Honestly, everyone makes a mistake.

Mistakes make you human, right?

Of course, what if you’re a Pixie?

What does that make you then?

Course, was this a mistake? Maybe?

These were the thoughts that tormented Madelynn as she sat in her apartment the morning after meeting Damien. She had her extra blanket wrapped around her, and was staring at the man lying beside her. He literally took up her entire full-sized bed, a stark reminder that she really should upgrade to a queen.

He had his head turned away from her, and slept on his stomach, both arms stretched out along the pillows. When she had woken up, one of his arms had been draped over the top of her, and his large hand rested next to her head. It had taken some skill to squirm out from under him, only for him to put his arm right back in the spot.

His long hair had been left down, covering his shoulders, with some strands going to his waist. Even sleeping, his muscular body was perfectly sculpted. Harsh red lines covered his shoulders and back and when she realized they were scratches, from her nails, she felt her cheeks flush a deep red. Madelynn tore her eyes away from him, her heart thudding in her chest.

Still, she wasn’t a one-night stand kind of girl. Sure, she had had romance here and there, but who hadn’t? Though a romance was a stark difference to a naked strange man in her bed. She couldn’t even use being drunk as an excuse - she had only had two drinks the night before.

The pixie jumped, nearly leaving her skin as he grunted, rolling his head toward her now. Her hands were clutching the blanket so tight that her knuckles turned white, and she found herself pulling it to her chin.

Very dramatic, Maddie.

Taking a deep breath, she loosened her grip on the blanket. She had to assess this scenario like any rational person, and certainly freaking out next to him was not the answer.

Her eyes strayed away for a moment, before going back to him, drawn to his eyelashes. They were quite long, laying against his cheek like the fuzzy head of a dandelion. If she blew on them, would they blow away on the wind of her breath?

Madelynn realized she had been slowly leaning over him, and straightened immediately. Her hand had been so close to touching his cheek, to brushing her thumb along the underside of his eyes. And then what?

Would she…kiss him?

Her cheeks flushed once more as her lips felt hot, recalling a memory of another kiss. Not one of the kisses from the bedroom, though they were still fresh in her mind. But she had not been so drunk she remembered nothing from the night before. Her heart thudded, recalling their walk on the pier. The kisses under the streetlamp near her place. It felt so…so…

Cheesy, romance movie. Madelynn was not a romantic by any means, so the memory in broad daylight left her with a surreal feeling. One where she couldn’t believe it, and thus, it couldn’t possibly have felt so magical. Was it the whiskey talking?

Sliding out of the bed, Madelynn slipped her slippers on her feet. She left the blanket behind, and crossed the room toward the bathroom. As she walked, she reached down to pluck her robe from the floor and pull it on.

Pausing for a moment, her eyes roamed the messy room. The sudden urge to gather up the discarded clothes and at least make a neat pile welled up in her. But it passed as quickly as it appeared with a shrug of her shoulders. Instead, she slipped into the bathroom, closing the door softly behind her.

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The light flickered on with a little sszzztt, threatening to go back out immediately. She reached up to whack it with her hand, wings fluttering to lift her off the ground. It hissed at her, but finally knocked that nonsense off.

Glancing in the mirror, she let out a low groan. Her eyeliner and mascara had mingled, rubbing around her eyes this way and that, giving her a rather raccoon-like appearance. The deep red lipstick she wore was half on, smeared to one side and onto her cheeks and chin. Her foundation was nearly gone, the freckles she sported becoming visible. To top it off, her wispy afro of cotton-candy colored hair floated about her head in a halo. The type of halo that stuck up unevenly this way and that, like a bad trim job on a shrubbery.

In short - Madelynn Fisher was a mess.

She tilted her head, pulling the robe to one side to eye some of the hickeys that decorated her shoulder and neck. Her cheeks flushed anew as she remembered his lips on her body, searing his dominance into her very flesh.

Tugging the robe back close in a hurry, she shook her head with a shudder of pleasure at the reminder. Now was not the time to be focusing on the night before. She had a lot of work to do if she was going to become presentable.

Her eyes fell on her phone, still perched on the corner of her sink from the night before. She knew she had left it there, but the sight of it still sent her stomach plummeting to the floor. Her hands curled around the edges of the sink, breath coming in low gasps as the sudden wish for a hole to open up and swallow her washed over her.

Madelynn closed her eyes, willing the memory of the call to just go away. It could wait till Monday. Honestly, she shouldn’t have let her hopes get so high. The job wasn’t hers till Monday anyways, so losing it wasn’t the end of the world.

Right?

It was a lie, she knew it. But she had to tell herself it, or she would be driven mad with fury. Shaking her head, she turned toward the shower and turned the water on. Extra hot, as her body ached from the various positions she had tried throughout the night. That, and she figured if she were to start a new day, she had to scrub the old one raw.

For a moment, she hesitated, then she turned to her phone, flipping it on. There were numerous missed calls and texts, but honestly, she couldn’t handle it yet. Instead, she turned on one of her favorite streaming apps and started playing her favorite break-up songs.

As the music drifted into the room, she let her head lull to one side, and forced herself to relax. It was a new day. A new day, a new Madelynn. Turning to her shower, she discarded the robe in a heap on the off-white tile floor and climbed in.

The hot water felt amazing as it beat into her back, her wings pressing into her, and she let her head tip back. Madelynn enjoyed her showers hot and hard, finding it rather soothing on her muscles. As she showered, she couldn’t help raising her voice in song to join the music coming out of her phone, taking her sweet time.

When Maddelynn emerged from the shower, nearly forty minutes later, she was not surprised to find Damien gone. It was probably for the best, considering how they met. Still, she felt rather disappointed, which surprised her. They were, after all, virtually strangers.

She let the towel drop to the floor, joining the heaps of dirty clothes, and opened her closet to start searching for one of her favorite shirts. It did not take her long, and she took out a pale blue shirt with a giant puppy on the front that said Woof-astic in large, yellow bubble letters on the front. Pulling it on, she spun around the room, one of her favorite songs starting to play on her phone. She plucked her hairbrush from the floor, turning it into her microphone, as she lifted herself off the ground to start to sing into it excitedly.

Madelynn kept her eyes closed, letting the song wash over her as she moved back and forth. She, shamefully, knew all the cartography of the song, and employed it now in the air. Letting her voice rise, she lost herself in the sweet, sweet music that drew the image of her boss to the forefront.

“And I-iiii…Watched you fail~!” She belted the words out with such enthusiasm she did not notice the door open until she heard the low clap.

Feeling her breath rush out of her, Madelynn’s feet hit the floor with a thud as she clutched the shirt to cover her exposed nether regions. Her head snapped around to look at Damien standing in her doorway, a wide smirk spread across his face. For a moment, she debated if he had a punchable face or not.

“Breakfast is ready, Pink.” With that, he turned on his heel to stroll from the room, chuckling softly to himself. Madeylnn stared after him, then felt her blood pressure rise at the nickname he had called her.

Pink?!