“Hey.”

Ruby raised her hand in a lazy wave. The man behind the counter turned his eyes back to his laptop once he recognized her.

“Hey yourself,” he said. “How was class?" 

“It was good,” she replied.

He seemed to prefer focusing on his laptop, rather than bothering to respond to what he knew had been an automatic reply.

But her claims to a good day hadn’t necessarily untrue. The bus hadn’t been crowded on the way to or from school and she’d managed get a good night of sleep the day before, which meant that she could nurse her thermos of coffee throughout the entire day, instead of having to chug it all down in the morning. Sometimes it was necessary, and she’d have to endure the jitters for the next few hours or so, but not today.

“Scuse me,” she said to no one in particular, pressing herself against a tall cardboard box so she could squeeze herself behind the counter. After the fact, she realized that she could have taken off her bag to make the task easier. She brushed the thought aside before walking through an open door that led to the back.

“Oh Ruby,” Max called out. “Don’t open the storage, alright? Or if you do, be careful about it. It’s getting pretty full, so stuff might just start spilling out if you open it too fast.”

The news surprised her. Storage had never been full before. What was so special about today?

“All my shipments just happened to come in at the same time today, and I really couldn’t be assed to play tetris with everything in there. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Ruby felt a dull pulse of irritation run through her, but before she could yell out at him, Max continued.

“No, I didn’t read your mind, Ruby. I’m just explaining myself. And no I didn’t do it there either, I’m just guessing.”

Ruby let out a sigh of relief. It would’ve been terrible if Max learned that she had been diagnosed with cancer in such a terrible way. She waited for a few seconds until she was satisfied that Max hadn’t reacted to that thought in any way.

Shaking her head, she took off her jacket and gloves, tossing them carelessly into her locker alongside her bag. She spared a brief glance to the locker beside hers, but she decided not to peek. Max would probably make her help out with cleaning the storage anyways. Her curiosity could be sated later If it really was as full as he said, she didn’t want to risk disturbing anything.

When she stepped out of the back, she saw Max looking at her from his laptop. For some reason he was wearing a small grin on his face.

“I found something that-“

“Max, I was diagnosed with cancer just this morning.”

Max’s face didn’t change much in expression, at least if you didn’t look too carefully. His mouth was still in a slight grin, caught halfway to forming a word, but the way that his eyes widened in terror and the colour instantly flushed from his face made her feel genuinely sorry for him.

“Just kidding,” she said. “It’s actually scurvy. The doctor says I just have to eat more oranges and to stop my life of piracy.” When Max didn’t reply for a few more seconds, she added, with an impression of a very guilty pirate, “Yar, matey.”

After a few seconds, Max sighed. “Ruby,” he said, letting himself trail off in that disappointed way that only a parent could.

“I’m sorry,” Ruby offered sheepishly. “You put the thought of you reading my mind in my head, and I just wanted to check somehow.”

“And you decided that the best way to do that would be to trick me into thinking you were dying,” he said, in less of a question and more of a statement.

“Well, it worked. If you had read my mind when you were thinking that, you wouldn’t have been so surprised,” Ruby said, still not completely free from the guilt, even with what seemed like a perfectly sound explanation. She shrugged. “It was the first thing I could think of. Sorry, I panicked. And you did scare me.”

“Dammit Ruby. You should trust me on shit like this,” his voice trailed off, though it only took him a second to continue. “Plus, I wouldn’t do something like peeking at your mind, couldn’t do it, in fact. Not possible.”

From the slight way that the corners of his lips twitched upwards, threatening to break into a grin, she let herself feel a slight sense of relief to see that Max hadn’t been damaged too much by her little lie. But why was he suddenly smiling? “Oh why is that?” she asked, somewhat cautiously.

“Well, you signed the contract too, didn’t you?” he asked. He seemed a bit too obvious in the fact that he was leading up to something, but Ruby sighed and decided she would play along, if only to make it up to him.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, almost woodenly. Max didn’t seem to notice.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Well, the contract says that we cannot use any magic with the intent of harming or negatively affecting the other,” he said. With a lazy flick of his wrist, a small manila folder appeared in his hand. It looked almost like a common parlour trick, albeit an expertly executed one, but even though she knew it was genuine magic, she’d become accustomed enough to the sight that she could spare her focus on something else.

“Wait, did I sign that part of the contract too?” she asked.

“Well, that’s not the point, but- wait, you don’t remember the clauses?”

“Well, I remember most of it,” she said, leaning back against the wall and listing on her fingers. “Pay rate, Terms of employment, agreement to secrecy, yada yada. All that usual shit. Minus the secrecy thing, of course.”

Max stared blankly at her for a few seconds before sheepishly opening the manila folder and sifting through the pages.

“Huh. Well, what do you know. Seems like you’re right,” he grumbled, closing the folder and pushing it onto the counter in front of him. “Well, that’ll have to change soon.”

“Why would you even make me sign something like that anyways?” Ruby retorted.

