The Genie's Heartwish, page 21
“What are we going to do?” she asked, just above a whisper. “I mean, when you have to...”
“Shhh,” he coaxed, smoothing her hair again, making her feel safe, loved and protected. “Rather than fixating on when we must part, we will create happy memories to last dozens of lifetimes.” He held her at arm’s length, smiling down at her. “Yes?”
“Yes.” She nodded, grabbing a tissue and wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“Now no more tears. First we will watch TV together to learn about what miraculous products we must add to your market list. Then we will have dinner. After, you will rest and sleep while I watch over you. I will read your tiny handheld library until I fall into slumber myself.”
“That sounds heavenly.” Supremely happy, Laila yawned. “I do need to get some sleep because I have to be at work at—” She groaned. “Oh hell, I forgot all about work.” She studied Zak’s face as her thoughts raced. “If I leave you here alone tomorrow, do you promise you won’t get into any trouble?”
“You disparage me with your unfounded fears,” Zak scoffed, his pride wounded. “I, Zakkar Tymon, am a grown man. A leader of armies. I can care for myself without incident.”
Laila didn’t want to contemplate what could conceivably happen. “You can’t leave the house. You can watch TV and use the computer until I get home. There’s plenty of food in the house, so that’s no problem.”
“Are there more of your scones?” His eyebrow lifted.
“I’ll bake up another batch tonight, just for you.”
“Excellent. Why must you go to this job? Once your wishes are granted you will not need hostile Bunny Turner or her business. You will own your own successful company.”
A thrill jetted through her at the thought. “I need to go through my office before I resign to gather all the special materials and recipes I created so I can take them home. Otherwise Bunny will confiscate them and use my ideas as her own. I need to get my things out of there before anyone finds out I’m quitting.”
“I see.”
“And I want to say goodbye to my clients. They’re wonderful people who depend on me, who trust me. I don’t want to just disappear from their lives without an explanation.” She frowned at the painful twinge deep inside. “It’s going to be tough leaving them. It’ll be hard for them too. Like I’m abandoning them.”
“Why not invite them to become customers at The Great Pretender?”
Laila smiled as the name of her future company spilled from his lips. “You remembered the name.”
He clapped his chest, looking solemn. “I would never forget something of such great importance to you, Laila.”
She sent up a silent prayer of thanks for this wonderful man. “You certainly are a keeper, Zak. One in a million.”
He nodded in agreement. “Indeed I am.”
“And don’t forget modest.” She tugged his head down to plant a kiss on his chin. “I’ll explain to my clients that I’m leaving to open my own bake shop. I have to be careful. I don’t want Bunny thinking I’m trying to harvest her clients so they’ll purchase my baked goods instead of TBT’s. That would be unethical.”
“TBT will be losing an honorable counselor.”
“Thanks. I’ll turn in my resignation at the end of the day, giving a two-week notice. From past experience when others left the company, they’ll probably tell me to leave right away. Then they’ll have someone watch over me to make sure I don’t take any company property with me.”
“They are mistrustful.” Zak nodded with understanding.
“Tomorrow when I get home I’ll make the first two of my wishes.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “You’re positive they’ll come true once I make them? There won’t be any glitches?”
“No doubt whatsoever.” He smoothed his thumb along her bottom lip before pressing a sweet kiss there.
Chapter Eighteen
~<>~
MONDAY STARTED on a high note as Laila woke to the alluring aroma of fresh coffee, bacon, eggs and toast. Zak had prepared breakfast all by himself, which tickled her. His face alight with pride, he sat across from her.
“No eggs and bacon for you?” Laila asked.
“I already ate some scones. They were delicious.”
“Wonderful. Did you cover the rest back up so they stay fresh?” Laila looked around the kitchen for the platter.
“No need. I finished them.”
“All twelve?” Even she didn’t have an appetite that big.
“Sorry, I could not help myself.” He offered a sheepish grin along with his shrug.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” She gave him a smile, letting him know it was all right. “I’m glad you enjoyed them so much. Next time I’ll make two dozen.” She sipped from her coffee and her eyes went wide when she got a mouthful of grounds.
