2. Cyrus

2

CYRUS

“ G ood morning, Irving,” I called to my coworker as I walked into my office at the university I worked in.

“Morning, Cyrus.” Irving popped out from behind the door of the office opposite mine. “You’re awfully chipper today.”

“Am I?” I grinned. “The truth is, I have a feeling something great is going to happen.”

Irving smiled back. “Maybe so. Sylvan always senses when something is about to happen, and he told me this morning that I should be careful at work today because big changes are afoot.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Usually that means someone brings in doughnuts to share or something equally trivial, but I wouldn’t put it past him to sense changes for you as well.”

“Thank you, I’ll remember that.” I was about to say something else, but Irving had already disappeared into his office again, shutting the frosted glass door behind him.

I quite liked what Sylvan, Irving’s fae fiancé, had done to him. Since they’d gotten engaged, Irving opened up more and seemed to enjoy the smaller things in life, something I appreciated greatly as his coworker. One should never take a single thing for granted, I always said.

My phone buzzed in my trousers pocket and I shut my office door behind me so I could check it. A text from an unfamiliar number popped up, and I was about to delete it before I read it more carefully:

Hi! I’m Nico, your new match from the Monster’s Sanctuary Library matchmaking service. I got your number from the Librarian and I was hoping we could meet soon, maybe even tonight? Text me back what time will work for you and I’ll see you there.

This was the moment I’d been waiting for, and I could hardly believe my eyes. I rubbed them and read the text again, hoping it wasn’t a particularly cruel prank. Each time I read it, though, the more it sank in that I actually had a date – someone who wanted me and only me.

“Quite forward, isn’t he?” I read the text for a third time. “Well, I do like a man who knows what he wants.”

I texted back a suitable time to meet up, hoping I wouldn’t live to regret planning a first date so quickly. I enjoyed getting to know my dates virtually first, so I knew what I was in for when we finally met in person, but the last time I had a date was too long ago for me to remember it clearly, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.

I signed up for the library’s matchmaking service after a long dry spell in my dating life, and I’d now been waiting for a match for over a year, applying at the same time my coworker Irving did after he lost a bet. When Irving got a match after a few short months of waiting, I assumed my turn would be next. So, I waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, I gave up hope and settled into a life of loneliness, which wasn’t so bad after all – most of the time.

But now he was finally here, and I was about to meet him for the first time. Despite my best attempts to remain patient, I could hardly wait.

I got to the library half an hour early just to be sure I didn’t miss him. I was greeted by the Librarian, cheerful and welcoming as ever.

“He is coming, isn’t he?” I asked them nervously.

“Yes, of course,” they said, giving me a reassuring smile. “You can sit and wait at the table in the back and I’ll direct him over there as soon as he arrives.”

“Thank you, I shall do that.”

Both the table and the chairs were far too small for me, so I pulled up one of the larger chairs meant for reading in and tucked my legs off to one side so that my knees didn’t pop up over the table’s surface.

I didn’t have time to change into something more date-appropriate after work, so I hoped my sweater and slacks were appropriate. I needn’t have worried, however, because the moment my date walked in, I realized I would have painfully overdressed no matter what I chose.

Nico, as he called himself in the text I received, wore a black T-shirt and light-wash denim jeans. The jeans had holes in the knees and frayed threads hanging down around the torn edges, and the T-shirt bore a logo from the local ice skating rink.

Our eyes locked from across the room and he waved at me eagerly, ignoring the Librarian as he passed by them. They started to follow behind him but stopped themself when they were certain he already knew exactly what he was doing.

“Hi, I’m Nico Ross.”

“Hello, Nico. As you’re already aware, my name is Cyrus P. Cartwright, and I am an orc.”

Nico smiled. “Yeah, I know. I’m so curious about orc culture. Do you mind answering a few questions?”

“Not at all. Please, sit.”

Nico sat down, fitting much better in the small wooden chair than I did. I may have looked silly sitting in a lounge chair at a café table, but I didn’t regret switching seats. A beast of my stature needed to do everything he could to stay comfortable in a human’s world.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Nico began, “isn’t your name a little…humanoid for an orc? It’s just that all the other orc names I’ve seen are different from yours.”

“Yes, that is true.” I smoothed my hair down nervously, wishing now that I’d made time for a haircut. “My parents chose this name for me, as both orc and human parents usually do for their offspring.”

“Why? I mean, why not something more traditional?”

“Well, the surname has been in the family for generations, ever since my great-grandmother married a human man. My father, a Cartwright by birth, and my mother who married into the family name, preferred how ‘Cyrus’ sounds and they chose it. It’s as simple as that, though I am sorry if it’s a disappointing answer.”

“No, it’s not disappointing at all. I was just curious. So, what does the P. stand for?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“That’s correct. Some people have middle names while others don’t. My parents split the difference with a middle initial that suited the rest of my name.”

The expression on Nico’s face told me that he was a little confused, but he didn’t seem put off by anything I said, nor was he put off by my more orcish features, which was a pleasant surprise. I’d worried for over a year what my match would think of thick, green skin with that sickly gray cast I worked so hard to change with numerous skincare products, mud-brown hair that curled in thick, tight waves on top of my head no matter how hard I tried to straighten it, and those long, jutting teeth that gave my mouth an obvious underbite. I was not exactly a handsome creature and I knew as much, but Nico didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps he was more familiar with dating orcs than I previously thought.

He leaned forward, looking me up and down. “Do you always wear such scholarly clothing?”

“Well, I am a professor,” I replied. “I must dress for the job. But I do enjoy wearing jeans on the odd occasion –or is that not what you meant?”

Nico shook his head, his smile broadening. “No, that’s fine. It must be hard to find clothes that fit. You’re way taller than any human I’ve ever met.”

I squared my shoulders and puffed out my chest. Height was what humans cared a great deal about, and height was something I had plenty of – height and muscles.

“There are dedicated orc clothing retailers, and some human brands make orc-accommodating clothes as well. It’s not as difficult as you might think. I’ve heard much worse tales from other monsters – goblins, gargoyles, and the like.”

“Of course, that would be tough. As a shorter man, if something doesn’t fit, all I have to do is bring it to someone who can hem it and the problem is taken care of.”

“And your shirt –“ I pointed at his chest. “Do you skate?”

He laughed brightly. “No, no, I’m no good on the ice. My friend is a figure skater, though, and I went to a fundraiser for the rink a few years back.”

I nodded. “So, it’s nothing but an old T-shirt?”

“Yeah, you could say that.” He shrugged and glanced around the empty library, his gaze settling back on me after a few seconds. “Hey, it’s getting late. Wanna…go back to my place? Or yours, I’m not picky.”

My smile faded. “On the first date?”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, why not? I’m attracted to you, you’re attracted to me, and when two people are attracted to each other…” he made a gross gesture with his fingers, which I took as my cue to get up and leave.

“I’m sorry, I’m not interested in hooking up right away. I thought this first date was to get to know each other, and we could see where things took us from there. But if sex is all you’re looking for, I’m afraid you’ve been matched with the wrong monster. Goodbye, Nico. It was lovely to meet you.”