Page 19 of Midsummer Phoenixes
Amory. Amory?
Soyer had texted.
Amory
Here. Came. Got to clean.
I put the phone on the shelf above the sink right next to the tampons and sanitary pads.
Soyer
??You really are a dirty little slut. My dirty little slut. ??
I barely saw the text while I was washing my hands and wiping at myself and the sink before the phone rang with an incoming call. Soyer had made me promise I’d never set it to silent and always answer if and when he called.
And so I did, setting it to speaker.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just, well. This got a bit messy. And I need to get back out there. It’s so busy.”
A snort. “You can take a fucking break to help your boss get off, Amory.”
“Shh!” I said, but I was smiling. “This was fun.” I didn’t speak very loudly, nearly whispered.
“Fun, huh? You’re fun. I miss you, my heart. While I did enjoy this, I’m not sure it should be repeated. I prefer doing the deed, not talking about it via text.”
I gave the sink another wipe down, washed my hands again, then my face.
“That libido of yours.”
“Yes.” A pause. “Too much?”
“No. I mean, yes, sometimes, but you always ask and make sure it isn’t in the moment. And you’re a mind reader, and I trust you. With my mind, you know. Also with the rest of it.”
Soyer chuckled on the other end, and I heard him move. I wondered whether he was upstairs in his bed or on the couch. I imagined him with his pants down, but not bothered at all by the fact.
“You have no idea what that means to me, my heart.”
I examined myself in the mirror, turned left and right. I didn’t look like someone who’d just gotten off while on break. Or did I?
“Well, it’s true. Okay, now I really have to go back out there.” I splashed water in my face again, just to be safe, dried it with a paper towel.
“You do that. Oh, by the way, Ben will be taking you to and from work from now on, and he’ll be sitting at that counter while you move your delicious butt to and fro.”
My knee-jerk reaction was to tell Soyer no, that this was too much. But it really wasn’t. Not after what had happened here, not after those two pawns, not after the vampire, the witch blade, and me breaking into flame.
So I told him, “I can live with that.”
“Good to know. But I was just informing you, not making a suggestion.”
“Big bad Black Shuck.”
“No, your big bad boyfriend. Now go back out there before hearing your voice tempts me to come over now. I’ll be by past midnight.”
“I’ll be saving you some cherry pie.”
“I know.”
