Page 52 of Why Cheese?
I nod, not realizing how close I am to Cam’s face until I nearly bonk his nose. He brushes my cheek, teasing my fallen hair. “Have I ever told you—?”
“Let’s go!” Cheddy grabs Cam’s hand and wrenches him around to face the door.
With both of us hanging on to Cam, he sighs. “To adventure.” He pushes on the glass. It doesn’t budge.
“Oh, sorry. Let me just…” I juggle my keys out, dropping them twice, before I can unlock the door.
It has to be my imagination that I hear a loud groan from the basement as I do.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Dancing Danablu
“THIS IS GREAT!” Cheddy shouts spinning in a circle with the Folklorico dancers.
We wandered down the streets with no destination in mind until Cam picked up a sound. After trailing it for blocks like a bloodhound, the little sound became exuberant trumpets, violins, and happy singing. We discovered a street fair, or maybe a block party in full swing. All I know is that the long flailing skirts on the women dancing up a storm remind me of blooming cactus flowers, the food cart sells horchata, and I don’t have to think about a cheese shop for a few hours.
Two of the women with massive grins break off to take Cheddy by the arms. They try to show him the steps but he’s too busy doing his own thing to realize what’s happening. “I’m getting dizzy!” he shouts over the trumpets. “And I love it!”
“He’s having fun,” I cry out to Cam who stands behind me. I sat on a bench to watch Cheddy, letting the plate of quesabirria tacos on my lap grow cold.
“There is nowhere on this lord’s green earth where Chedward cannot find fun. We’ve certainly looked a place or two.” He sits down beside me and drinks through a curly green straw with the suave air of a roguish bandit puffing on a cigarette. “Mm, this tankard is garish, but the gut rot is wonderful.”
“Olé!” Cheddy shouts ten seconds after the song has ended. He jumps up and down clapping, asking for another.
“I can’t wrap my mind around him being a knight.”
“No?” Cam asks.
“He’s just so happy all the time. Doesn’t seem to have a care in the world.”
“I dare say it requires a man with a mind of fluff to willingly dress in a tin can on a blisteringly hot day.”
That makes some sense, I guess. “But aren’t knights supposed to brood over their lady’s fair token and swear undying fealty to her? If I gave Cheddy a handkerchief he’d blow his nose in it.”
Cam laughs. “Quite. I spent most of my life avoiding the whiff of a lawman, but any knight I had the misfortune to encounter was more of the stab first, not bother with questions nature.”
“Is that how you and Cheddy wound up together?” I ask.
A great bubble bursts from inside Cam’s cup, sloshing the margarita over the side. He coughs hard and shakes his head. “That’s a rather personal question.”
“It’s just, he’s so different from you, and Brie, and… Oh.” I just heard what I said to him. “No. I meant like as a group. Together. As friends! You don’t have to tell me what you— If you evendoanything. I’m gonna shut up.”
“Why? It’s delightful watching you stutter in embarrassment, like a baby fawn slipping on the ice.”
I shove my shoulder into him and Cam laughs. We sit together watching Cheddy attempt jigging. He keeps kicking up his feet and slapping the bottoms of his shoes.
“You’re wondering how the mousy one, the boisterous one, the sullen one, and the dastardly charming and incredibly handsome one could find themselves together in a cheese shop in the New World?” Cam tips back his glass, hunting for ice. “In truth, we had no choice in the matter.”
He goes quiet as ice cubes slink down his throat, so I ask, “What do you mean?”
“What binds us, this curse, also draws us together. Even as we hide to protect ourselves from gawkers or diners, often traversing thousands of miles to do it, we keep finding ourselves flung together.” He grows quiet, his voice almost as soft as Brie’s. “No matter what we do to sever the bond.”
Cheddy finishes his big spinning round and slams both of his palms on the table beside me. “Did you see me? Whew. I worked up quite the appetite.” He picks up three tacos with one hand and shoves them in without a second thought.
“You sure can eat,” I say.
“That’s nothing,” Cheddy damn near shouts. “Give me a mess of ox bones and I can clear all the marrow out with just my tongue.” Needing to demonstrate, he sticks his tongue out a good seven inches and starts to twirl it.
