Page 13 of Lost

4

Zoey

“Zoey! Oh, good we found you. Do you have a sec?” a familiar voice shouted from somewhere down the hall.

I forced myself not to sigh, plastered a smile on my face, and turned as Damien and Other Jack wove their way through the busy hallway to me. Then they caught up with me and my smile became genuine.

“Hi, Damien and Jack. Are you two settling in okay? Anything you need?” I asked. The happiness that radiated from them made my heavy heart feel lighter—if only for a moment.

“Ohmygoddess! Everything here is just so fab!” Other Jack gushed, gazing up at Damien with big, love-filled eyes.

Damien’s grin was for Jack, but he included me in it, sharing the joy. “Z, we have everything we need—each other.”

“And thisawesomesauceworld,” Jack added.

“Yes, what Jack said. Actually, we wanted to see ifwecould helpyou,” Damien said.

“Well, sure. But what do you mean?”

“We’d like to be involved in the redecoration of the Depot Restaurant,” Damien said.

Jack was nodding like a bobblehead doll, though I have to admit he’s a lot cuter than your average bobblehead.

“Have you talked to Kramisha? That’s really her project,” I said.

“We didn’t want to until we cleared our idea with you,” Damien said.

When both of them just stood there grinning at me, I nudged. “Okay, well, what’s the idea?”

“You’re gonna love it!” Jack was hopping up and down in barely controlled excitement.

“We should tell her,” Damien said.

“Yepper, we should!” Jack said.

And then neither of them told me.

I resisted the urge to strangle both of their ridiculously happy necks, which Damien must have sensed because he cleared his throat and explained.

“So, you know Kramisha already decided to redecorate the restaurant as a big band–era dinner club, right?”

“Yeah, right. We all thought that was a great idea,” I said.

“It is, which is why we wanted to bring in some dinner-club specialists,” Damien said.

“The gays!” Jack cheered.

“ ‘The gays’?” Now I was totally confused.

“Actually, it would be more accurate to say the LGBTQ community,” said Damien. “I went by the Equality Center—you know it’s not far from the depot, don’t you?”

“Yeah, of course. OKEQ is less than a mile away on Fourth Street. I was there just the other day talking about partnering with them on the next More Color Art Show. I was going to announce it in our next newsletter,” I said.

“We know,” Jack said. “Toby told us when we were talking about our other idea.”

I felt like I was ping-ponging back and forth between the two of them, so I focused on Damien. “Explain, please.”

“It’s simple. Toby Jenkins, the center’s director—”