Page 5 of Dreaming of the Demon

Deciding to put the problem off until later, I went to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready. I didn’t want to look like a mess for my own surprise birthday party. No, I wasn’tupset with Goody Albright for spoiling the surprise—I was glad to have some advance notice so I could look presentable. I don’t like sudden surprises.

I had no idea I was in for a big one that night.

CHAPTER THREE

The party went well—Goldie’s was packed with all my friends and regular customers. I was suitably “shocked” when I walk in and everyone shouted “Surprise!” I made my eyes wide and gasped, “Oh my God—youguys!”in a very convincing way, if I do say so myself.

Goody Albright seemed to agree.

“Very nice, my dear,” she murmured in my ear as she hugged me. “If you ever get tired of baking you could have a whole second career in Hollywood!”

I laughed and hugged her back. I was about to ask her about the portrait and how to remove it, when Sarah swooped in and grabbed me for another hug.

“Happy Birthday, Celia!” she said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “I’m so glad I get to celebrate it with you!”

“Aww, thanks so much, hon,” I said, hugging her back. Sarah is such a sweetheart—I might be a little jealous that she found her Heartmate literally on the first day she came to Hidden Hollow, but I could never be mad at her. Also, she’s another curvy girl, like me so seeing her with a hot, muscular Orc like Rath gave me hope that I might still find someone myself.

The party was a smash and people kept coming in. Somehow they all fit, though normally Goldie’s is a pretty small space. She must be using an expansion spell for the night, I thought as I watched Chester the deaf Centaur and H’rux the Minotaur walk through the door and somehow find space at one of the tall standing tables.

Goldie had paid for extra help and it was a good thing she had—business was booming. The Brownies she’d hired were running to and fro, serving up her special cheeseburgers and onion burgers as well as lots of frosty milkshakes in all flavors—strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and fresh cut grass which actually isn’t half bad. I also saw quite a lot of crispy hay salads going out to the herbivorous Creatures in the room.

Once the eating finished, some room was cleared and the dancing started. Goldie’s is set up like a 50’s diner with tiny little juke boxes on every table where you can pay to pick a song. People started feeding silver pieces into the tiny machines and soon song after song was rolling out.

As the night started winding down, I found myself in the corner with Goldie herself, the two of us watching as people slow danced toEarth Angel, a golden oldie classic even I wasn’t old enough to remember. The music was sweet and caused a sense of longing in my heart as I watched Sarah and Rath drift by, wrapped in each other’s arms.

“Warms your heart to see, doesn’t it?” Goldie murmured as we watched them dance. Like me she was somewhere around middle age with a full, hourglass figure and blonde hair that looked good on her although it obviously wasn’t her natural color.

“Yes, it does,” I said and sighed deeply.

“You know when she first came in here, she couldn’t say a word? To me, anyway. Rath had to do all the talking,” Goldie remarked, nodding at Sarah.

“I heard about that,” I said. Sarah had confided to me that she used to have Selective Mutism—a condition that was caused by a binding spell which had kept her magic and her voice wrapped up tight. It had to do with a curse on her family which she had managed to break, with Rath’s help. Now she could talk to anyone, though she still got a little shy at times.

“They make the cutest couple,” Goldie said and sighed. “And me still single.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” I confessed. “I always thought there was time to find someone later but it looks like later is here and I have no one.”

“You think you’ve got it bad—look at me,” Goldie groused. “With a name like mine, you’d think I could have my pick but here I am without a single bear in sight—let alone three of them!” We both laughed together and she gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t give up, sweetie. It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”

“Yeah, well…” I shrugged. “I’d like to believe that but practically the whole town is here tonight and I don’t see anyone I’d want to date.”

“What about H’rux?” she asked, nodding at the Minotaur who was standing across the room, bellowing in Chester the deaf Centaur’s ear—it was really the only way to have a conversation with the elderly Creature.

“He’s okay, I guess,” I said, shrugging. “But he doesn’t like sweets or pastries which is kind of my whole life. Plus, I’m alittlefreaked out about the idea of kissing a guy with a bull’s head.”

“Ah, you’d get over that soon enough—I hear he’s hung like a bull, too,” Goldie said, elbowing me in the ribs.

I hid a snort of laughter behind my hand.

“Goldie! You’re sobad!”

“Not bad—just horny, sweetie,” she said frankly. “Did you know that women our age sometimes get a second burst of hormones that make them hot to trot? I mean that literally—I might even be interested in a centaur. Not Chester but maybe his nephew Nathan—he’s on the Town Council, you know,” she added, nodding at a handsome Centaur who had dappled gray flanks and a thick chestnut beard that reached far down his muscular chest.

“Uh, I’m not sure how you could make that work,” I said doubtfully. “I mean, anatomically, you know?”

“Oh, you can make it work,” Goldie said with confidence. “There’s a certain kind of sex sling you can use—of course, you need an enlargement spell too, in order to accommodate something that big.”

“Oh my God—Goldie!” I slapped her arm and felt myself turning red as I giggled helplessly.

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