“You swore it was only one day!” Eve growled. She was giving off the same vibe as a bull about to charge. Sarah barely batted an eye at Eve’s behaviour. Instead she perused a couple of sheets of paper from amongst the mountains that covered her desk. 

Sarah Sellings had never got the hang of computers for filing when they had first come into existence. Not too surprising as it had taken her almost fifty years to get used to using phones when they had been invented. Being a three-centuries-old full-blooded dragon, most people thought it was impressive enough that she knew what decade was currently in progress. She preferred to hide her heritage with glamours and a human name to avoid the ageist jokes, it got old after the thirtieth time someone congratulated you on knowing how to use a toaster. 

“I said it wouldn’t take up too much time, not that it would only take up one day. I remember you being up for having a little bit of help to get you through the work.” 

“Don’t you dare lie like that! All that kid has done is pile more work on me. He blew a hole in the client’s roof for hallows sake.” 

“A show of strong magical skill and he was trying to protect you at the time.” 

“Well he didn’t need to.” Eve bristled recoiling from the desk as she began to pace, a tactic that Sarah knew was an early warning sign of Eve becoming a nuisance. 

“I’m not a strong witch but I’m not a damsel. I knew what I was doing, I know my limits and was just about to deal with it when he came bumbling in with his bloody exploding exorcism spell.” 

Sarah spread her clawed hands wide and shrugged. Sure, she had also been annoyed at having to deal with the forms angrily handed to her by Eve the night before just after her young employee’s third shower. However, over the years she had dealt with worse, this was no burning river or accidental decapitation to tidy up. Magic was messy and this was nowhere near as big a deal to Sarah as it was to Eve. 

“I know you can handle yourself Eve. You don’t need to prove anything by going alone, take help sometimes. It doesn’t lessen you in any way and it can as I have said before take some work off your shoulders. Think on how worn out you’ve been the last few months. You almost fell asleep standing up last week.”  

Sarah smoothed the tension over softly. This was not the first time they had gone through a conversation like this and she doubted it would be the last time either. With only three employees Sarah had gotten to know each of them intimately, she liked that. She thought of it as that human touch to know enough about them to care, it was certainly a skill humans celebrated a lot more than any other species. 

“Eve, now as your boss I have to tell you that this is your assignment and if you do not complete this week of supervision there will be consequences.” 

There was more than an air of threat as she leaned forward across her desk, her glamour flickering nastily as she presented a grim face to Eve. Eve bit her tongue but nodded stoically.  

“Good.” Sarah glanced at the clock, before sliding a folder across the desk which Eve scooped up. “You should probably go pick up young Mr Price, you have a very busy day ahead of you.” 

Eve slunk out silently, her body was tense, but she made sure not to slam any doors, even remembering to smile at Damien as she passed him in the corridor. Just look and act normal. The façade collapsed as she sat with her head on Doris’ steering wheel. She steeled herself for the day ahead as she drove away from the offices. 

“Come on. Just like old times break it down... Pick up the kid, yell at the kid, go to the first case, solve it, drop the kid back off then get home and order a Chinese takeaway to eat while watching that documentary Arla recommended.” 

She adjusted herself drawing down her sunglasses over her eyes. 

“See a nice simple day. It’s going to be perfectly fine.”