Love and Other Crisis | Season 1

Episode | 33

...foxes feel everything deeply, Ms. Barnes, so please be gentle when you let her down.

Kaliope stuck her tongue into her cheek and huffed out a breath. She stabbed at the button for the coffee dispenser in the CMT lounge and scoffed. Who was Ronin McIntyre to scold her about her social life? It wasn't like she wanted to hurt Inola's feelings. Kaliope scoffed, folding her arms in a huff.

The fox demon said Ronin wasn't close to anyone, but his tone definitely held an edge when he warned Kaliope. Was he harboring hidden feelings for the fox demon? They've been friends for years. He owned Inola. Not in a freakish way, but still. Kaliope narrowed her eyes as she picked up her coffee cup. How close were Ronin and Inola? She pressed her lips flat, images of the two together floating in her head.

Kaliope caught herself, perplexed. Why did the idea of their closeness bother her? It wasn't any of her business.

It wasn't like she had feelings for the insufferable man. He was her boss. A constant pain in her ass. But the burning sensation in her gut at the idea of the fox and the wolf was undeniable. Maybe he cast a spell on her that night in the ward. It would explain her reaction to his scent. Or perhaps she'd been single so long her rusty wiring glitched. She'd accept any explanation, magical or otherwise, before entertaining the possibility of attraction.

Distracted, Kaliope burned her tongue with her scorching hot coffee. She responded with a string of curses, earning the gasps of the other workers in the lounge. She ducked out after muttering an apology.

Kaliope considered herself relatively sociable. She, however, understood why an outsider like Ronin might assume she was otherwise. She had no friends and hadn't used her social muscles for so long that they atrophied. It wasn't entirely by choice. Kaliope was always an odd end everywhere she went, unable to blend in with accepted norms.

Her stubborn resolve. Her temper. And her face's inability to use its indoor voice. Together they formed the cursed trifecta of doom, where her social and romantic life died swift deaths. Kaliope recognized the trifecta's effect and her inability to affect real change because of her innate rebelliousness, so she gave up trying at some point. Living the life of a loner thrust upon her. A wolf without a pack. Hanging out with Tobias...

Kaliope halted in her tracks.

...foxes feel everything deeply...

Kaliope abandoned her arm's length policy with Tobias days ago because she grew comfortable with his companionship. He no longer flirted with her, so Kaliope assumed he'd recognized and accepted the nature of their relationship. Her unspoken boundaries. In her selfish desire for company, she hadn't considered he might misinterpret her spending more time with him as her warming up to his advances. She groaned, slapping a hand over her face. Had she feigned ignorance to shamelessly get what she wanted?

Dammit, Kaliope.

She'd have to clarify their relationship was firmly planted in the friend zone. Perhaps he'll accept it. There could be friction. But her conscience would rest easy. She hoped nothing changed.

Kaliope sighed.

You really are the worst.

Callously using others was her mother's M.O., not hers. Not anymore. For Kaliope to slip back into bad habits...She shook off the notion. No. She wasn't manipulating Tobias. She genuinely wanted to be his friend. But what were friendships without strings or expectations? When one party took and never gave?

~~

Second Year - Elk Ridge University

"Tch. Like I care what they think. My father told me not fitting in was a virtue. That I didn't belong everywhere."