Page 6 of Marked by the Demigod

-- -- "I got laid." Aimes blurts.

They stare at each other for a moment, then Aimes claps her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, Trixie, are you okay?"

"It's fine, it's just one client, but it's the one with the neatest house set up and I had just done a ton of work on the couch setup with the lighting and they decided they wanted someone with sfx experience and I had so much fun with their system." Trixie deflates in her perfectly pressed suit.

"Who the hell needs sfx experience to decorate a house?"

Trixie shrugs, despondent. "It's not bad, it's not crippling, I just really liked it and I thought it'd be good for my portfolio." Because she's the type who has a portfolio. "And I got it from the old boss, so if he hears I was fired from it he might not send me out as much, and ugh." Over dramatic, she buries her head in her hands. "Can I come over this weekend and do something that's not related to home decor?"

Aimes nods.

Trixie sits there, a frown across her pretty face, before she looks up, startled. "Did you say you got laid? Like, actually laid?"

"Actual sex happened," Aimes confirms. "Actual got picked up at a hotel bar in the middle of Kansas and had sex with a stranger."

"Jesus Christ." Trixie picks up her iced tea, toasts her with it. "Was it good?"

She clinks her glass against hers. "Strangely so, yeah. He seemed wound up about it, though."

"Think he was married?"

"I really hope not, he mostly seemed...like he hadn't had sex in a while, you know?"

Trixie' eyebrows raise. "So over quick?"

Aimes laughs, a surprised burst of noise. "Not at all, just...like he was shocked at everything I did. Like he had it built in his head what the night looked like and everything I did was way out of the plan." And that she was the most surprising part of it. "Gave me some super sweet wine and stuff, was super nicely dressed for a bar in Kansas."

Trixie watches her, eyes keen, for a few seconds. "So...not a librarian."

"He said he was just passing through. It was almost a stereotype of a hotel hookup. Like in the movies."

Their food is delivered, and they take a moment to pick at it.

"Was he handsome?"

She nods, looks across the crowded patio. Across the street, a homeless man stares at her, eyes bleary but insistent.

Aimes ducks her head. "Do I have something on my face? Some pimple or something I'm missing?"

Trixie sits back, evaluating perhaps a moment too long. "Well...."

"Trixie..."

"Nah, you're fine. Your skin is even clearer than it usually is. Why?"

Aimes shrugs, feeling irrational, like she's making it up. Like she's just on the lookout for things to be weird after such a weird hookup. "Just...see that homeless guy over there? He's staring. A punk on the plane stared. A different guy at the hotel stared. A girl in traffic stared." And it sounds even more ridiculous spoken out loud.

"You're just noticing it cause you were horny for so long and now you're not." Trixie raises a perfect eyebrow.

"Yeah cause that makes sense."

"Still nothing from Rocky?" Trixie asks, sharp. "I can't imagine him thinking this is okay."

"Yeah, well," Aimes pushes her salad around. "He was the one that dumped me, he can't expect me to not pursue other things while he fucks the secretary, that's unfair."

"She's a receptionist, not a secretary," Trixie says, gentle, "he's not that much of a stereotype." She sits back, as if the restaurant table was her throne. "But that's a good point. You should sleep around more."

"It was a nice surprise. Actually having another person with the orgasm." Trixie cracks a smile and delicately extends her fist for a bump. "Rock on, you deserve that."

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