Nomi turns and offers the nervous man a soft smile. “Sorry about that. Where were we, Mr. Franklin?”
The man lowers his voice to a whisper, and the two continue to have the world’s longest conversation. If Nomi’s trying to bore me into leaving, she’ll have to work harder than this, though. My morning was ruined in a modern-day reenactment ofThe Shining, I’m covered in an itchy layer of pond scum, and I just pulled a reed out of my ass crack.
I’m not goinganywhere.
As the man’s handing over the cash for his startlingly large haul of baked goods, a cop car comes to an epic, screeching halt in front of the hut, lights on, sirens hiccupping like,wut wut!
The nervous man shrieks, then hustles away.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Franklin, it’s completely legal!” Nomi calls after him.
I cross my arms, smug. We’ll see about that.
The cop car opens, and Lil Dom swaggers out, hands already tucked into his belt. Oh Jesus, this guy? I haven’t seen him since graduation, where he spent the whole after-party drinking Schlitz beer and retching in the bushes.
“Hey, you!” Nomi dons a big, flirtatious smile like a freaky Halloween mask and waves, coy as hell.
“Ms. Wyeth.” Lil Dom smiles and tips his hat like he’s the fucking sheriff, and nowIwant to retch in the bushes. “You’re not causing any trouble out here, are you?”
“Oh, only the fun kind.”
I groan, loud and disgusted.
“Officer, I’m the one who texted in the emergency,” I step forward, inserting myself between this blatant display of hypermasculine posturing and Nomi’s fawninglittle ol’ me?bullshit. “She’s selling drugs out here without a—without a permit!”
I don’tknowthat she doesn’t have a permit, but seriously, what kind of permit exists for selling weed on the side of the road?
“Oh, you mean this permit?” Nomi waves a copy of her new license to operate granted at the last city council meeting. “While I don’t have permission to operate my dispensary in my buildingyet, I do have permission from Sparrow Nook to operate a dispensary within township lines. She holds out her hands, gesturing to her tiny hut. “Voila. Bake sale. What can be more wholesome and law abiding than that?”
Lil Dom makes a show of inspecting her license, then gazing up Nomi’s tank top to her glossy lips and the swinging swish of her high ponytail. “Everything looks in order to me.” His lips quirk into a suggestive smile beneath hisTop Gunaviators. “Looksfantastic, in fact.”
“Are you kidding me?! She’s sellingweedon theside of the road!”
Lil Dom ducks his chin and gives me a long, probing look over the rim of his sunglasses. He slowly straightens up to his full height, which is still a good five inches shorter than me, not that it’s affecting his self-esteem at all, and saunters over. “Ms. Wyeth,” he drawls, “is this guy bothering you?”
“Yes,” Nomi nods emphatically. “Somuch. But I can take care of it, Officer.”
“You sure?” Lil Dom cocks his head back, giving me a full view of his stubbled chin. “I can bring ’im in for you.”
My eyes nearly bulge out of my skull. “On what grounds?!”
Just then, Lil Dom’s radio buzzes from his car. He eyes it regretfully, sad he can’t cop it up there and in my face simultaneously.
“Go, Dom. I’ve got it under control here.” Nomi winks again. “Thanks for stopping by.”
Lil Dom tips his hat to her once more, gives me a meaningful spit that lands by my foot, and disappears into his cruiser, cutting out as fast as he came in.Wut wuuuuut, his siren blips in parting.
“What anincredibledouche.” I fold my arms as he tears down the road. “You like that guy?” The thought sets the contents of my stomach to boil.
Nomi shrugs. “We made out a few times. Comes in handy.”
I gawp at her. “You kissed him!” Then, because my brain can’t stop screaming it, I blurt again, “Youkissedhim?!”
She smiles at me wickedly. “He’s got a big—”
“Ughhhh!” I slam my hands over my ears, furious that I called the cops at all. Is this what passes for justice in this small shit-town?!
“—hat,” she finishes, then bites her bottom lip, she’s grinning so hard.
