“Not too bad, considering.” Her friend leaned down to fish around in one of the bags. Pulling out a strawberry soda, she cracked the can open and took a long sip. “Lotta Patrol milling around. One of them stopped me to ask what I was doing. When I told them I was there to get your things, they let me through.” She shuddered. “Elves are so scary. Even when they’re being nice. I almost peed my pants when they asked for my name.”
Dahlia waved her hand at the soda. “Gimme some of that. I need to take my pain meds.”
Cecilia handed it over with a frown. “How’s your head?”
“Fine,” she muttered around the pill under her tongue. “Just sore.”
Dahlia normally liked Pink Pop, but when she took a large swig of the soda, she had to clamp her lips shut to avoid spittingit all over her friend and the nice bedspread she’d gotten at the discount store.
Coughing, she gasped, “What’swrongwith that?”
Cecilia snatched the can away from her. “What are you talking about? It’s the original flavor!”
“No, it absolutely isn’t. That tastes like sugary gasoline!”
Her friend gave her a bizarre look as she took an experimental sip. Swallowing, she said, “It tastes normal to me. How hard did you hit your head again?”
“Not hard enough to change my tastebuds,” Dahlia muttered. “Must be the shock, I guess. Or whatever they put in my IV.”
“All right, if you’re besmirching the world’s best soda, you definitely should get some rest.” Cecilia leaned over to press a kiss to Dahlia’s cheek. “I love you and I’m, like, so fucking happy you didn’t die.”
Dahlia slung her arm around her friend’s shoulders in a loose hug. “Someone’s gotta take care of Oyster when one of your dates stuffs you in his trunk.”
After a lingering embrace, Cecilia walked to the door, her can of soda in hand. “Yeah, well, they’d have to show up to kill me. Tony didn’t.”
“Your date stood you up?” Dahlia asked, outraged.
Opening the door, Cecilia turned her head to give her a heartbreakingly tender look. “I couldn’t give less of a shit, dude. My best friend’s alive. That’s all I care about.”
That really took the righteous wind out of her sails. Not all of it, but most.
Dahlia gripped her phone tightly as she leaned back into her pillows. “You go get some rest yourself, you sap. I’m not going anywhere.”
She waited five seconds after Cecilia locked the door before she dared to turn her phone on. It took a second for it to boot up, but when it did…
“Shit.”
She stared at the notifications streaming across the screen with horror. There were half a dozen calls, two video chat requests, and a cascade of texts. Obviously, he’d heard about what happened. Even if he wasn’t related to Yvanna,of coursehe knew. He had eyes everywhere.
It was terrifying.Hewas terrifying. But her ridiculous, self-destructive heart still swelled with warmth at the sight.
He’s alive.
Not that she really thought he was dead. She’d done everything in her power tonotlearn about him, but even she knew that Felix would be damn hard to kill.
They weren’t friends and they weren’t lovers. She’d only ever seen him in person the one time, when he showed up to retrieve that body bag during what now ranked as her second worst ever shift.
But they talked. A lot.
Not because shewantedto, but because he’d decided they should. She had no idea what drew his attention her way. All she’d done was serve him a drink. She didn’t want to know how he’d gotten her number, only that he had.
She knew what he wanted from her. Felix wasn’t a subtle man. He was a dangerous, unhinged one. He’d told her under no uncertain terms that she wasn’t getting rid of him, but she still tried.
Blocking him hadn’t worked. Telling him to go away hadn’t, either. Turning off her phone for a week had only resulted in a shiny new one showing up at her apartment. She shoved it in a drawer and never touched it again.
Dahlia didn’t want to say he’d worn her down because he hadn’t. She hadn’t cracked. She didn’t respond to his relentless flirting or his many, many requests to fly her out to see him.
But… she did learn to like him. Just a little bit.
