Page 61 of Absinthe Dreams
“Mm, I like the sound of that,” I said.
“Nothing with the club today?” she asked.
“Nope. We had church just a couple of days ago – only thing I really was supposed to do was stop by and check out the distillery, which I wanted to show you, anyway. You up for driving back to the city, parking it, and going for a ride with me?”
“Hell yeah,” she said. “Sounds perfect, actually.”
“Well, alright, then.”
We got up, dressed, and took turns in the bathroom getting ourselves together, then I led her up the hall, gently by the hand, toward the front of the house.
“Ho, got some breakfast goin’ here, now! Y’all go on an’ have a seat,” Cypress called out from the galley kitchen behind the wall that made up the hall and part of the living room.
The smell of bacon hung heavy in the air, and I looked to Genesis, who nodded her head. We rounded the corner and looked into the kitchen from the front dining room, where Cypress was standing barefoot and shirtless in just his jeans, wallet chain rattling off his belt as he shifted around, pulling a couple of pieces of toast out of the toaster and dropping more bread into it. He buttered the toast and added it to the stack growing on a small plate.
“Look at you, Ms. Suzy Homemaker,” I jabbed at him, and his arm flashed out, slapping my weak-ass punch at his shoulder away.
“With all that hollerin’ an’ moanin’ y’all was up to, I figured you’d need a good breakfast.”
“Oh,” we both turned to Genesis, who had covered her mouth with her hand and was blushing furiously – which was adorable.I was sure she’d grown up around a shit ton of partying and fucking growing up in the life, but that didn’t always turn out the way you expected it to. Sometimes you got a kid who came out as an adult just as free about sex, but more often than not, they turned out like my woman – a little shy about it and wanting to keep things private and behind closed doors.
Me, I didn’t particularly give a damn either way, but still, Cy and I traded a look, and we silently agreed to knock it off for her sake and comfort.
“Sorry, cher. Didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.”
“None at all,” she said and slipped into a chair at the table.
Cypress handed me a stack of plates and said, “Make y’self useful.”
I shook my head and said, “Man, fuck you,” but set the table anyway. One of the nice things about living with Cy was yanking each other’s chains. I totally got why he didn’t want to stay at his parents’ or with his sister anymore. Plus, this place had the benefit of plenty of yard and the private dock and boat launch to get him off huntin’ gator faster out in the swamps.
“You going out today?” I asked, knowing it may not be gator season quite yet, but he’d been going out and trapping nutria lately, as well as checking on the stills we had going illegal out there still trying to perfect our shit even though we were just days away from getting the stills we’d put in the old warehouse out back of the clubhouse fired up and going.
Shipments were coming in, ingredients been got, and the liquor would hopefully be flowing in a matter of weeks.
“Naw, I’m goin’ into town,” he said. “Puttin’ in some work on the stills with Hex.”
“Was going to swing by the distillery this afternoon,” I said. “Show Genesis around.”
“Awright now,” Cy was jovial, “Joinin’ the fold, ha mamma?” he asked, and Gen laughed lightly.
“Working on it,” she said. “Only time’ll take care of that.”
“Shew, you right, you right.” He nodded. His accent was thick today. He tended to code-switch and it calmed down inside the city, but out here, it was as thick as it’d ever been.
He came over and set a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs for us to dish off and went back to get the toast. He had strong coffee in the pot, likely loaded with chicory and able to stand a spoon up in it. I’d learned the hard way to dilute Cy’s brew with a load of milk or half and half, whichever we had on hand.
I’d been so over caffeinated the one time I’d done it black, I swore I could hear fuckin’ colors and felt as electrified as the fuckin’ lines I was workin’ on that day.
“Careful with that.
“Oh, that’sgood,” she declared and looked to Cy. “I’ma need you to come to the hospital and hook us up in the doctor’s lounge withthat.”
Cy laughed and gave her a salute as he grinned and chewed on some bacon.
I shook my head.
“Fuckin’ freaks to be able to handle that shit,” I said.
