Grace nodded her chin in the direction of the work counter, which was serving as the bar for the evening. Signature cocktails, three to choose from, all pink in color with different flowers floating on their surfaces. Beside the work counter, several dozen tiny, iridescent gift bags waited, and in front of that, several trays of hors d’oeuvres and crudités.
“Thisis how you throw a work event. Get it online. She knows exactly who she’s marketing to . . . She might have put you out of business even withoutthe corporate money.”
He turned sharply, giving Grace a poisonous look. Somehow she had already acquired a cocktail, holding a self-defensive hand up, blue eyes sparkling as she sipped it.
“Oh, this is divine. I’m going to have at least four of these. You don’t need to worry about me getting home, I already told Merrick I would probably be calling him. So you’re off the hook as the official DD. Have a drink, loosen up. Go find her. And maybe give her your own big double-D tonight.”
He had already spotted her, his eyes scanning the crowd for her as soon as they stepped in the packed space. She looked as beautiful as she ever did, even more so in her airy floral dress, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright.
Grace is right. Go over, say hello. Be pleasant. Let people see you saying hello and being pleasant. We’re all friends here, one big happy community.Ranar shifted. He was keeping himself tightly coiled, not wanting to take up any more space that he absolutely required, which was still more than the average bipedal citizen. There was Xenna, standing beside Sumi, he could say hello to her as well. The sister of the ogre who did his taxes was talking, and all three women laughed.
He was just about to make his move, when Sumi turned, her smile wide as Kenta’s sister introduced her to Sandi Hemming, who had also apparently understood the dress code. He watched as she and the werewolf leaned in, air kissing on each cheek,the whole floofy, floral group laughing together at something that was said. This was her place, in the community now, with friends. She looked happy. In her element. This washernight, her moment. And he had no desire to detract from that.
Ranar knew that he would be an uncomfortable pause, an awkward silence, and once he quickly took his leave, afucking yikes, as Pinky would say. Grace had miscalculated. He should have stayed away.
He was carefully navigating his way through the packed press of bodies, trying not to inadvertently trip one of the giggling young women waiting in line for the photo op and was nearly to the door, when he heard his name. She had even ruined that, for his name would never again sound right to his ears, coming from anyone else’s mouth.
“I’m so glad you came. I had wondered if you would and I-I was worried you weren’t going to.”
He turned as much as the tight space permitted, coiling back on his tail. She was right there, standing very close, gazing up sparkling eyes.
“Everything looks beautiful. It’s a gorgeous shop. Congratulations.” He hated himself for being the reason why the light in her eyes dimmed, each of his short utterances making her wince ever-so-slightly. “Really,” he added in a gentle tone. “It’s beautiful. All of it. It suits you.” His eyes were locked on her lips, and he watched almost as if in slow motion as her lip caught behind her teeth. “This, I mean. This is all perfect. You’re going to be very successful, Sumi.”
He turned, uncoiling enough to push himself forward towards the door, when she caught his wrist. Once more, her fingertips pressed into his skin like a brand, searing him.
“Please don’t leave.”
Ranar turned back slightly, just enough to see her eyes, which looked glossy with unshed tears. Hoisting his coil up, he twistedfully to face her again. “Don’t. Don’t do that.” He was only vaguely aware that it washishand cupping her jaw, thumb smoothing over the apple of her cheek. “Put all that away. This is the fake it till you fucking make it crowd. This isyournight. Everyone is here to see you. Go show them that you know how to throw a party.”
“I don’t want you to leave.” Her hand was still locked around his wrist, and he couldn’t tell if it was his imagination, but Ranar was positive she had tilted her head slightly, pressing to his hand.
“I kind of need to. It’stightin here and my tail is very in the way. I’m gonna wind up tripping that cervitaur, she’s gonna fall through the cooler, and you’re gonna have a lawsuit on your hands.“ He grinned. “Actually, now that I’ve said it out loud, it seems like a pretty good plan.”
“This is the only part I was allowed to show anyone.” The brightness had returned to her eyes, her rose-pink lips turning up. “The sweatshop is in the back. Promise me you’ll come back and I’ll show it to you. I’m throwing everyone out at eight, come back then. I have something for you.”
Cambric Creek seemed designed for couples after dark. Ranar didn’t know why he was making circles around the streets instead of going home. Instead, he was shifting from the grass sidewalks to the pavement, cutting up alleys and through parking lots in an effort to continue moving downhill, knowing if he kept shifting at a diagonal, he would never need to traverse any of the steeper streets. There were couples holding hands on the towpath beside the waterfall, couples walking in groups on Main Street. Couples standing outside one of the pubs, obliging him to sidewind across the street to move around their laughter, a solitary figure, uncertain in what he was doing or what he was waiting for.
Why are you going back? Just because she asked doesn’t mean you need to listen to her.He didn’t, but neither did he have a good reason to just go home. After all, he’d already made plans for Ruma to spend the night with her grandparents, having no idea what time Grace was planning on keeping him out until the first place.
They hadn’t arrived right at six, deciding fashionably late was the best entrance to make, and so he didn’t have terribly long to wait before he was making his way back downhill, tracing the path they had taken that day in the rain, until he arrived at that tiny back lot where she and her staff parked.
Ranar waited. Most of the attendees who had dropped into her open house were gone at that point, and he watched as the mobile bartender wheeled out the back door, packing up his truck before pulling out. One by one, each of her employees came out the back door, full of adrenaline and good cheer from their successful night. Sumi held the door open, talking to a tall troll as she stepped out, the last car in the lot aside from her own. He saw the moment she stared past the troll, spotting him there on the other side of the street in the shadows. Without breaking her conversation, she made a small motion with her index finger, motioning him to go around to the front.
You should leave. You should just leave now, what the fuck are you doing? What are you thinking? None of this is smart. Your life is in disarray because of this woman. And here you are, letting her lead you by the nose, still.It didn’t prevent him from doing as he was bid, pushing forward, moving downhill in long glides, turning the corner until he waited before her windows.
When she appeared at the back of the shop, Sumi beamed at the sight of him.Just a stupid snake. She hurried to the front, moving as fast as she could at her towering heels, throwing the door open for him.
“Oh, good. I was worried you weren’t going to come back.”
Ranar slid through the doorway, slithering past her as she relocked the door. He wanted to ask why she was so worried about him coming back, why she had wanted him there in the first place. “It’s a very pretty shop,” was what he said, instead. “I’m assuming they built up around the tree?”
She nodded. “That’s one of the first things they do. They bore down and make the hole and then they bring the tree in on this huge truck. Everything else gets done from there, the flooring, the walls. None of the steel beams were even put in on the front of the building until they finished with that piece of it.”
He nodded.Frivolous corporate money.
“Come on, let me give you the tour. I didn’t understand why the square footage of the storefront was so small during the construction phase. I questioned it a few different times. Now I get it.” He followed her around her back counter, down a short utility hallway, a door leading to the same small lot he had just stood watching, and on the opposite side, an open doorway that led to the design room. “Here we are. Sweatshop central.”
He couldn’t hold in a short burst of laughter. Her design room was nearly double the size of her sales floor, with two long centralized work cables, a perimeter counter, the utility sink with cabinets, a half-size refrigerator, and a mobile flower cooler. It was gray and sterile, like an operating room, utterly joyless. It bore no resemblance to the front of the store, of which the fanciful feminine color scape matched so well with its owner.