So what if the coffee was full of grounds because he’d forgotten to put in the filter? Who cared if the bacon was black, the eggs like rubber and the toast charred beyond recognition?
It was the caring gesture of the man who loved her and she cherished it.
“Are you enjoying the breakfast I made for you?”
“Oh...yes...very much. Everything is delicious, Zak. Thank you.” She nibbled a burnt strip of bacon.
Sampling some of the food he’d cooked from her plate, Zak’s eyes bugged. He took a sip of his coffee to wash it down. Horrorstruck, he whisked her cup and plate away, apologizing and insisting she mustn’t eat the badly singed breakfast offering or muddy coffee.
She did her best to convince him how much she appreciated the gesture and that it’s the thought that counts.
“I’ve got a nervous stomach about today anyway, so I didn’t have much of an appetite,” she told him truthfully.
Turned out she was right to be nervous.
Bunny was caustic and demeaning as both Laila and Reen tendered their resignations. Walking to their cars with their administrative-staff-inspected boxes of personal belongings, Reen paused, beaming the happiest ear to ear grin. “Have I told you how excited I am about working with you at The Great Pretender?”
“Only fifty times in the last five minutes,” Laila teased. “I’m nervous, Reen,” she admitted. “What if it doesn’t work? What if there’s a malfunction in the wishing mechanism? You’d be left without a job and I’d feel terrible.”
Reen thought about it briefly. “Don’t worry. If anything happens we’ll find other jobs.” With her arm clasped tight around Laila’s shoulder, she confided, “Drake’s been doing some archaeological detective work, trying to find a way to get Zak out of this hellish mess.”
Laila’s heart leapt. “That’s wonderful! Any luck so far?”
“No, it’s all been dead ends, but Drake’s determined.” She gave her sister a solid buddy squeeze. “Let’s get back to your place so you can make your wishes.”
Laila rested her head against Reen’s, hugging her. “I just hope Bekka House is still standing. I’ve been biting my nails over leaving Zak alone there all morning.”
A short while later, both cars pulled into Laila’s driveway. She carried the box of the class materials she’d created, while Reen scooped up Laila’s other box packed under the watchful eyes of TBT staff.
“No fire trucks or ambulances,” Reen quipped. “And I don’t smell smoke.”
A quick scan had Laila breathing easy. “Looks like the place is intact. I don’t know why I was worried. After all, he is an adult. What could happen?” She put her key in the door and opened it.
Laila and Reen stepped into the living room just in time to see Zak fly across the room backward, howling a noise Laila couldn’t mimic if she tried. His hair was standing on end, like an ebony halo around his head.
“Holy shit! Zak!” Gaping, Laila dropped her box, letting it crash to the floor.
“Son of a bitch!” Reen shouted, letting go of the box she carried too.
Before either of them finished their astounded shrieks, Zak’s body flew past them, crashing head first through the living room’s picture window behind the couch.
“Oh my God!” Laila screamed as she scrambled out the front door to find Zak sprawled on the grass, spread eagle, bug-eyed, mouth open in a silent scream and huge shards of glass surrounding him. “Zak! Zakkar!”
“Oh, Laila, look at him.” Reen squatted alongside Laila. “I-I think he’s dead. His eyes are wide open but they’re fixed in a lifeless stare.” She gasped. “What the hell?! His body’s smoking!” Looking up at Laila, she clarified, “And I don’t mean in a sexy way.”
“No! He said he can’t die.” Laila grabbed Zak’s wrist to feel for a pulse. “Zak, look at me. Speak to me!” She turned to Reen, frantic. “I can’t feel a pulse.”
“I don’t think he’s breathing,” Reen said, her hand just beneath his nose.
Laila sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh Reen, what are we going to do?”
“We need to call an ambulance. What the hell happened? How the hell could he just fly across the room like that?”
