Page 19 of Marked by the Demigod

Katya waves her over, and the bartender immediately fills a glass with a crystalline white wine. "Drink up, this'll be weird."

Aimes glances at the bartender, who does not make eye contact. The bartender seems to be the epitome of forgettable, in a way that raises the hair on the back of her neck.

"Last time I accepted a drink from someone I had a bad week." She jokes.

Katya follows her gaze, then shrugs. "Remember how I mentioned shape shifting? He's one. He's fine to talk to." She smiles, and it seems rare, false. "Most people who come in here, it'll be okay. I briefed him enough so he's not going to act shocked during this talk."

"Nothing from me, ma'am." The bartender nods, and it's like he's blurred out, he's so indistinct.

"I'm serious, drink up. This is awkward and weird for everyone." Katya pulls out a large sheaf of paper and slaps it down on the bar.

"Are you drinking?" Aimes asks, out of the sheer awkwardness of it.

She hesitates for just a brief second. "Would it make you feel better if I do?"

Aimes nods, quick and fervent. "I don't want to be the only person drinking in an empty bar. That's just weird."

"If you come in and I'm a blond woman, then there's someone in here who thinks this is a normal wine tasting." Without even needing a signal, the blurry bartender puts down a drink and fills it.

Aimes takes a large gulp of the wine, and thank god it's not sweet at all. If it was another sweet wine she would've just...refused.

Katya watches her drink, blue-screen of death eyes wide, before cracking a businesslike smile. It's the smile of someone who learned to smile from receptionists and law school commercials.

"Did he say anything about his family?"

Aimes shakes her head, and Katya moves papers from the stack back into her bag.

"Did you find that symbol in the packet?"

Aimes again shakes her head. "I only saw it for a few seconds. We were...we joked about them, about how they were too fancy for Kansas City."

"And no accent?" Katya takes a sip herself and makes a face, as if unused to drinking on the job.

"No accent." As far as invasive questions go, these are pretty mild. Aimes has had worse from girlfriends after sleeping with someone in a dorm.

Katya takes another sip, as if surprised that she's okay with it. "Did he have an abnormally big penis?"

And it's so clinical Aimes wants to laugh. "No, nothing out of the ordinary."

She puts another chunk of paper back into her bag.

"Did he...did he give you oral? Before everything else?" And it's amazing, cause it looks like this ultra professional woman wants to die from these questions.

Aimes nods, and Katya looks briefly impressed before sifting through the papers again. "Did he smell strongly? Any lingering scents or anything, especially...especially during the act of intercourse?"

"Just his cologne. It was nice, smelled expensive."

"If we gave you a sample, could you identify it?" Katya's eyebrows rise.

As weird as a question that was, Aimes nods again.

"See if it's any of these." Katya hands her a now much-smaller stack of paper.

Aimes leafs through them, idle. "How'd you narrow it down?"

And she immediately sits up straighter, and oh, she's one of those people. One of those people who takes pride in her work and wants to share it. She probably never skimped on homework.

"We first went with all the physical description, then American Based, then relative appearing age. We then narrowed it down to people who have a history of making selfish choices, then others who were in a position where having a life insurance would be good."

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