Of Wish and Fury (Seven Kings of Jinn)

“Oh, really?” Charlie tried to hide his grin. Mike had been invited to an eighth grader’s birthday party over the weekend, which was almost unheard of, but she was the big sister of a kid in Mike’s class. “And?”

“We played Seven Minutes in Heaven,” he mumbled hurriedly.

He couldn’t help it. Charlie laughed. “Who did you have those heavenly seven minutes with?”

The shy awkwardness melted away as Mike looked up, finally meeting his gaze. He grinned mischievously. “Sarah.”

“Kissing and everything?”

“With tongue.” Mike nodded, his grin taking on a cockiness that cracked Charlie up.

Once he’d stopped laughing, Charlie shook his head in amazement. “Score. An older woman, little bro. I’m very proud.”

Having told his big brother and received such accolade for his exploits, Mike straightened his shoulders, his eyes bright with confidence now. “I think I have a thing for older women.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He took a moment, thinking something over before he finally asked, “Are you and Ari dating?”

Charlie choked, surprised by the unexpected question. “What makes you ask that?”

“She’s hot.”

Groaning, Charlie covered his eyes in mortification. “Oh man, it’s too weird for my kid brother to be calling girls ‘hot’.”

Mike snorted. “I just said I made out with someone.”

“Yeah, but she was a kid I don’t know. This is Ari, man. Don’t call Ari hot.”

“But she is hot,” he replied indignantly.

“I know, stop saying it.” Charlie laughed. It was too weird.

Mike made a face. “So are you dating?”

Did Mike have a crush on Ari? He started chuckling again. “Not yet.”

“Aw man, that means you’re going to.”

He started laughing harder and Mike got up with the sole purpose of punching Charlie on the arm. That only made him double over.

“Come on, stop it,” Mike whined.

“Wait until I tell her.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, I would.”

“Biggest mistake you’ll ever make,” Mike predicted, heading for the door.

“And why’s that?”

“Because once she knows I’m interested, she’ll dump you faster than a hot potato.”

Charlie nearly fell off his seat, this time in hysterics. When he finally pulled himself together, Mike was grinning at him with a familiar stubborn glint in his eye. “You think I’m kidding.”

“Stick to girls in the eighth grade, Mikey. You’ll have an easier time with them.”

Seeming to think for a minute, Mike sighed. “Okay, bro, you can have her if you really like her. Just be cool to her because she’s really nice. She doesn’t talk to me like I’m five.”

Yeah, Ari was cool. She was the most patient person he’d ever met. She could sit and listen to the most annoying people drone on forever, like that irritant she’d started hanging out with from her chem lab class, Rachel something or other. But Ari was just like that. She was kind. The nicest girl he’d ever met. They just had this bond. Like no one else knew the other as well as they did. Add the fact that she was, as Mikey put it, ‘hot’, kind of made it hard to keep their relationship platonic. Holding back another grin, Charlie nodded. “Thanks. You had me worried there.”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I can tell.” He turned to leave, missing Charlie’s silent chuckles. Then, just as he was about to step out, he turned back and asked, “You still picking me up from Little League on Saturday?”

Aw crap, was it this Saturday he was on Little League duty? Charlie frowned, thinking about the big plans he had for Ari’s sixteenth birthday. He'd ordered a bouquet of red roses for her and he’d booked a table at one of the nicer restaurants in town. Then he thought they could drive out to the Ridge and he could finally tell her how he felt. He was hoping by the end of the night he’d know exactly what her mouth tasted like, how her lips felt, what the curve of her hip felt like under his hand. He shifted, feeling warm at the direction of his thoughts.

“Are you blushing?” Mikey asked, suspicion in his gaze.

Remembering he was not alone, Charlie shuffled around in his chair, facing away from his kid brother. “I can take you on Saturday but you need to be ready real quick because I’m taking Ari out for her birthday.”

“Can I come?”

“No. But I’ll drop you off at Sarah’s if you want?” he teased.

“Sarah’s not my girlfriend,” Mikey snorted, pulling the door open. “She’s just one of my many women.”

“Get out of here, Casanova.”

With a sigh, Mike closed the door behind him. Charlie had only just let his mind wander into fantasy land with Ari as the guest star when the door opened again. “What’s a Casanova?”

“A walking STI,” Charlie growled playfully, throwing his pencil at the door, so Mike hurried to slam it shut.

His muffled words filtered through the door. “Is that the one that gives you dick warts?”

Charlie laughed. “Yeah that's the one.”

“I'm gonna have to rethink the 'many women' thing then,” he heard his brother mutter before walking away.