Max looked at her like it was the strangest thing that could have come from her mouth. “So I can fire you if you ever assault me?” he asked incredulously.

Ruby easily mirrored Max’s expression. “First, why would I ever do that? Second, I can’t even use magic.”

“First, you’re a hooligan. Of all the people I know, you’re the only one who’s ever so crassly attempted to blow me up so casually.”

“When are you going to shut up about that? It was an accident.”

“And second,” he continued, ignoring Ruby’s protest. “That might change soon.”

Ruby’s eyes narrowed. “Is this some sort of prank?” she asked.

From the genuine look of confusion on Max’s face, it seemed like he had no idea what she was referring to. “I have no idea what you’re referring to.” Well, that was enough confirmation for her, but Ruby couldn’t shake her suspicions.

“You seemed like you were trying to get back at me for lying to you about the cancer thing.”

It took a few seconds for Max to react, letting out a sigh and hanging his head down. He smacked the table with his open palm a few times, making the laptop and the various baubles atop his counter rattle slightly, though he hadn't struck down hard enough to actually put anything in danger of falling. That didn't stop Ruby from eyeing the glass vials with suspicion. The bottoms were round to the point where it was surprising that they hadn't fallen over yet, with or without any countertop violence shaking them around. They stayed still.

"No," he said, glumly. "I was going to do something else, but you distracted me."

"You know you can still get me back with this, right?" Ruby asked. "Don't worry, I'm having a hard time believing that I'll be learning magic anyways. It would be pretty simple to just say you were joking, crushing my hopes and dreams of becoming a fairy princess." She liked to believe that she delivered the line pretty casually, hiding the fact that she would be seriously disappointed if that turned out to be true, though being a fairy princess didn't play any part in the equation.

Max sighed and shrugged. "Nah, I'm too nice of a person to do something like that, unlike some people." He turned the screen of his laptop towards her, showing off something that she didn't notice in her focused analysis of Max's face for any hint of a lie. "I've managed to get you a starter wand."

Ruby's felt her heart pounding against the walls of her chest. "Really?" she managed to ask.

Finally, the irritation on Max's face melted away, as it always did so easily, and was quickly replaced by a smile. "Yay!" he said softly, awkwardly pumping a slow fist into the air.

"Uhh," Ruby groaned, trying to hide the fact that she was more excited than she had ever been in her life. She thought she sold it pretty well, aside from the fact that she could feel that stupid grin on her face. "Why do you have to be lame about it."

When Max laughed in that hearty way, the one that reminded her that, despite the way he acted and looked, he was much much older than her. From the way that her lighter laughter mixed with his, it reminded her of how young she was.

When their laughter faded, Ruby smiled as sweetly as she could. "So, where is it?" She felt like a young girl trying to find the hidden location of her Christmas presents.

Playing the part of the parents who would never deny their little girl so directly, Max said, "All in good time, Ruby." All that was missing was the tousling of hair that would have completed the image perfectly. "But for now, you'll need to help me clean up the storage. It's a real mess in there."

"Wow you really are trying to get back at me aren't you? Bringing up something so exciting and then immediately sending me off to do some other boring shit."

"Well, it's more like it came up naturally in conversation, but I like that. Now go. What do I even pay you for?"

"I'm the new face of the shop," Ruby said, as she retreated back to the lockers. "Now that your customers have seen me, there's no way they'll be happy to see your boring face anymore."

"I'm often told I'm quite handsome. Plus you haven't met all of the regulars yet."

"Then I'm here for security. Don't worry Max. I'll fight off any unsavoury customers for you, just as long as I get danger pay." Ruby reached into the regular storage closet, rummaging around for a set of thick rubber gloves and an apron.

"What do you do about the unsavoury employees?" Max yelled.

"Well, I'd kick them out, but I don't think I have the authority to fire you." Now fully equipped to take on the world, with her pink rubber gloves and a flowery apron Ruby had brought from her own house, she walked over to the storage, unlocked the locker door, and pressed her entire weight against it, bracing against the weight of several magical items that had apparently been stuffed in. Surprisingly, she barely felt anything. She gingerly opened the locker door to see that it wasn't nearly as bad as she'd expected, though admittedly the large storage room within the locker did seem to be more full than usual. "Hey Max. This isn't nearly as much of a mess as I expected. Good job."

"Why does it feel like you're-" At the light tinkling of the door chime, Max cut himself off immediately. "Welcome to Magic Shop. How can I help you?"

"You can start by making a better name for your stupid store, Max. Every single time I see that stupid sign it gives me a headache."

Ruby noted the voice. She recognized who it was, though she couldn't recall a name and she couldn't remember the voice itself, just the fact that she had heard those exact same words said in the exact same way from a customer before, though admittedly, she wouldn't be surprised to find out if multiple customers voiced the exact same complaint. It was a stupid name.

Not wanting to interrupt business and with a job to do, she stepped into storage, closing the locker door gently behind her.