Page 4 of Demon Queen
“I’m on it.” She flashed a smile at Maurice and hurried away.
I put my hand on Maurice’s arm. Very nicely muscled for a pastry chef. “Thank you again for this opportunity. The Candy Kingdom has never been so delicious.”
He glanced down at the low neckline of my bodice before returning his attention to my eyes. Awkward. As Marie Antoinette, I had a very low bodice, but I hadn’t felt indecent until that moment. I needed to pull my hand away, but I had to do it like I wasn’t freaked out about touching him.
His voice was smooth, as velvety as his cake. “You are the queen of deliciousness. Perhaps we can continue this conversation another time. I owe you dinner.”
“No, I owe you.”
His brow flickered. “Do you?”
Awkward. So awkward. I made this weird choking laugh sound and dragged Gloria towards the front doors like I wasn’t running towards my doom. The old white cupcake van was visible through the thick glass and fancy bars, double parked. It had an air of serial killer. Hm. Maybe I could use that for my Halloween display.
I held my breath when we hit the doors, forcing myself out of my haven and into the humid evening air. The van door slid open, and there was Honey with Catharine behind her, both of them gesturing me to hurry. Oh. I’d stopped moving.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let go of the hold I had on the door, letting Gloria drag me across the sidewalk and into the waiting arms of my foster siblings, some of whom I hadn’t spoken with in twenty years.
I spent some time with my eyes closed, trying not to fall apart, trying to breathe, to be okay.
“Look at you!” Gloria crowed, so I squinted my eyes open to peer at her. She had the big box full of rum truffles and a bottle of pink champagne on her lap. My enormous purse was in there too. “You came out of the candy kingdom! That’s so exciting. Do we open the bottle now or later to celebrate?”
“Later,” Catharine said quickly, giving me a serious smile that went with her gray suit. “To celebrate or…” drown my sorrows and dashed hopes.
“Good. Sounds really good,” I said, nodding too quickly, like I was breathing too quickly. We were all sitting on the floor in the back of the van while I tried not to hyperventilate. I glanced around and happened to notice a flame-thrower attached to the wall above a large fireman’s axe. Huh. It really would be perfect for the Halloween display. We could park it out front to kick-start the mood.
“What are we doing here?” a woman asked from her position crouched near the back doors. I hadn’t noticed the stunningly beautiful woman, like she hadn’t been there at all until she spoke. You’d think her blue hair would have caught my eye.
“You remember Lucky,” Gloria said, elbowing me.
Lucky? Oh, right, Lucy, the slightly older girl who worked at the movie theater and pretended to be a ninja all the time. She wasn’t like Honey who was a real ninja. I’d helped Lucy make agood Halloween costume one year, some kind of monster slayer. I smiled and nodded at her. She looked so different, so much paler, and that hair. It didn’t look like mom hair, but supposedly she had two kids. I’d gone to her small and simple wedding and thought I’d have the same kind of thing at her age or older. She’d gotten married so young.
“Hi, Lucy. It’s so nice to see you again.”
She smiled back at me, but still looked confused. “Is this really a bachelorette party for you?”
“Of course it is,” Gloria answered for me. “Why else would we be going to a strip club?”
“It isn’t a strip club,” Catharine said, but her soft voice was overridden by Lucy.
“I’m not going to a strip club! What kind of example would I be showing to my sons? Objectifying people isn’t okay, whether it’s men or women.”
She was the same old Lucy. That was a relief. The blue hair had to have a good story behind it.
“The Justice League took their vitamins today,” Gloria muttered. “Lucy, put your righteous indignation away. It’s Candy’s bachelorette party. Whether there are strippers or not, we’re here to support her.”
“It’s not my bachelorette party. Those are for people who are getting married,” I said feeling nauseous with everything too bright and too loud, because I was out of my house, my world, in the back of a careening cupcake van without a seatbelt. I’d also eaten too many truffles.
“You’re getting married. I saw it in my crystal ball,” Gloria said with a grand flourish of her lime feather boa. It got into Honey’s face and she brushed it down and gave me a look. I knew that look, even if the glowing gold eyes were new. What did she use to get that effect? I could use it in my Halloween costume. That look said to humor Gloria because otherwise we’dbe hearing her lecture about seeing with different senses for the rest of the night.
“Is it to the guy I saw you with in there? Tall dark and handsome?” Lucy asked.
I shook my head too fast. “Absolutely not! We’re just working on a business collaboration.”
“He’d like to be working on a lot more than that,” Gloria said, elbowing me. Her elbows were so extremely bony. “Seriously, though, he’s a looker, and the fact that he can bake is really attractive. I mean, not as attractive as if he were an immortal descendant of Van Helsing, but you can’t have everything.”
“You’re talking to Marie Antoinette. I think everything plus a decapitation is her motto.” Honey said, giving my outfit a once-over.
“Oh! I forgot what I was wearing.” I pulled my bag out of the box and took out the costume change. Focusing on removing makeup and then pulling jeans over the sparkly embroidered fishnets and a draping sweatshirt over the pastel pink corset helped me to panic less, breathe more. After I was finished, I had a pile of hair and panniers next to me while I replaced the crazy makeup with sensible everyday lip gloss and mascara. When I was finished, I looked practically normal. The other females in the back of the van watched me in fascination as I doffed my queen. None of them were particularly interested in clothes and makeup, except for Gloria who used whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, like now with the lime green feather boa that she’d be wearing if she was at my store’s cake opening or if she was at the grocery store or laundromat. And those lavender lashes. She had the confidence to pull off anything.
