Me and Jo had another lovely morning. Which was always funny to me, because only one of us was genuinely a morning person. We woke up, and Jo was in a frisky mood, which got me in a frisky mood. Jo slipped beneath the covers of our bed like a sea monster disappearing beneath the waves. She pulled down my pajama bottoms and got to work, giving a nice little wake-up call. Her tongue could in the right places was better than the best blends of coffee, for getting a guy ready to face the day. Naturally, I reciprocated afterward. Selfish lovers don’t stay lovers for long, after all. Playing around quickly turned into serious play, and ironically despite waking up so early that day, neither of us left the bedroom until a little before noon.

We had a very late breakfast. Late enough that only through shamelessness were we able to straight-facedly still call it brunch. We had a breakfast lasagna that was in keeping with the theme of our “barely brunch” -brunch in that it was basically just regular lasagna with extra sausage tossed amidst the ground beef. While I was plating the food for me and the missus, Brandy came passing through the dining room.

“Afternoon!” said Josephine. Looking up brightly while still blowing on her mug of tea.

“Oh, hi, Brandy…Did you want some?” I said.

“Ah!..Mhm? Oh, er…No, thank you,” said Brandy. Sounding like she hadn’t realized we were there.

“Alright…Uh, is everything okay?” I said. Noticing that Brandy was seeming a bit more adrift than usual. The girl was a bit of a shrinking violet at times, but she was normally a pretty sharp cookie.

“I…Yeah. I think so. Thanks for asking,” said Brandy. Seeming oddly sheepish for whatever reason.

“Okay…Well, if you need us you know where to find us,” I said.

“We’ve got your back, girl!” said Josephine. Already digging in.

“Heh, I know, thanks…” said Brandy. Nodding and chuckling briefly, before heading off to do whatever she’d intended to do.

I hoped Brandy was okay. She’d been a bit odd lately. There were times it had almost felt like she was avoiding Jo and myself. We’d tried asking about it, and seeing if maybe we’d done something wrong, or something was the matter, but Brandy just kept assuring us that everything was fine.

Not wanting to pry, we had no choice but to take Brandy at her word. After all, she was presently a grown woman, with power, money, and means. No matter how I thought of her as the little sister I’d never had, it wouldn’t be good for me, or Jo to overstep.

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A little later that day, I found myself in the shop. Jo was there too, but she was handling some stuff in the back offices and storage rooms. I was watching the counter, while she supervised my figments rolling out a batch of new inventory. Freshly made from the factories and plants within our private server.

Brandy was off and doing her own thing outside. Which was fine and fair, the girl had her own life, and honestly, I was pleased to see her doing her own thing. I’d been a bit worried about her, when she was younger and just beginning to live with Jo and I. She didn’t have too many friends, and didn’t really mix up with her classmates in the academy all that often. Learning about Miss Rutledge and Miss Odom came as a relief to me.

My shift at the store went fairly smoothly. Even when multiplied and split across the myriad quantum-offshoots of our store. The customers weren’t too trying, and I was able to either see to most of their needs directly, or point them in the direction they’d need to walk towards and/or work towards to see their desires brought to fruition.

The protections I’d set in place to keep out pests and perverts were also working quite well. Also, it seemed that the flies that had persisted in gathering around our company’s new young ward had finally gotten the hint after a few of their organizations started to vanish without a trace. Which meant the young Miss West could now rest easy without looking over her shoulder.

Thus far, things seemed to be going swimmingly that day. Which was why I was not too surprised when suddenly I felt an immortal presence. Mortals weren’t the only ones who started to get nervous when life seemed to be going too well. I’d been feeling a building sense of anxiety since the morning. Waking up to a fantastic blowjob, and even more fantastic sex, would have been enough for me to suspect I was hemorrhaging a decade’s worth of luck, all on its own. Never mind, the rest of the day going as smoothly as it had.

Now I had a decision to make. I could keep the store’s defenses up and see if they kept the immortal outside as they were designed to. Or, I could let the interloper inside to keep them from kicking up a fuss, disturbing the customers, and ruining this shop-location, for me. After a few minutes of thinking, and watching, I ended up deciding to take a third option. I didn’t want the strange immortal in my shop, yet I felt it wouldn’t be prudent to just leave them out there since managing to find one of my shop-locations was itself proof that they’d managed to break through the shop’s protections to some extent.

“Okay...What do you want?” I said. Glowering, as I strode outside the store.

“Good evening, Mister Holst….” said a bald, dark-skinned, golden-eyed being. An angel in human-guise.

“Save the pleasantries, please…Now, pray tell me why you’re here standing in front of my store,” I said. While a partition of my mind was already rapidly coming up with ways to improve the protections on the store to keep this from ever happening again.

“Ah…I see that one amongst our holy host has unfortunately made a poor impression on you and for that, we apologize…” said the angel.

“Right, whatever…Let’s get this over with,” I said. Unmoved by the man’s conciliatory tone.

“...Very well then…If that is what you wish…We of the host would like to inquire as to what it would cost for us…or rather for the wards under our care…to become customers of your shop,” said the angel.

“...What? Beg pardon?” I said. Blinking dully as if in a stupor, and frowning even harder now.

“Upon investigating your shop, and your current and past customers we’ve been able to determine that your shop is likely a force for good,” said the angel.

The angel was very wrong about that, I wasn’t particularly trying to make my shop a venue for only good people to shop at. On the contrary, I took all comers whether heroic, villainous, or in-between. I just had standards regarding my customers’ core basic decency. They didn’t need to be saints, but they couldn’t be bloody animals either, that was it as far as my standards for the morals of my customer-base went.

Still, I found myself mulling the angel’s question over. Firstly, it wasn’t like I was enemies with the Holy Host. Second, this could be a great opportunity for gathering business and an excellent means to step forward into Horologia’s immortal society by my own will, and with hopefully minimal stress.

“Alright…Come into my office…We’ll need to talk terms before I’m willing to agree to anything,” I said. Agitatedly, scratching the back of my head.