“I have no idea. Zakkar Tymon, listen to me.” Laila held his hand in hers, slapping it. She was afraid to jostle any other part of him in case she made his injuries worse. “This is the voice of your possessor, Zakkar. I am Laila Jane Malone, your master, your owner, and I command you to breathe. Breathe, dammit! BREATHE! That’s a direct order!”
Just as Reen was about to punch in 911, Zak’s chest expanded with a mighty whoosh and his lungs filled with air.
“He’s alive!” A warm gush of tears flowed down Laila’s cheeks. “Oh, Zak, you’re alive!”
Reen placed her hand over his forehead. “He might be alive but he looks like death warmed over.”
“Say something, Zak,” Laila urged. “Tell me what happened. Are you terribly hurt?” Zak mumbled something. “Did you hear what he said, Reen?”
“No. He sounds like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz when he was trying to say oil can.” She slanted Laila a questioning look. “Do you think he’s trying to ask for an oil can?”
“He’s a flesh and blood genie, not a tin man.” Laila tsked. “Come on, Zak,” she urged. “Talk. Tell me what I should do.”
Zak blinked. His eyeballs sort of jiggled, but he just kept staring straight up.
“Electricity,” he said barely loud enough for them to hear.
“Holy shit, that’s it,” Reen said. “He electrocuted himself. That’s why his hair was sticking straight out when he sailed past us.”
“Holy shit,” Zak attempted to repeat, his eyebrows squeezing together. “What is godly excrement?” He tried to lift his head but it fell back to the grass. “For eight hundred please, Alex.” His eyelids fluttered closed again as if he’d passed out.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Reen asked.
Laila shrugged. “I have no idea. He must be delirious.” She shook him gently. “Zak...are you okay?”
“Electrocution.” His statement caught Laila off guard and she gasped as Zak’s eyes popped open again, his eyeballs still jiggling as he attempted to focus on her. “What is capital punishment?”
Oh her poor handsome, wonderful genie. His brain was scrambled from whatever he’d done to himself.
“I suppose a powerful enough electrical shock could propel him through the air like that,” she said to Reen. “I saw it on a science show once. Zak, is that what happened? Did you get an electric—”
“Silver paper.” He turned his head with agonizing slowness, looking at the two women kneeling at his side. “Foil. I make experiment.”
For the first time, Laila noticed the two-inch wide cuffs of aluminum foil coiled around each of his bare arms above the elbow and again at the wrist, as well as another pair around his ankles.
“What on earth did you do?”
“Examination of electrical outlet to see how it works. Metal foil made big shock.”
“Typical man.” Reen shook her head back and forth. “They’re all a bunch of overgrown kids.”
Sitting back on her heels, Laila growled in frustration. “Didn’t I tell you not to get into any trouble while I was gone? Dammit, Zak, you could have killed yourself.” She trembled from combined fear, relief and anger.
“No.” He uttered a whisper of a chuckle, then winced. “Cannot die. Only feels like dying.”
“Are you in a lot of pain?” Reen asked.
“Plenty.”
The damn fool laughed again and pain engraved itself across his features.
“Now I understand meaning of conducting electricity,” he said, his power of speech not yet back to normal. “Googled to learn about it.”
Reen gave Laila a cockeyed look. “Did he say he Googled?”
“I showed him how.” Laila gave a helpless shrug. “How was I supposed to know he’d do something stupid and practically fry himself?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m very angry with you right now, Zakkar. The only thing keeping me from wringing your neck is the fact that you’re in so much pain. I hope you learned a lesson from this.”
“Learn you are pretty when angry.” He gave her a loopy smile.
She couldn’t help but smile in return. Then she leaned over him and kissed the corner of his mouth.
“Ow.” He winced.
“Oh...” Her fingers flew to her lips. “I’m sorry.”
“Not to worry, little one. I heal soon.”
“Ohmigosh...” Laila’s head bobbed to attention, turning left and right. “Where’s Friday? Is he okay?”
“Friday okay, but he did not like experiments. Prefer to hide behind couch with bone.”
“That’s because you scared the bejeezus out of the poor dog,” Reen noted with a snicker.
“What’s all the ruckus?”
