The O’Donnell curse was no laughing matter–a whole family of people who got more clumsy as they got more nervous. Fortunately, Zed had caught Leonard before he did too much damage to the pies. He adored Jillian, who had been accepting and understanding of his “condition” from the moment he was hired as her executive assistant. Knowing that he could potentially do much worse before the bouquet toss, he’d given the bride his best wishes and gotten the hell out of dodge. It was what was best for everybody.

But then Monday morning, he walked into the administrative building to find that Jessica Galanis tried to pull a power move the minute Jillian was officially on her honeymoon, by moving Leonard’s desk to the “annex.”

Despite the fact that la faille–a mystical rip in the fabric of the universe that had, until recently, threatened to unravel and unleash its body-altering energy into Southern Louisiana and beyond- had closed, Mystic Bayou still offered a wealth of research opportunities in areas like genetics, meteorology, and economics for the League. Rather than closing up shop, the League was expanding its interest in the Bayou with a permanent administrative building/research center. Unfortunately, construction on that center wouldn’t begin until late spring.

The annex was technically a temporary extension of the administrative trailer, tacked on to give Sonja and Jillian room to work after Alex had taken over Jillian’s position. Alex was smart enough not to move Jillian too far away from Sonja–not just because they’d been close friends for years, but because together, they made minor miracles happen.

The same awareness could not be contributed to Jessica, Leonard’s nemesis. He knew it wasn’t normal for an executive assistant to have an archenemy. His job centered on managing Sonja and Jillian’s schedules and workload. Jessica was Alex’s assistant, and was supposed to be focused on him. Unlike nearly every other job in the Bayou, their positions were not fraught with peril. And yet, Jessica fought for domination of that trailer like it was her own personal kingdom and he was a usurper. She didn’t like that his was the first face people saw when they walked in, while she was seated closer to Alex’s door, facing the wall. She didn’t like that he was considered the gatekeeper to not only Sonja and Jillian, but Alex as well. She didn’t like that she’d gone to a university to study how to best optimize an executive’s workflow and schedule, while Leonard had just fallen into the job.