Page 50 of Even After Sunset

“Oh… Uh, hey,” one of the girls says, her heavily mascara’d eyes widening as she takes in my face… my chest and upper arms… then back to my face again. She must like what she sees because she tosses her blond hair over one shoulder, then leans forward and rests both elbows on the ledge, practically pushing her boobs in my face. “What do you recommend? Chocolate chip or caramel chunk?”

Only she sounds like she’s asking if I recommend missionary or reverse cowgirl.

I shrug. “Either one. They’re both good.”

Blondie looks put out. I guess that wasn’t the level of engagement she was looking for.

“I mean, you should try a couple of each,” I amend. “You won’t regret it.”

“Oh, okay.” She giggles. Her friend giggles, too.

“I can get them,” Jackie calls from behind me, and both girls’ smiles falter.

Ha. They think Jax is my girlfriend. The idea should make me laugh. It doesn’t. I guess because in another life, a girl like Jax would be a dream girlfriend: smart, ambitious, outgoing… pretty. Of course, her taste in music might be cause for a quick breakup.

“Jax. It’s fine,” I say, just a couple of steps behind her now. “I told you: I’ve got this.”

But she’s already over by the racks, picking out four cookies with the plastic tongs and placing them carefully in one of the small pink bags.

“Here you go.” She breezes past me and hands it through the window to the blond girl. “Anything else?”

“No, thanks. That’s good,” Girl Number Two says.

Blondie removes a cookie from the bag and takes a miniscule bite. “Mmm.Sooo good.”

She looks up at me when she says it, and there’s nothing subtle about the look she gives me. I pretend not to notice. Jackie glances over at me for a second, then back at Blondie.

“Oh. Um… I’m glad you like it.” The hint of relief in her voice is only noticeable to me. I’m pretty sure it’s the first batch of cookies she hasn’t messed up epically.

“That’ll be two-fifty,” she says.

The girls pay up, then linger for an awkward minute, but eventually they go on their merry way. Jackie turns to me once they’ve disappeared into the crowds nearer the stage.

“They were totally flirting with you,” she says.

I can’t tell what sort of reaction she’s expecting from me. Like I said, girls flirting with me isn’t a new thing.

I shrug. “That’s good for business, right?”

She just looks at me, eyes kind of narrowed like she’s trying to read me. It’s not the response she was expecting, obviously.

“Sure,” she finally says. “I guess.”

Then after a second she adds: “You can, you know… flirt back, if you want. Like, if you want to go and… and hang with them. Or whatever. Don’t feel like you can’t—because of me. I mean, because of this… our situation.”

It’s hard not to smile at how uncomfortable she is right now.

“Are you asking me if I want to go hook up with one of them?”

“No!” she exclaims, like she’s horrified. Or embarrassed. Or both. “No, I didn’t meanthat.”

I’m going to assume that“that”is her way of referring to sex and all its associated activities.

She tries again to explain herself: “I just mean… I don’t want you to feel like you can’t do stuff because of me. Like, that I’m going to rat on you to Richard or whatever, if you go off with a couple of girls and—”

“Whoa.” I cut her off. “I’m flattered you had me going off to hook up with two chicks… at two-thirty on a Sunday afternoon. But I meant it when I said I want to work the window tonight. I’m—”

“I didn’t mean both girls! I didn’t mean that.” She jumps in, totally mortified, as if talking about a threesome is the most taboo thing in the world. Which, maybe it is in her world. It’s highly possible, because her whole face is beet red.

---