Laila looked up to see Mrs. Willoughby inching her way up the sidewalk with her walker.
“Ooh, Lord a’mighty. Is that poor boy okay?”
“Yes, Mrs. Willoughby,” Laila answered. “He’s...uh, he’s the electrician I hired to fix an electrical problem. There was an accident, but he’s just fine now.”
“Electrician, hmm? Guess they’re workin’ bare-chested and sleepin’ over to get the job done nowadays.” Her wrinkled old face cracked a smile and she winked. “I may be old but I’ve still got eyes.” Leaning closer, she spoke to Laila in a conspirator’s tone, “Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m not judging. I was young once too.” She punctuated her sentence with another wink.
Laila could have died.
“Wow, you just turned twelve shades of pink, Laila,” Reen helpfully observed.
“Thank you, Maureen.”
“Your electrician,” Mrs. Willoughby said the word with a roll of her yes, “seems accident prone. Flew right out the window, then down to the grass. Boom!” She elucidated with a sharp thwack of her walker against the concrete walk. “I was out front watering my rhododendrons and saw the whole thing. Thought he killed himself for sure.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Willoughby,” Laila said. “He’s going to be fine.”
“Anything I can do for the poor boy?” the old woman asked, her eyes roving over Zak’s spread, half-naked body. “Like maybe some mouth-to-mouth?” She snickered. “It’s been a while, but I think I could get the hang of it again.”
“Why, Mrs. Willoughby!” Reen gushed laughter.
Clearing her throat, Laila smiled, doing her best not to give in to rising laughter. “No thanks, Mrs. Willoughby. Everything’s under control.”
“Electrician. Hah!” the old woman noted, toddling off with a clack-thump, clack thump as her walker connected with the ground. “Electricians never looked like that in my day.”
“You never told me Mrs. Willoughby’s a dirty old lady,” Reen whispered, still laughing.
Laila grinned as she watched the old woman hobble back to her house, her step more spry than she’d seen it before. “I never had a clue.”
Zak suddenly sat up. “I am better now.”
Laila was shocked when she saw his back. “You’re bleeding!” She carefully plucked small jagged shards of glass from his skin. “This is awful.” She winced as she studied his torn back.
“He’s bleeding profusely,” Reen noted. “He needs to go to the emergency room.”
“Come on, Zak,” Laila said. “We need to get you into the car so we can get you to the hospital.” She and Reen did their best to brace him so they could help him to his feet.
“No need. It will go away soon,” Zak insisted, gently pushing them away. “It is only temporary agony. Did you know there are more ways than just a simple switch to turn on your coffeemaker?”
Still dazed by what had happened, Laila breathed a monumental sigh. “Oh good grief. Zak, what have you done?”
“By touching the correct wires together, I—”
Reen barked a laugh. “He probably blew up your coffeepot.”
Shaking an outstretched finger at Reen, he smiled. “You make many jokes,” he charged. “No, I did not blow up the coffeepot, I only took it apart to learn how it works. Then I made improvements.”
“Aw jeez...” Laila’s shoulders slumped. “I’m afraid to ask what else you did.”
“Do not be afraid to ask. I have all the answers about the many excellent modifications I have made to improve your entire household, Laila.” Zak beamed a grin and she groaned. “I have many other excellent ideas for modernizing Bekka House as well.”
“Holy smokes. Look, Laila,” an astonished Reen cried, waving a finger at his back. “The glass is falling off and the cuts are healing. They’re just disappearing. He’s not bleeding anymore. How the holy hell is that possible?”
“Holy smokes, holy cow, holy mackerel, holy Moses, holy Toledo, holy moly,” Zak rattled off. An eyebrow arched, he scratched his head. “And apparently, holy hell and holy shit.”
“Uh-oh. The poor guy’s lost it,” Reen muttered, half covering her mouth.
“Something must have short circuited,” Laila agreed.
“What is an exclamation of surprise, astonishment, delight, or dismay, Alex?” Zak said, beaming a grin. “Let’s make it a true daily double.”
Laila and Reen exchanged bewildered looks.
