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Denise - Visits with a Tiny Dancer and a Princess
“Well, if it isn’t the little Princess.” Devon has a surprised smirk on his face when he sees Xena sitting on the couch. “What areyoudoing here?”
Saved by the doorbell. Devon rescued me from Xena’s impending breakdown over my revelation that Ryder had proposed to me in my closet. She seems adequately distracted now, so maybe we won’t need to talk about it again. It’s not like Ryder was actually serious, anyway. Even if he was, he sure won’t be now that he knows about the baby.
“I could say the same to you, Tiny Dancer. Why are you showing up at my bestie’s house? Are you following me?” She squints at Devon, hands on her hips.
“What am I missing here?” I ask, looking back and forth between them. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other.”
“We go way back. Isn’t that right, Tiny Dancer?” Xena prompts.
Devon shoots Xena a dirty look before elaborating, “Yeah, I used to hang around with her brother Kaden a lot back in the day. Before I met you guys, I was a… I was considering becoming a police officer. Little Xena here always had a huge crush on me and wouldn’t leave me alone. She was such a pest, constantly mooning over me, drawing my name in hearts in her notebook, you know, kid stuff.”
“Ugh, you asshole. That is not how it was at all, and you know that, Tiny Dancer. Plus, you’re not that much older than I am.” Xena spits.
“OK, but why do you keep calling him ‘Tiny Dancer’?” I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me. “He’s certainly not tiny, and he definitely can’t dance. I can’t believe I didn’t know you two knew each other. What a small world.”
“Can’t dance?!” Xena bursts into peals of hysterical laughter, losing her breath almost immediately from the force of her laughs. “You don’t know about his-”
“OK, I think that’s enough for now, Xena.” The emphasis Devon uses when he says ‘Xena’ leads me to believe there is something going on here. Something that I am for sure going to find out about later. “Let’s not start talking about stuff no one needs to hear about. But to answer your first question, I work security for the band and I came to talk to Denise.”
“Oh, yeah sure. Got it.” Xena backs down. This keeps getting more and more interesting. When I get my shit sorted, I’m going to be looking into this further.
“So anyway, what are you doing here, Devon?” I better break the tension before things get out of hand. “I didn’t know you’d be coming back so early. You just went home to sleep not that long ago.”
“I couldn’t sleep that well, and I wanted to come and check on you. I had an idea that I thought could help with the Andrew thing and I was hoping to talk to you about it.”
“Oh? Let me grab my list. Come sit. Grab a drink from the fridge.” I sit back on the couch, grabbing my notebook from the coffee table where I left it when I answered the door.
Devon goes to the kitchen, and Xena leans over and whispers to me.
“Don’t think I forgot about Ryder proposing. Wewillbe talking about that later.”
Shit.
“So what’s your idea, Devon?” I have my pen ready, and my notebook open to the list I started with Xena.
“Well,” he starts, opening his soda and taking a drink, “what if you just called Andrew and said you were mistaken? That the baby isn’t his? Then you wouldn’t have a reason to ever see him again. And it’s not like you’d be alone with this baby. I guarantee you will have more help than you could ever want, from me and the rest of the guys. And Alex.”
*Ahem*
“Oh, sorry. And Princess here too.” Devon adds when Xena clears her throat at his forgetting to mention her.
“You bet,” Xena adds. “I will do anything you need, and more. I’m the master of laundry, I make a mean cup of coffee, and I know how to order takeout like nobody’s business.”
“Speaking of takeout,” Devon looks around. “What’s for lunch?”
“We had breakfast not that long ago,” I say. “And you brought home a bunch of pancakes and stuff. I’m eating for two, so I know why I’m hungry, but how are you hungry already?”
He laughs. “Have you seen me? I burned all that food off just walking to my truck. It takes a lot of food to keep this temple in tip-top shape.” Devon does some bodybuilding poses a la Hulk Hogan and I think I see Xena’s heart stop. Oh yeah, I really need to know what happened between them.
He’s not wrong though. Devon is like, six and a half feet tall, and at least 275 pounds. A very muscular 275 pounds. It makes sense that he would need a lot of food to sustain that.
“Fair point. Should we order something? Go out? What do you guys want to do?”
We have lunch delivered and soon we’re sitting around my kitchen table enjoying the best sushi I’ve tasted in ages. It could just be the fact that I was craving it that makes it taste so good, but either way, it’s delicious.
