“Aaliyah? Why are you here? Where’s Trix?” asked James in denial. He knew the truth already. At least, part of him did. He was panicking as he was doing his best to avoid the truth, but he wasn’t able to keep the truth from himself, even as his eyes darted around the room in search for Trix. Finally allowing himself to look at me again, he pleaded, “Aaliyah, please tell me what happened to Trix.”
I changed my form back to Trix briefly before returning to what he felt was normal and saying, “My full name is Aaliyah Trixibelle Sypher, boss-man, sir, and yes, I can change my appearance on whim.”
There was no need to give him the whole truth at the moment. He wasn’t ready for it and rarely put up with explanations he considered “too long”. As much as I enjoyed the days when he accepted more about me, I still enjoyed the days before as well. I watched them often.
“What? No. No… You can’t be.” he argued, falling back into his seat. He took a long drink, hoping I would be Trix again when his glass touched the table.
I wasn’t, but I assured him “Don’t worry, boss-man, sir. Everything’s fine.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Fine? Fine!? I was having the best day of my life, my first wonderful date. We even… well…”
The time we shared on the boat kept creeping into James’ conscious thoughts, despite his best attempts to avoid thinking about it. He started pacing as he accepted what had happened.
“Chad… What am I going to tell him? He’ll murder me! Forget losing you as a secretary, I’m going to be losing my life!” he exclaimed, picturing my daddy with a shotgun.
“Maybe he’ll make you marry me!” I teased with a grin.
James was annoyed, feeling I wasn’t taking things seriously. “Chad obviously doesn’t know where you are. He’s probably called the police if he’s noticed you missing! We really need to get in touch with him.” suggested James, pulling out his phone immediately.
I grabbed his phone from his hand and kissed his cheek in exchange, but James might as well have been frozen in time with how much he caught. Taking my seat again, I started to sing, so he could hear me.
James stared at his empty hand for a moment before looking to me. He felt confused why he was singing but didn’t even register how drowsy he suddenly felt as his stress slipped away.
I hopped down and caught him as he fell, enjoying how he pictured us in his drowsy state. Then I explained “Daddy doesn’t know that I can shapeshift, and he never will. Got it?”
James nodded, but he was trying to fight his drowsiness more than paying attention. Then he said, “But Aaliyah, I was treating you like…”
I interrupted him by placing my finger over his mouth and told him “Exactly as I would hope from a wonderful guy. I’ll explain if you’ll listen for a bit.”
James felt his thoughts clearing and tried to move my arm. Shocked that he couldn’t, he decided I was incredibly strong.
“First off, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that you finally gave me the right cake.” I told him, taking hold of one of his hands in both of mine.
“What does cake have to do with anything?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes and said, “EVERYTHING, boss-man, sir. I promised you answers for cake, and you finally gave the right one, birthday cake.”
He was about to argue when he realized that he did, in fact, serve me some of his birthday cake.
“Unlike most humans, you have magic, a unique wonderful magic that rarely popped up in all of human history.” I explained.
Again, he thought to argue with me before deciding against it. Instead, he settled for the premise that I knew everything, completely unaware of how true that was.
I continued, saying, “This power of yours allows you to absorb residual energy and involuntarily use it in numerous ways. Most important with regard to your dates is that you enchant everyone around you, forcing them to like you. How much they like you and how they treat people they like varies greatly, of course, but you’re stuck with people liking you. Basically, the more energy you absorb, the more people will like you, though there are honestly a bunch of variables involved.”
He thought for a while about what I just told him, not liking the idea, but he couldn’t deny that people always seemed attracted to him.
“In addition, you’re able to sense the truth of things, provided your body has enough energy. That is why you can tell Ai and Mai apart with such ease. Coincidentally, that’s also why you’re not still fighting about whether or not I’m Trix. You know it’s true. You knew it before I even told you, just not consciously.” I told him.
He considered the possibility, wondering if I could just be messing with his head. Then he said, “I’ll admit that I did feel exceptionally relaxed around Trix, er… you, before the revelation, but I never feel that I know the truth about anything.”
“Not my fault if you don’t always trust your gut.” I replied with a shrug.
I opened my mouth as if to speak, knowing he’d just interrupt.
