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“I learn quickly. I know all the alcohol that’s on the shelf.” He glances back. “Oh, wait, is this tea? I can learn all the teas, too.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Penelope is far from an ideal woman. My grandfather would have locked her in the upright box for swearing. “I don’t have time for this.”
There is tension now, and just as I didn’t care about Ben, I suddenly care a lot. I want Penelope to leave and Ben to stay, and I want peace and quiet, and for some reason, I feel I can’t have it all like this. But I can try.
“I will train him,” I say in a voice louder than I expect.
“Perfect.” Penelope turns on her heel and strides away, her midi dress flowing behind her. She reminds me of one of my grandfather’s wives, the one who pushed me in a patch of wet moss while we were out gathering berries. I was sick after and fell behind on my prayers. The Staff of Light had never hurt as much as those days.
Damien seems to love Penelope with all his heart. But there are sides of her reserved only for him, and other ones for everyone else. The sooner she’s out of the room, the sooner I will be able to breathe freely again.
“I’m surprised you don’t know how to bartend,” I say to Ben when she’s gone. “Damien spoke very highly of you.”
This seems to surprise him. His eyebrows rise so high on his forehead that I crack another smile. “You’re on a first-name basis with The Deck General’s son?”
“Um, yeah. We’re somewhat close.” I want to say more, but a voice in my head tells me it’s not appropriate. The appropriate thing would be to ask the same thing in return. “So how do you know him?”
He takes a teapot off the shelf where I’ve lined them neatly and exhales loudly. “Should we start with how to prepare tea?”
I blink at his obvious disregard for my questions. Curiosity was a sin too, back at the village. But those sins should have burned with the compound, my grandfather, and everyone around them.
“I will tell you. But first, I need to know more about you.” I cross my arms in front of my chest and jut my lips out. Damien told me it’s a pose that signals people I’m serious.
He looks at me with an unreadable expression, then bursts out laughing. “I wasn’t prepared to be questioned by such a cute boss. I used to have another job before this, and Damien took me under his wing. I can’t tell you the details.”
I frown. Cute? I’m not cute. “Okay. For the tea, you have to boil water first.”
While I teach him basic bartending stuff, I steal glances at his face. Up close, he doesn’t look that ordinary. His jaw is sharp, and his eyelashes are long and curled. There’s a shadow of stubble on his cheeks. His skin is a few shades darker than mine—where I’m the cold pale of the tundra, he’s the warm pale of the setting sun.
“I can’t learn any more tonight,” Ben groans after a couple of hours.
We’ve been serving clients together and I filled every second of free time with more tips. If he kept Penelope happy, maybe she would never need to show us her dangerous side.
“Let me make you a drink,” he says and grabs the cheapest bottle of whiskey off the rack.
I shake my head and point to the vodka. “Just a shot of that.”
It was the only alcohol we had in the village, and it was for special occasions, like when we had lifted the curse and the darkness receded.
“Plain vodka? Isn’t that boring?” He fills the shot glass with care, as if he’s handling something that will explode in his face.
“No. I like it.”
“Hm. Let me make it a bit more interesting.” He takes the little bottle of hot sauce and plops a bit inside, then stirs it. “Try it.”
“That looks disgusting.” I scrunch my face, then remember it’s not ladylike and settle on a gentler expression. “I mean, you just ruined that shot.”
“Did I? Or did I improve it?” He smiles a little crazy smile and downs the shot. His face is still for a moment, then he blinks rapidly, his eyes full of tears. “Okay, you win this time. I’ll pour you a plain old shot of vodka. But tomorrow, I will add something else. And it will be your favorite drink.”
I shake my head, but there’s laughter on my tongue. Ben is full of secrets and after my whole life turned out to be a lie, I’m no good with people withholding details about themselves. The truth is always in the details.
Maybe if Ben keeps making me laugh, I won’t need to know more. Or maybe I will be so reliable and good to him that he will relent and tell me all about his origins. Whatever happens, I know one thing for certain—I can’t wait to see him tomorrow.
Chapter 6
Present day
“The nerve of you!” Tanya sits up, almost catching my chin with her head.
