Tears pricked at my eyes as I imagined all the hard work I’d put in washed down the drain. My shoulders slumped, the dress sagging to the floor. “I’m desperate, Quill. I know it’s a huge favor, but please. I’ll do anything.”
The look of horror that had been plastered all over Quill’s face ever since I suggested she play Palollipop turned to interest and she shuffled an inch or two away from the chair. “Really? You’re saying I would be doing you a favor?”
That seemed to be working, so I leaned into it. “Yes. Absolutely. I’d really owe you one.”
Her gaze turned calculating. “And I would be royalty, obviously. A princess.”
“It’s like the role was made for you,” I said.
She considered this for a moment, then smiled. “Very well, mortal. I will do you this very big favor, and you will, as you said, owe me one.”
I didn’t quite like the way she was once again dancing with glee, but I didn’t have time to think too much about that. “Come on. You can get ready in my apartment.”
Did I have misgivings about passing a mercurial Unseelie queen off as an upbeat cartoon princess?
Of course I did.
But was I also secretly kind of impressed with myself for handling what was one very big hiccup?
I sure was.
I was also pretty impressed with my quick-thinking regarding the sidewalk disaster I had going on in front of thecafé. I didn’t have a hose, but the Enchanted Forest did. I called Cass and explained the situation. She said she was in the middle of something but that she was more than happy to send over her daughter with the hose.
Hiccup number two: solved.
(It was a real shame that customers don’t really appreciate a clean, puke-free sidewalk. I mean, if I wasn’t able to clean it, that would be something they might put in a review. But I suppose “Five stars: No puke on sidewalk” might be kind of off-putting as a review.)
Once I had that taken care of, I helped Quill—or rather, tried to help her. Mostly I offered suggestions while trying to stay out of bite range. (She was surprisingly fast, honestly.) She kept shooting me poisonous looks, but she ended up taking my suggestions on her makeup, and she only ate the tip off one of my lipsticks.
I decided to call that a win.
I left her in my apartment to wait for her entrance cue and hurried downstairs, hoping I’d have just enough time to spray down my sidewalk before Julia arrived. Happily, Cass’s daughter hadn’t just brough the hose over—she’d hooked it up to my outside spigot and washed the sidewalk clean while I was upstairs. When I got outside, she was already recoiling the hose.
“Thank you so much,” I said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”
“No problem,” she said, focusing on unkinking part of the hose so she could continue wrapping it around her arm.
I was surprised by how much she looked like her mother, although she had a certain laidback vibe that was all her own.
Then she looked up at me, and her face went from amused to confused to concerned. “Where did you get that?” she asked, gesturing at me with the loop of hose in her hand.
I looked down. “Oh, the apron? Your mom let me borrow it. I hope that’s okay.” A horrible thought struck me. “You don’t have any catering gigs today, do you?” Maybe she needed it herself.
“No. It’s just...” She pressed her lips together, her cheeks growing pink as she became suddenly very interested in the hose. “That’s not one of my catering aprons. It’s, um...It’s part of a French maid costume I have. For, uh, time I spend with my wife.”
French maid costume.
Time with her wife.
Not a catering apron.
I looked down at what I was wearing, the heart-shaped upper part and all that lace suddenly making a lot more sense.
I was wearing the apron from a slutty maid costume.
To a kids’ birthday party.
Okay. Well, bedazzled cat apron it was, then. At least I’d found out before anyone showed up so I could change.
