“No, no. Not my day. Anything but my day.” Roxanne’s sage eyes go wide.
“That bad?” I ask.
Kayoda smiles and pinches his nose. “Manual disimpaction.”
“One of my kindergarteners had an accident, so I totally get you,” Sofie says empathetically, but Roxanne and Kayoda just glare back at her.
They continue laughing and sharing stories that range from hilarious to downright disgusting, but I’m too distracted to truly listen in. There’s a couple making out on the dance floor, and a half-demon snorting a line of some mysterious powder a few stools down, but not even that can stop my laser focus on this bartender.
When she finally places the lemon drop I ordered in front of me, I stare up at her as I lick the sugar off the rim. At this angle, I’ve got a perfect view of her perky breasts, and I cannot seem to stop my mind from wandering to what they’d look like with her tank top off.
“My eyes are up here, nuisance,” she says, tone light and flirtatious.
“Nuisance?” I say, and take a sip of my drink.
She leans in close. “Your presence is pretty inconvenient,” she whispers, and I feel my heart rate spike even faster. The implied goes unsaid. This bar is owned by lupion, and felion aren’t exactly welcome right now. Still, I play into it, wanting her to look past the current hostility between our species and just see me for me.
Sitting up, I lean in close, my friends’ conversation acting as background noise. “So you think I’m pretty?”
“That’snot what I said,” she says as one eyebrow ticks up. A faint, rose-colored flush spreads across her cheeks, and it’s obvious the wicked thoughts running through my head are mutual.
I bite my lower lip. “Am I distracting you from your work?”
“Yes, but it’s a welcome distraction,” she confesses, and one corner of her mouth curves. She picks up a cloth and begins drying off clean dishes as we continue talking.
“So what do you do other than bartend, are you a bodybuilder or something?” I ask, staring at her biceps.
She flexes and I can’t help but giggle. “A little bit of weight lifting, a little bit of aerial silks. I also do martial arts and boxing.”
“That’s really cool. I do lyra, it’s the hoop?—”
“I know what lyra is,” she interrupts, and it surprises me. Most people I speak with have zero clue.
“Have you ever been to The Sinner’s Circus?” I feel giddy at the thought of her seeing me perform.
She shakes her head. “No, but the circus arts intrigue me. I’ve read a lot about them, even had my own rig built so I could practice silks.” She sets down a glass and picks up another, my eyes tracking her clawed fingers as they flex and move.
“That’s really cool.”
The bartender’s face shifts into a full-out smirk. “You must be pretty flexible.”
A hand grabs the back of my arm, and I turn to see Roxanne, Sofie, and Reina standing behind me and I sigh.
“The birthday girl wants to dance,” Sofie says, gesturing to Roxanne. “We took shots while you were busy flirting with the cute bartender.”
Man, I might be a bad friend. I didn’t even notice. “Let’s dance, then.” Getting up from the barstool, I wink as I follow my friends onto the dance floor.
The music isn’t my favorite, some sort of electronic rhythm, but I let my body sway to the beat, trying to be a supportive friend.
“Try to relax, Yas. You deserve a little partying too,” Roxanne says, her golden hair tied up in a high-pontytail that bounces as she walks.
“Thanks,” I say, and try to exit the floor once the music changes.
I’m quickly stopped by the bartender, who puts one tattooed arm around my waist, the other in my hand, and leads me onto the dance floor alongside my friends. It surprises me that she’d leave the bar. Honestly, it surprises me that she’d be interested in me at all, given how much tensions are growing between our species, but it’s not an unwelcome surprise. She doesn’t tower over me, but she’s tall enough to make the butterflies in my stomach flutter.
Kayoda comes up behind Roxanne and places his arms around her, his deep brown skin contrasting beautifully against the pastel yellow of her birthday dress.
Ivan and Khalid get up from the bar and head towards the dance floor, and I turn back to the lupion I’m chest-to-chest with, grinning.
