Page 66 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

Maybe one of them will get fed up and eat her.

God, it felt like some of the commenterswantedthat to happen. They didn’t even know me, and they wanted me flayed open for their enjoyment.

Another picture of me and Az leaving the venue, his arm wrapped protectively around me.

Nice to know the new dragons like local girls. Maybe I’ll try “running into” Az’zael at city hall.

Something squirmed inside me, hot and angry. Some random thot wanted to catchmyboyfriend’s eye?

Hysterical laughter bubbled up behind my lips. “Boyfriend” seemed like such a mild word for Az.

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Oh shit. Did someone try to dox me in the comments? My stomach twisted and turned, and I shoved the phone at Jen. “I didn’t think… I mean, he’s not, like,famous,famous.” I knew there’d be pictures, and that people might see them, but there were hundreds of comments and shares. Thousands of likes.

“Come on, of course it was going to be all over the internet that Az was dating a local,” Jen said.

Thank god Mama wasn’t on social media much. I should have called her yesterday and told her everything, but I’d gotten so wrapped up in Az that it’d slipped my mind.

Like magic, my phone lit up with a message from my mom.

What the hell, Elle?

“Fuck. Okay.” I covered my eyes. “No. Wait. Fuck. What do I do?”

“Keep dating him as long as possible? Quit this bullshit job? I’m not seeing any issues.” Jen took a sip of her drink.

I texted back.

I’ll call you later.

“It’s not that simple,” I said. It would be so easy to quit Norma’s Kitchen and never look back.But what would that make me?

“Simple? You hooked a dragon! Reel him in, and introduce me to his green friend.”

I grimaced. “I think Niemrin is into some librarian chick.”

My phone buzzed again. I ignored it. I’d call Mama as soon as I could.

Jen rolled her eyes. “Some other dragon, then.”

“Oh, come on, Jen. We’re friends and you didn’t even want me to pay for drinks tonight. You think it’s easy to just hand everything over to a fucking dragon?”

“That’s the point. He’s not a friend, he’s a dragon. They think differently than us. Not to mention, they havewaymore cash to burn.”

“It’s just weird, okay?” My face flamed, and I fidgeted in my seat. “I keep expecting Az to pull some kind of dick move, but he hasn’t. He gave me an entire fucking apartment. A nice one. Free forfourmonths because he wants to move in together afterward.”

My mouth kept moving, emptying the contents of my squirming guts into Jen’s waiting ears. “Even when he’s being kind of a dick, he owns up to it in a weird way. Like, he was jealous about something kind of stupid, and instead of pretending that was totally chill and normal andI’mthe asshole for having a problem with it, he was honest about how fucked-up his feelings were and said he was working on them.” And he’d been pretty embarrassed by his jealousy rather than blaming me for inciting it.

Jen muttered, “The bar is in hell,” and patted my hand. I gripped hers tight.

“It’s not just that. He didn’t even want a sugar baby! Christ, Jen, I forgot to tell you. Apparently, dragons give people money when they’re interested in, like, serious dating. He wants me to marry him.”

Jen almost fell out of her chair. “Like…wedding rings, until death do you part?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Probably not wedding rings. I don’t think they do that, but yeah, ’til death does us part.”

She stared at me with huge brown eyes. “Oh. Um. That’s a lot.”

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