“Wait a second.” he interjected. “How am I supposed to know who actually likes me, and who likes me because of this ability?”
I already told you that you know the truth, silly. Still, I smiled and said, “That’s the best part! They do actually like you. The more time someone spends with you, the more your power has affected them, the more you’re sincerely and legitimately liked from the bottom of their hearts.”
He pointed ignored his gut as he was determined to deny the truth. “Is there a way to stop it? As far as I know, I wouldn’t even have friends today if I didn’t force friendship on them.” he suggested, muttering by the end.
I gently patted his hand and explained “If you find a spot void of energy for you to absorb, your body will run out for a bit, but you’re worrying too much about this. You’re not doing anything horrible to people. They just like you. Now that you know what you’re doing, you can use your abilities to take over the world!”
He stared at me, shocked by the notion yet feeling the statement to be true. “I’d never want that!” he exclaimed.
Giggling, I said, “I know, but you could at least run for president. I guarantee you’d win votes everywhere you went!”
James was determined to tell Jarod and the others. He was certain they’d be upset. He felt for his parents, certain that he had affected them more than any other. Then he found himself wondering about his various punishments over the years, lost arguments, and general lack of dominion over them.
“Aaliyah, I can’t really think of my parents giving me any sort of special treatment. Father can be pretty harsh at times.” he admitted.
“Fair point! Are you convinced that you don’t steal away free will yet?” I asked while picking the crumbs from his plate.
“How can you still be hungry for cake?” he asked.
I grinned and inquired “Do you want some more!?”
He rolled his eyes and told me “NO, thank you. You really shouldn’t overeat. You know you’ll throw up.”
I made myself look guilty to him, an expression he still found cute.
“Well, I haven’t actually thrown up unintentionally for years.” I admitted, though I left out precisely how many. “I kinda did that to distract people when I needed to go kill some folk.” Well, that was one of the ways I originally would distract my daddy, back when I actually needed distraction. “Besides, if you had to be so many different people in the past couple weeks, you’d be hungry too!” Another distraction, but this was leading to a point.
“You purposefully threw up when we met!? You were killing someone? And who else were you recently?” he demanded, ignoring the truth he already knew.
I shrugged and said, “When people need assassinated, who ya gonna call?” I happily pointed to myself with my thumbs, which James found disturbing. “Aaaaand I may have been busy keeping my boss from regretting his dates.” I admitted with another shrug.
He didn’t like how the thoughts he tried ignoring were correct. “None of those girls were real?” he asked.
“Well, they’re all real girls. I just borrowed their identities, personalities, et cetera to let you experience dating them without you having to worry about hurt feelings and such for long. Surprise! You didn’t actually offend anyone!” I exclaimed, spreading my hands into the air to emphasize the surprise.
His mind staggered through the past dates, not quite wanting to touch some points while clinging to others. “Hold on. You’re the one who got me in a fight!?” he asked as I cut another slice of cake.
“Yes! Weren’t you amaaaazing!?” I exclaimed.
“Someone could have been seriously injured!” he protested, feeling himself grow angry.
He didn’t, however, acknowledge how silly that statement was when put to the world’s only assassin. Instead of pointing it out, I simply said, “I knew you wouldn’t hurt them badly. You’re a good person, boss-man, sir. Otherwise, I wouldn’t work for you.”
His anger left him.
He wasn’t ready to be aware that I’m also Death’s Daughter, Death, et cetera, et cetera. Protesting to me about the possibility of injury was hil-AR-ious! He would understand better in time. I watched his future self fighting. James didn’t like to fight, often drawing fights out to save his opponent severe injury. He’d be appalled to know how much fighting was in his future. He would fight for honor, he would fight to save lives, he would fight for freedom, but he’d never fight for glory. He was magnificent.
“What was the point of all this?” he asked.
“We’re getting through them, though you forgot the plural. ‘Points’, boss-man, sir. Life’s way too interesting to ever just have one point.” I assured him.
Realizing he was, in fact, hungry, he decided to have another slice of cake. He wanted something to keep his hands and mouth busy as his mind fought to fully assimilate our discussion. He didn’t realize there were more surprises coming soon.
Best Friend For Hire Reprise 