Winter Warmers - Dec 2020 Writing Competition

Story One

'The Reading Nook'

By M.A. Freeman

M.A. Freeman is a writer who loves to read. As a student of many things, she enjoys going to school, researching anything that catches her fancy, and exploring the world one trip at a time.

That was an unfortunate color. Orion squinted and tried to figure out why anyone would choose that particular shade of baby poop green for furniture? Maybe not baby poop, but it was definitely a bodily fluid shade that should never, ever be used for the masses. "It's so comfy! You've got to try this!"

And there was Seif, a djinn several thousand years old, rolling around on those overstuffed vomit colored cushions. Orion glanced around the consignment shop and winced. The owner was giving them the stink eye. Not to mention the pure hostility coming from somewhere at the back of the store.

"I don't think it's the right...fit. Not for the reading nook." Orion frowned as the animosity strengthened. "What about that couch over there? The navy one?"

Seif's face fell and Orion felt his heart clench at that expression. Even though he knew Seif was just playing him, and even though he hated that couch with a fiery passion, Orion knew it was as good as paid for. Shit. Now he was going to have to stare at that ugly sofa every day in the shop.

"You'll love it. You'll see." Seif bounded over to a couple of mismatched armchairs that weren't quite as ugly but had the same over-stuffiness the couch had. "These too." How did this happen? Orion had been to Seif's cala, his lamp for want of a better word. Had seen the wonders he had done inside his own space. Of course, when you had the ability to warp reality in that space, anything was possible. Huh, maybe he could convince Seif to do a few alterations.

"Alright. I did say you could redecorate the reading nook." Something Orion regretted now. "Anything else while we're here?"

Seriously, who was back there? Orion turned towards the back of the store and glared. Whoever it was had a powerful dislike for him. Or maybe for him and Seif together. They had come into the store holding hands after all. Some people took offense to such things.

Instantly there was warmth on his lower back. Seif ran just a bit hotter than any human. "What is it, zehbia vahida?"

Orion couldn't help the little thrill when Seif called him golden one in Arabic. It told him so many things, that Seif valued him and that he found his golden hair and sunkissed skin attractive. Granted Seif was a djinn of the Shiqq tribe and they valued such things. Avarice was their burden to bear, after all. And what could be sexier than someone coveting you?

"Nothing to worry about. Remember, today is just a day for shopping." God forbid anyone chose to make an issue out of their togetherness. Djinn could be extremely dangerous

and irrational. Like, turn you inside out, irrational and dangerous. "Let's make arrangements for your sofa and chairs?"

They wandered over to the owner, Mrs Jensen, who had known him since he was a small child visiting his grandparents. Seif tensed at her glare, but that was her normal so Orion gave a slight shake of his head. "Hi Mrs. Jensen. We'd like to take the green sofa and the paisley and pinstriped arm chairs over there."

"Heard about the ruckus at your shop? Folks being murdered and you neck deep in trouble. Your poor grandparents are probably turning over in their grave." Mrs. Jensen opened the large, hardback book on the checkout counter and began to read the columns and columns of entries and prices. "Where did your strapping young man come from? He looks foreign."

And that was why Orion loved Mrs. Jensen even if she was a crotchety old lady and took shit from no one. He never had to wonder where she stood because she let you know. Very curtly and more often than not very loudly. It was funny that she was more concerned how his grandparents would have taken a murder in the shop versus the fact that he was in essence shacked up with another man. "Yes, ma'am. He's from Egypt."

Mrs. Jensen eyed Seif with a certain twinkle in her eye as she began to type out the costs of the sofa and chairs on a calculator. "He any good in bed? I had me a foreign fellow once, and he could do things that would make my toes curl."

Orion knew his face was beet red. And if the ground would open up and swallow him whole, it would be much appreciated at that moment. Yet, Seif just grinned. "I've had no complaints. Did you ever complain about your foreign lover?" Oh god, really? This was the one human that Seif would engage with? He usually just observed and did not interact. However, Mrs. Jensen was smiling now. Granted it was sly and knowing and didn't that just freak him out.

"Not in the bedroom department." She pulled out a receipt book and pinned Seif with a pointed look. "You take care of our little sensitive here, won't you? Don't let him become moldy and boring like the books he loves so much. That'll be eight hundred sixty five dollars and twenty nine cents."

Good thing he had raided the petty cash before he left the bookstore. Orion pulled out the wad of cash he had taken in preparation because he knew Mrs. Jensen hated the credit card machine with an irrationality that bordered on insanity. While she wrote out the receipt, Seif watched the entire thing with interest. Money, especially paper money, confused him to no end.

"There you go. I'll have the boys deliver it today if it suits you. Nice to meet you, foreigner. Don't be a stranger. Orion, come to me if there's any more trouble, you hear?" Mrs. Jensen snapped her fingers to the back of her shop and two of her grandsons appeared, but neither of them were the source of the animosity. Orion decided that would be a battle for another day. To be honest he was surprised Seif wasn't all over it, he was scary attuned to his moods.

"Yes, ma'am." Orion grabbed Seif's hand and tugged him towards the exit. They still had so much to do and those boxes of christmas decorations weren't going to put themselves up. Wait, could they? He still hadn't made much headway into all that Seif was capable of as a djinn. "Come on, Seif. We gotta clean that area and move those boxes."

They exited the shop and the blast of cold, ocean air and swirling snow had Orion questioning his decision to actually live here as opposed to selling the building and moving somewhere warmer. Seif just blinked in surprise like he always did when confronted with the cold. Cold that didn't bother him in the slightest as djinn were created from smokeless fire and scorching sands.

When they got back to the bookstore, Orion immediately moved to the reading nook and began to clear the space. The christmas boxes went into the aisle of bookshelves. Seif waved a hand and all the dust and dirt on the floor swirled up and disappeared into the fireplace. Orion immediately looked out the window to see if anyone had noticed but Mrs. Jensen's grandsons were too busy carrying the sofa down the slippery sidewalk. He rushed to the door to hold it open for them, somewhat expecting it. Mrs. Jensen ruled her family with an iron fist and they knew to jump when she said.

Seif directed them to place the sofa, not flush with the window as the previous one had been, but across from the fireplace instead of kind of catty corner to the window. When they returned Orion just stood back and watched as Seif directed them to place the chairs under the window, but angled so that they were semi-facing each other. Once Mrs. Jensen's grandsons were gone, Orion locked the door and when he returned there was now an end table between the arm chairs and a matching coffee table before the sofa. And, was that a new Persian rug?

This nesting thing was getting out of control. Orion wandered over to the sofa and laughed when Seif tackled him. They both landed on the sofa and he finally understood why Seif had insisted on it even if it was the nastiest color ever. It was like laying on a cloud. Seif leaned down and brushed his lips along his jawline.

"Zehbia vahida, now that the reading nook is finished, can you explain something to me?"

Nips along his neck had Orion thinking they needed to move to the apartment upstairs. Or even better, into Seif's cala which was on the top of a bookshelf not five feet away. Orion didn't even care that they were in full view on anyone that cared to peep in the window, not when he had Seif's undivided attention and he was doing that thing with his lips to the hot spot behind his ear.

"What's Christmas?"