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“Hey,” said Decker.
She glared at him, annoyed with him. She didn’t usually feel annoyed with him, but she’d felt perpetually annoyed with him since he asked her out on a date. She wished he’d never done this to the both of them. He’d ruined everything.
“What are you doing, anyway?” he said.
“Hollis bought me this drink,” she said. “So, I haven’t started a tab. So, I need to find my credit card so that I can do that.”
“Oh, Hollis bought you a drink, huh?”
“What’s that? Are you jealous of Hollis?”
“Can’t be jealous,” he said. “There’s nothing going on with us. I guess he’s fae, right? Maybe that’s a step up from a gargoyle, even if he’s some kind of weird Unseelie skeletal—”
“He doesn’t have skin,” she said.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“He only has a skeleton,” she said. “So… things are noticeably absent in that equation, okay?”
She watched as understanding dawned in his eyes.
“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean—”
“I don’t find jealousy attractive,” she said. “Get over it.”
“I don’t have to listen to you,” he said. “We’re not together, as you keep making abundantly clear. And besides, is this how you are when you’re in a relationship? You just order people around? No wonder you’re still single.”
Her jaw dropped. She was going to slug him.
But he was leaning across the bar and telling Jeff, who had come in and taken over for Lucy—a shift change—that she wanted another gin and tonic and that he wanted—
“I want to switch to beer,” she said, interrupting Decker. “And I’m buying my own drinks.”
Jeff grinned at them. “I’d listen to her. I’ve heard her argue her way out of many a free drink. She’s insistent about that.”
Decker turned to look at Essence.
She felt herself blush. “I don’t do that a lot.”
Jeff smirked. “You do.”
She squared her shoulders. “Fine, then. Buy me a drink. Just, I want a Heineken, not a gin and tonic.”
“You heard the lady,” said Decker, smiling at Jeff. “Make it two. I’ll have one as well.”
Jeff poured the glasses out of the tap. “What name is it under, dude?” he said, going back to the register.
Decker told him.
Together, they picked up their glasses, but he used his handcuffed hand, which dragged her hand over.
Jeff noticed they were handcuffed. “What’s up with this?”
“Hollis is coming back to fix us,” she said. “Decker, use your left hand.”
“See? Ordering me around.”
“I always order you around,” she said.
