Minutes later, we reached the villa.
Zo stopped in front of the steps and just looked at the door. "Oh, fuck."
“What?”
"What are we going to do with her slave?"
“Free him.”
“That’s not how it works. He won’t just go away. Someone has to take him.”
“One of Hiroko’s friends?”
“They would never.”
"Well, until we know what to do, you could—”
"Fuck no." He turned to me. "I don't want him. He creeps me out. He'syours."
"Zo, I am not keeping Hiroko's slave."
“Why not?”
“You think the Dragon would be cool with some guy sitting in a cage by our bed? Kenji would lose his fucking mind.”
Zo shrugged. "He's your slave now."
"Maybe we can get the assistants to figure something out—"
"Her assistants! Oh my God." He pressed his hands to his temples. "You don't even understand. Their whole life has been serving her. That's all they know. Who’s going to tell them?”
“You are.”
“No—”
“If I have to deal with the damn slave, you can at least break this horrible news to her assistants.”
“Oh God.” He rubbed his temples. “Is this my karma for all that good dick from last night? Am I being punished?”
“It’s going to be okay.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not going to do it. They’re going to be devastated—”
"You’ve got to because I have a lot of shit to do today, Zo. I have a party to finish."
"I know, I know." He held up his hands. "I'm so sad, but don't worry. I'm still coming to the party."
"I know you are."
"Like, don't even question that. I'm devastated, but I'm not missing this. Hiroko would kill me if I didn’t dress you into some lethal dominatrix.”
“Yeah. . .” I thought about her and did my best to hold my tears. “She would uh. . .treat this party as another moment to dominate.”
“Because it is.”
“Yeah. . .”
He took a breath and steadied himself. "Okay. I'm going in and. . .I’m going to tell them. It's going to be horrible and I'm going to cry again and they're going to cry and it's going to be a whole thing."
