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“She stopped bringing the food truck by the office for two entire months.”
“Yeah, I guess I remember that,” he said. “But she wasn’t that far away, right? She was parked over in the bank parking lot, and people just walked over there instead. I mean, I walked over there a couple times, and I think I convinced her to come back. Or I tried, anyway. She said she was just doing it because she thought it would be weird, and I assured her it was no big deal, and—”
“Briars and tangles! How can you be so maddeningly stupid, Decker?”
He sat down on her couch. “I don’t know? How am I being stupid?”
“She liked you.”
“You were not in this relationship,” he said.
“I mean, how could she not like you?” said Essence, suddenly seeming to decide that her kitchen counter needed reorganizing. As she spoke, she straightened appliances and rearranged ladles and spatulas which were sticking up out of a big vase. “You’re all steady and dependable and attractive and comforting and supportive, and you look like… you know the way you look, and you have wings, and you’re funny and sweet and really good at understanding people, and you’re so smart, and—”
“Uh, I’m blushing, but… why do I get the feeling you’re saying all of this nice stuff as a prelude to a huge insult?”
She turned around and looked into his eyes. “She wasn’t good enough for you, though. That’s why you dumped her.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I just didn’t want to be with her because she wasn’t you.”
Essence’s expression went molten. She sputtered, angry.
“How is that a bad thing to say?”
She stalked out of the kitchen. He heard the door to her bedroom shut very firmly. It wasn’t quite a slam, not exactly, who really slammed doors? Anyway, she was mad.
He dragged a hand over his face.
On the other hand, could he handle a relationship with this woman?
To some degree, her changeability excited him. She was unpredictable and fun. She was an adventure. In another way, though, he was annoyed. What the fuck?
12:55 a.m.
ESSENCE INSISTED ON answering the door herself, even though she’d spend the past ten minutes pacing in her bedroom, alone, fuming, because the whole room smelled like sex, and it smelled like Decker, and she was far and away gone for Decker, and it was a disaster, and how had she let this even happen?
The Larissa thing, it had reminded her of her original objection to all of this.
She was not good enough for Decker.
She knew it. Decker would figure it out, too.
Larissa smiled in the doorway. “I’m so happy for you guys, really. He talked about you all the time when we were dating, you know? I mean, he made it this thing at the beginning about how you guys were friends, and that I should never feel threatened, so, obviously, you were super threatening. I never tried so hard in a relationship.”
Essence opened the door wider. “Um, hi.”
“Right.” Larissa let out a little laugh. She was half dwarf, but also half mermaid. She was short and a little bit pleasantly chubby, but she had a kind of ethereal grace to her limbs and movements. And apparently, there were scales on her legs, but Essence had never seen her in shorts or anything, so she didn’t know. “Here I am, not even saying hello, just launching into weird, nervous speeches. I’ll just get my key. This is the cherry on top of a really awful Friday night, let me tell you.”
“Um, I’m sorry,” said Essence. And she wasn’t sure if she was expressing sympathy for the evening or apologizing for the way she’d thought of Larissa all this time. It was kind of a revelation that Decker had been into her for so long, and it should have been a nice thing, but it actually made everything worse.
“No, not your fault,” said Larissa.
“Do you want to come in?” said Essence.
“I don’t have to,” said Larissa.
Decker was hovering behind Essence. He thrust out a hand, palm open, key in the middle.
“Perfect,” said Larissa, snatching it up.
