Page 31 of Absinthe Dreams
“Right, you mentioned her, crime scene cleanup, right?”
“Right,” Alina said.
“What’s Jessie-Lou do?” I asked, curious.
“She’s a butcher part-time, but she does the skull art and is part ofSwamp Witch Designs, too.” Alina leaned back in her chair.
“Skull art?” I asked.
“Yeah, she takes animal skulls, carves, paints, and sometimes sets semi-precious gemstones into them. They’re really cool. You should come by the shop sometime to see them,” Sandy said.
“I’d like that… to see the shop.”
“I don’t know how we’re going to fit it all,” Corliss said, rolling her eyes.
“Like most Quarter shops, itispretty small,” Sandy agreed.
“Maybe we do well enough, we can expand into one of the empty spaces to either side,” Alina murmured. She looked stressed, though.
“I’m sure it will dogreat,” I said. “It sounds really neat. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Hopefully, we’ll have our grand opening sooner rather than later,” Alina said hesitantly, and Cor reached out, giving her arm a squeeze.
“We will, and you worry too much. It’s not going to bomb.”
I smiled big. “It sounds right up NOLA’s alley and the tourists will love it,” I said.
“See, she hasn’t evenseen it,and she gets it,” Sandy said.
Alina smiled and nodded, but she lookedtired.
“It’s been a lot,” she confessed.
“Yeah,” Cor agreed. “There’s been a lot to worry about on top of opening two new businesses.” She sighed.
I didn’t know, but I had hints through the gossip grapevine. I simply nodded like I did know, because even though I didn’t, I at least understood.
Better than I wanted to.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Chainsaw…
We finished up with our other business, and it was none too soon. My ass was going numb from sitting too long, and I still had to head out to the bayou house to pick up some of my shit for my extended stay coming up in the Garden District.
We found the girls in a knot of seats out in the garage, laughing and cuttin’ up, and I breathed a little sigh of relief. It seemed that Genesis was well entertained and was fitting right in with the rest of them. But then again, the three in residence at the moment were the accepting sort. She’d probably have a bit of an uphill where Jessie-Lou and Velina were concerned, but the fact that she was accepted by Alina and Cor got her halfway in with Jessie-Lou.
Sandy was accepting of everyone, even when she shouldn’t have been. It was something we didn’t bring to her attention, because she was who she was, but itwassomething we kept an eye on.
For her origins to the club and club life, we still couldn’t fathomhowshe remained so trusting, let alone so happy-go-lucky, but we wouldn’t trade her spunky personality for shit. Shewas sort of the de facto club cheerleader at this point – shining a light in the dark times we were living. She sometimes single-handedly kept the hope for better days ahead alive.
It was important work, and she didn’t even realize how much we needed it.
Gen looked a little less pent up at our appearance, and I threw her some chin as I walked up. She stood, taking my meaning that we weren’t staying. That we had places to go and shit to do.
“We gotta go,” I said.
“I got you,” she answered. Hex sidled over to her and held out his hand to shake. She took it.
