“Forge,” Rhododendron greeted him coldly.
“Deni,” he responded.
“Rhododendron,” she corrected him.
“I thought I’d have you know, I’m buying the land that your vegetable garden sits on.”
“What?” she cried, releasing the emotions she had been trying so desperately to sit on. “You’ve already taken my orchard and built a house on it. Now my garden, too? How am I going to eat?”
“I’ll maintain the garden. You can continue taking food from it as you please. Consider it an apology for taking the land.”
“You can’t keep that garden alive!”
“I assure you, I can handle it.”
“Yeah, coming from the human who’s probably never touched a plant in his life. Or another living being, for that matter.” Rhododendron’s snark came off a little stronger than she had wanted it to.
“How very bold of you to assume something like that,” he snapped. “Can’t you do something other than assume the worst in people? Or is that all you do? Is that your ‘Faerie talent’ or whatever you call it?” He made air quotes, his voice and gestures laced with sarcasm.
“I’ll start giving you the benefit of the doubt when you give me a reason to.”
“I’m letting you continue eating from the vegetable garden. Is that not enough for you?”
“Why are you so desperate to have my land? If you’re not even going to eat from the garden, why do you want it so badly?”
Forge went silent. After a long pause, he shrugged and said, “Tax reasons.”
Rhododendron threw up her hands. “That’s your excuse for, like, half of the things you do, and I know it’s complete ant piss!”
“Ant piss?” Forge chuckled. “Do ants even pee?”
“That’s beside the point,” she yelled, her voice loud enough to make Forge startle. “I have half a mind to become a lawyer, just so I can prove that you are not, in fact, buying off my property for ‘tax reasons.’”
“You know, being a lawyer takes a brain larger than the size of a pea.”
“That’s funny,” Rhododendron laughed maniacally. “That’s just hilarious. You know, it takes a lot of brains to make good jokes, too.”
“Maybe that’s why I’ve never seen you make a joke in your life. You know, you’d be much happier if you didn’t take everything so seriously.”
“And thank goodness your species isn’t relying on you to keep them from extinction. You could learn a thing or two from being serious more often.”
“Aww, how sad. The widdle faewie with the magic powers thinks her life is soooo hard. At least you have a family.”
“Maybe you could get one if you weren’t such a dung beetle.”
“Maybe I don’t want one,” he muttered under his breath.
“Aww, how sad. The widdle human with the unlimited political power has daddy issues.”
Forge flinched. “What is your problem?”
“You are my problem! You don’t need this garden, I do!”
“I-” Forge was interrupted by the screech of the elevator doors opening.
“Stay away from my garden!” Rhododendron called, the words echoing in the elevator as she departed.
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