So it was Raye who had to wade in.
“Um…Jinx, this isn’t the first time we’ve tried to get it through to you that this guy is totally into you. And this proves it. He wants to take your relationship to the next level.”
“He’s a client,” Jinx spat.
“He’s in love with you, babe,” Raye said gently.
For a beat, Jinx glared at her.
Then her face started crumbling.
Shanti was closest so she caught Jinx in her arms when Jinx lost it.
None of us had time to freak out that hard-as-nails Jinx was sobbing, because there was another knock on the door.
“Shit,” Raye muttered, went to it, looked through the peephole, then opened it.
Duane scuttled in.
His eyes went straight to Jinx.
“The fight,” he said.
“You heard it?” Raye asked while closing the door.
“Saw him take off after he wasn’t in her room for more than fifteen minutes,” Duane said. “He never just takes off. He always leaves like he doesn’t want to go.”
On that morsel, Jinx wailed.
I pushed the bag into Duane’s hands and said, “Here. Shut up and eat one of those.”
His face got what I suspected was Duane Darin Poole’s version of happy (which was to say, moderately less skeevy) when he queried, “More cupcakes?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Are they filled like the last ones?”
Yeesh.
“No, I had to make them quick.”
He scowled.
“There’s vanilla bean paste in the frosting,” I told him.
He scurried to open the bag.
Duane handled for now, I turned back to Jinx who was sitting on the couch, still in Shanti’s arms.
“He missed his last regular night,” she sobbed into Shanti’s neck.
“He’ll come back,” Shanti soothed.
Jinx pulled away, crying, “No he won’t! I reminded him I was a whore! Now that he remembers I’m a whore, he’s at home in his mansion with its big pool and view of the mountains wondering why he asked me to live with him in his big mansion with its pool and view of the mountains!”
“He has a mansion?” Joey asked.
“I don’t know!” Jinx exclaimed. “I haven’t been invited to suck his cock at his place!”
