Page 37

“No kidding,” I say. “Um, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s like they say…”

She pauses, lifting a finger in the air just as the chorus kicks in over the speakers, and now I realize where I know the song from. Chicago, the musical. He had it coming…

I can’t help it. I grin. Corny, maybe, but kind of perfect.

Zuzu, meanwhile, leans back to examine the spattering of liquor on the ground that Emerald’s now sopping up with a rag scooted around under her stiletto. “Just a shame you waste good tequila on him,” she observes.

“Oh, that shit? Please. Total rotgut.” Treasure snorts. “But I’ll charge him like it’s Don Julio.”

“I’ll drink to that.” I raise my Tiki mug and clink it against Treasure’s soda water and Zuzu’s shot glass. And somehow, between Pan getting his ass handed to him and me and Zuzu having some actual semblance of a plan, for the first time in a long time, I have the strangest feeling that things maybe might be okay.

“I almost forgot,” Zuzu says, as we finish our first round of drinks. “I bring presents.”

“Presents?” I frown. “You didn’t have to⁠—”

She ignores me and swings around a crossbody bag, pulling out something small and white—a poker chip, maybe.

“Here you go,” she says, triumphantly, and presents me with it.

I stare. “What…is it?”

Zuzu sighs. “AirTag. I use them all the time, and after you lose Wendy, I am thinking⁠—”

“You want me to AirTag a kid?”

“No, no, no!” Zuzu waves her hands in the air and taps the top of the little plastic piece, where there’s a tiny loop and keyring. “See? Is for dog collar.”

“Oh,” I say. “For Nana.”

Zuzu winks and points at me. “Exact. Although,” she adds, “I do have kids’ class now. Well, girls only, of course. For self-defense.” She nods at me. “You want to bring Wendy around to learn?”

“No kidding?” I say. “Sure. I mean, I’ll ask her, but⁠—”

“—but no one wants her getting kidnapped,” Zuzu says. “Except Pan, maybe.”

I scowl into the dregs of my tiki mug and pocket the AirTag. “No comment. But thanks for the present. And the invite.”

Zuzu nods. “Schedule is on website. Bring her by whenever.” She sets down her empty, glances around the bar, and deftly changes the subject. “This place is nice, eh?”

I nod-shrug, then remember, stupidly, that I invited her here. “Thanks for coming all the way out,” I say quickly. “And yeah, it…has its charms,” I acknowledge.

“I’m not disagreeing,” she says. “Good-looking waitstaff.”

“What can I get you?” As if on cue, the new girl, Diamond, appears and throws Zuzu a smile.

“Vodka,” Zuzu says, flashing two fingers. “Double.” She raises a flattened hand. “Straight up.”

Diamond nods. “Of course, be right back.”

Satisfied, Zuzu nods, then casts a wayward glance at my now third tiki mug of the night. “You one of those fancy drink girls?”

I take it. I open my mouth to deny it, and then think better of it. “Honestly, I don’t know what kind of girl I am,” I say, lifting the mug, “but this is tasty, so…”

“I’ll drink to that,” Zuzu says as Diamond hustles back over with her vodka. She clinks her glass to mine. “Cheers.”

“Right back at you,” I say, and take a measured sip of my mai tai while Zuzu throws back her own vodka.