I leaned my head against the bedroom door and heard talking. Jo had been more lucky. Good. I sat back down and finished my smoke in silence, while August fidgeted on the couch. She looked anxious, and I couldn’t blame her. Everything had happened really fast, and this whole situation was full of anxiety inducing parts.

Her phone rang. She looked at me, took a deep breath, and answered. Almost immediately she hung up. “It was him. He must have borrowed someone else’s phone. Are you really sure about all this, Tina?”

“Block the number, and stop answering to people you don’t know for a while. It’ll be fine. He can’t hurt you here and we’ll be getting you to safety. If the plan goes well, you’ll be safe from everyone who wants to hurt you. If it doesn’t, we’ll come back here and think of something else. You’ll be fine. I’m right here with you.”

That seemed to reassure her a bit. She nodded, and fiddled with her phone. I assumed she must be blocking the number that just called.

Just then, Josephine came out of the room. We both turned to her. She was frowning. “He said he can’t help right now as he’s technically not king. He’ll do what he can when he is crowned, but this won’t be a priority. Tina, I don’t like this guy. Are you sure about him and Eileen?”

“Did you get him directly?” She shook her head. “No it was Cecile.” “Then we don’t know if it’s gonna be a priority or not. What we do know is that he’ll probably take care of it when he’s king. And besides, if Eileen agrees to take August with her, she won’t let him forget. She’s a stubborn one, but she has a heart of gold. It should work out.”

She thought about it for a moment. What we were asking of Gianni was to take the girl under his wing and pay for her schooling, basically. Cecile’s answer made sense. Gianni would have his hands full taking over the kingdom. But he owed us.

I kept puffing on my cigarette, confident in this knowledge and feeling Jo come to the same conclusion. Besides, we didn’t have another plan. It would have to work.

There was nothing else to do but wait at that point, so that’s what we did. I asked Jo if she wanted to get back to the office and join us later, but she refused. She said she wanted to keep an eye on me. On my drinking, probably. I thought about going to the bar anyway, but her raised eyebrow stopped me before I even got out of my chair. This was serious and I was to be completely clean, apparently.

Except I was already starting to feel off. I made myself yet another coffee to give a reason for my hands shaking. My head was spinning, so I quickly sat down again and hoped it would pass before we were to put our plan in motion.

We made light conversation while we waited, talking about the weather and the future and explaining our jobs to August, who still had trouble believing there was a whole Agency filled with fairy godmothers ready to help kids of all ages get a HEA. She asked us what kind of HEA her mom had paid us for. I smiled. “Yours.” Josephine was less poetic. “She paid for the cheapest one, the one where you’re happy. That’s it.” August nodded thoughtfully.

“I guess she does care about me after all. With all that she let happen, I wasn’t sure she did, even though she’s always been sweet. She used to give me candy behind my father’s back when he punished me for no reason. But one day he caught us, and that was it.”

She fell silent, and so did we. What do you say to that? Nothing. That’s what. The silence stretched and stretched, filled with memories. I thought about my own parents and their reaction when I grew wings. Fairy godmothers don’t come from other fairies. Well, not all of us. We can appear in random families, too. Or families with very little magical blood, like mine. I had a great-grandfather who was an elf, but that’s it.

I got lucky, though. They did research online, and found a group of fairies ready to help. I was raised lovingly, if a bit distantly. They just didn’t know how to handle the wings. My younger brother was normal, though, much to my parents’ relief. They were always closer to him. Anyway, that trip down memory lane wasn’t helping.

I got out of my reveries to find both August and Jo looking at me. I realized I was sweating profusely. I had a hard time breathing, and my head span. I looked at Jo imploringly.

“One. You get one. No more. And make it fast.” I considered for a second simply magicking a bottle of vodka, but that wouldn’t be right. Not in front of them. And that would be the beginning of a real disaster, if I started using magic to indulge my drinking. I rushed to the door, and to the bar.

The old wrinkled figure that served as a bartender looked bored. I was the only one there. He raised an eyebrow when he saw me come in so early. “The usual?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

I nodded and sat on a barstool for once. I reached for my wallet and paid immediately as he gave me my drink. “Why the hurry, lady?” I looked at him for a long time, thinking. Bartenders are known keepers of secrets. I guessed I could trust him with mine. “I have things to do, but it would seem I’ve become addicted to alcohol at some point in the past six months. So I need to hurry up, but I also need a drink to be functional, see?”

The kindness in his eyes almost undid me. I sipped carefully on my Black Russian, not wanting to make it worse. I drank in silence, and he let me be.

It only took me 15 minutes to get there, drink, and go back home. I hoped that was fast enough for Jo.

When I got there, nothing had changed. Both of them were still in the same positions, lost in thought. I was out of breath but happy. They didn’t seem to have worried at all. Good. Jo raised her head as I returned to my kitchen chair and grabbed a smoke. “Better?”

“Much, thank you. I know I need to fix this but now isn’t the right time for that. So thanks for letting me go.”

“Go where? What’s going on?” August asked. She didn’t know, and in my opinion, didn’t need to. But Jo apparently thought differently. “Your fairy godmother has been working on a really hard case for the last six months and developed an alcohol addiction. She’ll be okay but she needed a drink to be of any use to us tonight.”

I sighed. “Sorry August, I’m mostly human. But I only had the one drink, and I have all my wits with me. Don’t you worry, everything will be just fine.”

That’s when I remembered two things. First, I was still in my pajamas. I couldn’t believe Jo had let me go outside like this. I rushed to the bedroom to get changed. A pair of jeans and a low back shirt would do, I’d need my wings tonight but I also needed to be able to move freely.

The second thing was much better. “Ready for a shopping trip, ladies? I did promise you one.”