while John and the mayor turn back to the office building. When we are far enough away so the men can’t hear us, I state, “I am sorry about John, he does not take change well.”

She laughs, “As a politician I thought change was standard. It is okay, we are used to outsiders looking at us differently. He did not want to come here, did he?”

It was my turn to laugh, “No, this was the last place he wanted to be. He is afraid it will affect his re-election in 2 years.”

She nods, “I can see that. We are not popular with the rest of the country. “

“Is all of the magic side like this?” I ask waving my hand towards downtown.

“We have our bad and poor parts like any other country. But for the most part, yes. After the war against magic, we all banned together. You know there were humans who fought with us, so when it was over, we decided we would be a better country. We still get our squabbles over territory, but for the most part we live in peace. Border City is within the fae territory, we tend to like fancier things than say the dragon shifters. Their territory is more villages and small towns. They like big open spaces where they can fly and just be dragons.”

I giggle at that. I don’t know why I just got this vision of a large dragon sunning himself on the beach holding a fruity drink with an umbrella. Jorden looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

I shake my head, “sorry just got a silly image of a dragon.”

She laughs at that too, “Yes, it is sometime odd having a conversation with a dragon.”

“They talk as dragons” I squeak.

She really starts laughing at that. “Of course, they do.”

The rest of the afternoon is quite enjoyable. Jorden shows me where our apartment is located and where the best places to shop and which restaurants are almost completely human, so I had a few places to go with John. As we head back to the city office building, she asks, “What do you do for living?”

I am silent for a minute and then state, “Housewife. John does not want me to work.”

“Do you enjoy being a housewife?” she asks.

“Not really, but this is the life I signed up for.”

We continue in silence for a while. Before we reach the office, she stops and pulls a business card out of her purse. “If you decide you want a job, give me a call and I will see what I can set you up with.”

She hands me her business card and I look down at it. She is the VP of marketing for a company that I have seen in DC.

“You work here, I thought they were located in DC?” I ask.

She waves her hand and then links her arm with mine again. “They have offices all over the world. With a little magic I look human enough and I can visit them all, but I always come home where I can be myself.”

Being yourself sounded wonderful to me. I wish I had her confidence to do that. As we enter the building John and Peter are at the entrance actively discussing something. As we walk up Peter stops the conversation and turns to us, “Did you ladies have a good time.”

Jordan kisses her husband and states, “It was a beautiful day.”

John glares at me, “Jordan was kind enough to show me all the shopping areas and restaurants we may enjoy.”

John turns towards Peter, ignoring Jordan completely and thanks him for the afternoon. He grabs my hand turns towards the door. The black town car is waiting for us in front of the building. John pushes me inside the card and climbs in after. The drive to the apartment is silent. We get out of the car at the apartment building and turn to head up to the front door. John stops and turns to the driver, “I’ll be ready to leave by 7:30, don’t be late.” The driver tips his hat and head out.

I turn to john, “That was rude.” He just glares at me and grabs my arm and pulls me towards the building. Once inside the doorman directs us to the apartment. John pulls me inside and slams the door.

“I told you I didn’t want to be associating with that thing. And how dare you order food at that restaurant. You don’t know what they put in that food. It could turn you into one of them.” He turns away from me muttering, “I knew I should have left you at home, but no Mike said it would look better to have you with me. Happy front and all that.”

“You would have left me in DC by myself for 2 years?”

“It would be better than having you galivanting all over who know where with that thing. From now on you will not leave this apartment without me with you. I will not have you embarrassing me and ruining my prospects.”

“Embarrassing you? John I will not be held prisoner in this apartment.” I yell at him.

“You will do as I say.” He shouts back and turns and storms into the bedroom slamming the door.

I turn to the front door and see where our bags have been set inside the room. I could leave him right now, pick up my bag and head to the airport, go back to DC, divorce his ass and start over. The idea is so tempting I have pulled out my phone and I am scrolling for flight that leave tonight.

I am startle by a phone ringing. There is actually a landline phone in this apartment. I don’t think I have ever had an actual phone in anyplace I have lived. I pick up the phone and I hear Mr. Clark rough voice on the other end asking to speak to John.

I set the phone down and yell, “John, Mr. Clark is on the phone.”

He storms out of the room looking at me as if I am crazy. I point over to the phone and turn to walk into the kitchen. I am leaning on the counter, and I have progressed from looking at flights to searching for divorce attorneys. I am contemplating which one to call when I look up and see John in the doorway. He looked so dejected and miserable. I swear I can see a tear forming in his eye.

“Clark told me he just got off the phone with the mayor. He is mad and wants to have me come straight back to DC but is giving me a second chance to do my job, since the mayor said my wife was polite and lovely. He told me not to screw this up. If I did, he would make sure I cannot get elected to anything ever again. How am I going to do this, it’s going to ruin everything?”

He looks so sad; I walk up to him and hug him to me. He wraps his arms around and mutters into my hair, “I need you to help me.”

Ugh, of course and I am the sap who is rubbing his back and nodding. “We will get through this, I promise.” I was almost out of the door, almost done with this, but no the trained monkey has emerged again.