A Human’s Guide to Surviving Magical Mishaps by Kit Bryan
Rule 52- If you're going to lie, at least make it a story worth telling.

We head back to the jewellery store where the manager is sorting through a bunch of papers and muttering to herself. She looks seriously unhappy, not that I'm surprised. If my family just gave away thousands of dollars worth of stock I'd be

pretty upset too.

"She does not look particularly friendly." Fin observes.

"Perhaps we should return another time." Ashton says, sounding a little frustrated. I can tell that he doesn't want to leave and come back later. He wants to hear what she has to say and he wants to hear it now.

I consider the best way to approach this. She hasn't reported a crime, so I can't say we're investigating with the police, and I doubt that she wants to be comforted like her nephew. No, she's pissed off. So I may as well work with that. "Hey guys, do me a favour and wait here. I have an idea." I say slowly.

"You do not want our help?” Ashton asks. I shake my head.

"You guys can't lie. It might make it a little hard to go along with my plan." I explain. Ashton frowns.

"You intend to lie to her?" He says, sounding concerned.

“Yep, but it'll be harmless. It's the only way I can think of to get the information we want. It'll be fine.” I assure him. He still seems hesitant but he nods and steps back.

"We will wait for you out here." He declares. Fin nods his agreement and gives me an encouraging smile. I take a deep breath and prepare myself before stepping into the store.

I force a frown and huff out an irritated sigh as I approach the counter.

"Good afternoon, can I help you?" Aunt Emily the manager greets me with an expression so cheerful I might have believed it if I hadn't just seen her angry expression through the window. I let out a long sigh.

"I hope so. I'm looking to replace some items that were stolen. Well, not really stolen. My idiot boyfriend just gave them away! He took my favourite bracelet and some diamond earrings that my parents got me for my last birthday and literally gave them away. He told me he gave them to some other woman! I guess that's the end of that relationship.” I grumble. I have to fight the urge to hold my breath as I wait for her reaction.

"Oh you poor dear. Men can be so cruel. My own nephew just stole from my store for a girl." She says, disgust in her tone. Yeah, Ryan's relationship with his aunt is definitely ruined if we can't get to the bottom of this. I do my best to hide any sympathy for him.

"Seriously? What a jerk! I hope the girl was worth it." I say in my snottiest tone. The woman snorts.

"I doubt it. The idiot doesn't even know her name. He only met her the one time and he was just giving things away. It's ridiculous." She complains.

"That is insane. You know what makes it even worse. I did something silly and I looked up the girl my EX boyfriend gave my stuff to online. She's not even that pretty. I mean, it's no excuse, but what does she have that I don't? At least if she was like a supermodel or something I could pretend that it makes sense." I pause for effect before continuing.

"What about the chick who ended up with your stuff, was she pretty? I bet she was if she managed to convince a guy to just hand stuff over to her." I sound like the worst kind of gossip, and I kind of hate that I'm talking like the kind of person who blames a girl for a guy's mistakes. But it seems like it's working. Emily just wants to commiserate and I'm letting her do that.

"That's another weird thing though. I checked the security feed and the woman wasn't even that pretty. Like she wasn't ugly or anything, she just seemed normal to me. My nephew has never been one to fall over himself for a pretty girl so i just don't know what it was about this one that got to him so much!

"Really? That's so weird. Can I see the picture?" I ask. Emily pulls out her phone and opens up her photo app where she has a bunch of screenshots saved. The pictures are pretty blurry and they're not in colour but the woman looks fairly normal to me. Her hair is long and wavy. Probably brown or maybe a dark blonde. She's average height, average weight and average everything to be honest. There really isn't anything particularly remarkable about her.

"You know, she looks a bit like the girl my boyfriend gave my stuff to. It would be crazy if it was the same person." I say conspiratorially, trying to keep up my story and maybe set up an out for Ryan later if we can fix this. "Well, that would be a coincidence now wouldn't it. So shall we try to find replacements for your missing items. I'll give you a good discount.” She winks at me. Ah, I don't actually want to buy a bunch of expensive jewellery right now. I freeze up as I think of an excuse. An idea comes to me and I force myself to relax.

"You know what, that's really sweet of you, but I might wait and make my ex pay for them. You can charge HIM full price." I grin at her and she nods.

"Too right dear. He should pay for them. You send him my way and I'll make sure you get the best replacements. I won't let him skimp on them either." She nods firmly and I can't help but feel a little bad for lying to her. She's actually really nice.

"I'll do that. Thanks for talking, I feel a bit better knowing my boyfriend isn't the only idiot in the world."

I say my goodbyes and head out the store. I walk down a little ways until I know I'm well and truly out of sight of the store before I stop and wait for the guys to catch up with me. "That was..." Fin seems lost for words.

"Impressive." Ashton finishes for him. I give them a half smile.

"Thanks, I feel kind of bad for lying to her, but I didn't think she would tell me anything if I said I was looking for a fae assassin. I doubt that she would even believe me." I sigh and Ashton nods.

“I can understand that. Still, it was a well thought out story for something you came up with so quickly.” Ashton compliments me.

"I was mostly just trying to get her to feel bad for me. Anyway, the picture wasn't super clear. I doubt it will help much anyway since you guys have glamours. But I'll describe her anyway."

I give the best description that I can manage of the woman in the photo while we get lunch and we talk about what we learned. Mostly just that this woman can manipulate people, but not how. We discuss if it's something she says, or does. Maybe it happens through touch or a spell of some kind. We don't really come to any conclusions, but it's a start. We finish off our shopping and by the time we leave we all have our arms full of stuff. Mostly bedding, pillows and clothes for the guys. It took almost the entire afternoon since the two fae with me had to stop and look at EVERYTHING and asked SO many questions, but it was still pretty fun. I've also been secretly enjoying how many people have been watching me ir jealousy as I walked around with the two ridiculously handsome guys, not to mention Ashton held my hand pretty much any time it was free. I know he's only been doing it to keep his fan club at bay, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it anyway.