Brooklyn smiled but held up her middle finger at me as she drove away.
“Can you be nice, Lucian?” Evey pleaded.
“I’m trying to be nice to Brooke. Tracey on the other hand, no, I can’t be nice to her. Listen…” I held her shoulders. “Look at me. Look into my eyes.”
She laughed. “What is up with you?”
“Do I look different?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. Am I less attractive than when you met me?”
Her expression softened; she stopped laughing. “Aside from the fact that you’re thinner and your hair is a little longer, you look exactly the same.” She cupped my face. “You’re ridiculously handsome, Lucian.”
“You’re the only one who thinks so.”
“Are you being vain or insecure? It’s hard to tell.”
I kissed her slowly, softly. I felt her honesty in the kiss, and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of me.
She whispered, “You’re learning to be human.”
I whispered back, “Tracey is a bitch.”
“We established that a long time ago…
I rested my head on her shoulder. “She tried to throw away your jeans.”
Evey jerked her head back. “Really? Why?”
“I don’t know. Jealous, I guess. Let’s just take them. We’ll get you a place and start your own brand.”
“Ourown brand,” she said. “Eves is kind of already taken.”
I laughed. “We’ll think of a name.”
“How about Divine?” .
“It’s perfect.” I kissed her nose. “Let’s go tell Tracey off.”
Evey walked into the warehouse and grabbed her sketchbook, the jeans, and a few other things. Nonchalantly, she said, “Lucian and I quit. This is my stuff, and I’m taking it. Good luck, Tracey.”
Tracey didn’t object, she just said, “Fine. I can find someone better. You can have the jeans. They’re terrible anyway.”
Evey smiled sincerely and said, “Good luck, Tracey.”
Even in the worst situations, Evey had grace. I put my arm around her as we walked out. “You did good,” I told her.
That marked the end of the Tracey era for Evey and me.
TWO MONTHS LATER,I was doing odd jobs to make money, losing more feathers here and there, and feeling less angelic by the day. Meanwhile, Evey carried on as though it wasn’t unusual at all to be married to something that wasn’t human. I didn’t know what I was anymore.
We had saved enough money to float us for a few months until Evey could get her business off the ground. I had to assure her that I had taken the money from really bad people. She wasn’t always convinced, and then I would just remind her that I personally knew Jesus Christ. We would both laugh because it just didn’t seem like that was the reality anymore, even though I knew him in my heart still.
We were cleaning up a loft in the city, getting it ready to become Evey’s workspace. It had taken us a while to find the perfect spot. The loft was a huge high-beamed space with concrete floors and floor-to-ceiling windows that spanned almost the entire side of one block.
“I think we should try to buy this place,” she said while we swept dust into giant mounds. “The neighborhood is being overhauled. It’ll probably be worth millions in a few years.”
