“I never said that. You’ve told me what it means before.” I suppressed a smile.
Really there was no reason to hide the fact that I spoke Spanish, other than it was fun to mess with him.
“I call youmy skybecause you literally fell from the sky.” He guided me towards one of the many booths, this one selling hot wine.
“I didn’t fall from the sky. I rappelled down from a building.” I rolled my eyes, as he got each of us a cup, steam visible in the cold.
He sipped his wine, amused. “Fall from the sky, rappelled from the building, it’s all the same.”
“This is why I call you impossible and ridiculous.” I shook my head.
“I enjoy being impossible and ridiculous for you.” His smile reached all the way to his eyes.
As we sipped our wine we went back to the booth where I bought his hat.
“You need a hat with a pom-pom,” he stated. “Just a pop of color.”
“Color makes you noticeable.” My eyebrows arched. Fiona and I had this discussion on the regular. Not just in regards to me, butwhy wearing lime green on a job was not the best wardrobe choice for her.
Dusty handed me his cup and started to pick through them. Finally, he held up one in a dark purple. No ear flaps or tassels, but it did have a pom-pom.
“It’s perfect. You like purple.” He made it dance.
“I do,” I admitted. “And when I wear it I do prefer aubergine to lavender."
“I love it.” He paid for it and took off my hat and then placed the new one on my head. Dusty checked his phone. “Ava–Beefy Pot Roast–thinks we should go heckle Vixen Underground. She’s headlining tonight. We toured with her last summer. It’ll be a good show. She always pulls people up on stage.”
“Is she throwing cereal?” I laughed as I put the other hat in my pocket. Vixen Underground's songs were pretty standard at the clubs I’d go to in Ireland.
He shook his head, tassels flying. “Tiny plushies and candy. Her parents own a chain of those claw arcades. If we go now, we can still catch the end of the Functional Alcoholics’ set.”
“They’re still around? I feel like we’re too sober for them,” I joked. “But that sounds fun.”
“After Vixen Underground we can head back to the villa. We don’t need to afterparty. Or we can get some breakfast first. Maybe even pick some up for them. We also still have beans, rice, and soup, though we ate all the tamales and enchiladas. Oooh, we have eggs. Maybe the taco place will sell me some tortillas and I can make chilaquiles?”
“All of those sound delicious.” Not that I knew what chilaquiles were, but Dusty seemed to be a good cook.
“Oh.” He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out something. “Hale gave these to me in case we wanted them for later, given what he’d given us earlier didn’t work. What do you say? Do you want to take these, do some shots, then go listen tosome music? I’m sure all the stage decor is amazing while high.”
I checked my phone again, nothing. They were just fine. It was Christmas. I could have some fun. In fact, part of me had been a little disappointed I’d felt nothing with what we’d done at dinner.
Normally, I wouldn’t take the risk of mixing drugs. But Fiona wasn’t with me. The decor would be even better while high.
And you really couldn’t see the Functional Alcoholics sober.
“Why not?” Taking it, I swallowed it with the last of my wine. Yes, we’d catch some sets, dance, maybe make out a little, then I’d go back to the villa, kick the boys out of the room, and be with Fiona.
December 26
The snow was coming down hard as we stumbled into the warm, dark villa. A pungent wall of sex, peppermint, chocolate, and pluots hit us.
Well, she had warned me.
“That was so much fun.” I laughed, still feelingverygood, everything a pleasant, hazy blur. I went to the kitchen and guzzled some water, then brought some to Dusty.
He drank his, then his lips crashed down on mine. We stood in the living room kissing, taking off our clothes.
“Should we move this upstairs, the creepy dolls are watching us?” he breathed.
