"It's just, I don't think you appreciate the situation you've put me in. The note in itself is simple but the task is not nearly as easy as you seem to deduce. 'Put away the groceries'. I understand the premise it's just that I honestly don't think I've ever used my own kitchen."

I paused long enough to hold the phone against my ear with my shoulder, moving to rifle through the nearest shopping bag once more with my now free hands. I didn't know we still had supermarkets let alone people still brought food home in plastic bags- its so...pedestrian. Honestly I am surprised Kat even managed to shop considering that neither of us are very skilled at cooking, how did she know what to buy? I frowned once more at the sound of her voice on the other end of the line. It's almost like she was annoyed I'd interrupted her jogging session to ask about groceries and yet surely she knew she had set an impossible task.

"I am holding a bag of....I don't know....er.... Baby Carrots, is that even legal? Since when has this country permitted the execution and consumption of infantile vegetables? Maybe they do feel pain, how do I know? Well where do the politically incorrect carrots go?"

Honestly I had no idea. Where did one put carrots? The cupboard? The fridge? I'd been 'unpacking' Kat's groceries for nearly an hour and had so far managed to put the milk in the fridge, the cereal in the cupboard and what I am ninety percent sure is shampoo in the bathroom. It might have been dishwashing liquid but honestly I'm not even sure which of my appliances is the dishwasher- that's the maids job. The sooner Berta got back from her annual Christmas leave the better. This is not a task for the faint of heart, the rest of the shopping scattered across the marble of my kitchen bench after several failed attempts to place it where it seemed to belong. Fruit- I am assured, has no actual logical place. Why Katarina had any belief I could do this I have no idea. Perhaps it was some sort of training method and yet honestly if this was a test of my organisational skills I was doomed from the beginning. Had she asked me to categorize them all by colour, used by date or chemical makeup I am entirely assured I would have succeeded. Asking me to do something domestic is entirely outside my skill set.

"Hold on, someone's at the door, I pray to god it's the maid- or else someone who knows about vegetables. I'll see you when you get home."

I hung up the phone, tucking it easily into the back pocket of my jeans, bare feet strolling smoothly across the polished black marble of my floors, one hand reaching up to make some attempt at buttoning the loose white cotton shirt I'd managed to find (neatly folded, I do fold my clothes even if I don't put them away) on my bedroom floor in my half blinded struggle to get out of bed at two in the afternoon. Why anyone got up before that I don't know, two was hard enough. I hardly expected anyone, at least, no one I could remember expecting and as such I'd hardly made an effort today to dress myself beyond jeans and a shirt- at least I had clothing on. I honestly believe half my personal staff have come to believe I don't own pants. When most of my business meetings are done over Skype however I fail to see how the bottom half of me actually requires dressing. One hand moved to run through the golden brown of my hair, a few loose strands falling back into the blue gold of my gaze all the same, the other hand still holding the packet of infantile carrots as I moved to open the door.

"You're not Portuguese."

Honestly I suppose the first thing I should have noticed about him was that he was a he and thus decidedly not my maid returned from her holiday, handsome features scowling slightly at the sight of him- or more so at his outfit. I might be dressed in little more then jeans and a shirt and lacking shoes and yet even I have managed to achieve a more modern look then this man. His shoes alone are at least a season old let alone....whatever it was he was wearing as an excuse for a shirt. God it looked like polyester. I managed to force something of a grin all the same. I might have forgotten I was expecting someone and chances were he actually did have an appointment- but that hardly meant I couldn't make some effort to cover for it. As I said though, my personal staff were on holidays and without anyone to tell me I have a meeting I honestly have no idea that I do. Maybe I was one of Time Magazines richest people under thirty and maybe I had revolutionised the real estate market at nineteen years old, taking my Fathers millions and making them into billions before turning my attention to weapons technology and manufacturing intelligent weaponry the likes the world had never seen- but that didn't mean I knew what time it was. Having a mind so afflicted by ADD or OCD or whatever it is the doctors seem so convinced I have might make for what I am told is a rather outstanding intelligence and yet honestly- I find it decidedly hard not to get distracted by things and sometimes I am entirely assured I would simply like my mind to be....quiet. People also seem to feel I lack common sense on occasion. Honestly I think it depends on how much I care about the occasion.

"I assume your either here to purchase land, protest my destruction of land, purchase weapons or protest my manufacturing of weapons- if you could tell me which I am assured we can do this much faster. If it's the first or the third your also welcome to come in- but I am going to have to ask you to take your shoes off. These floors don't do those shoes."

What? I can see the dirt on them from here, eternally youthful features scowling at them momentarily. Honestly I hardly knew what he was, Hunter, Vampire, Witch- I have no idea, my Hunter senses never did work all that well and yet I honestly don't care, I'd already sent Kat a text message detailing his description and informing her to avenge me if I was brutally murdered by a member of the Italian mafia wearing last season's shoes. My features however, remained decidedly pleasant as I regarded him, one eye lifting slightly.

"Well? Are you coming in or not?"

What the hell was I going to do with these carrots?





k o h l
so you want to play with magic?