Page 55 of Perfectly Perplexing Zombie

He waved me off. “No thanks necessary. Now, make yourself useful and take some of these bottles to Lizbeth. She’ll know what to do with them.”

I reached for the bottles, grabbing as many as I could safely transport.

“Oh, and Wendall,” Johnny snickered, amusement lightening his voice. “Try not to slough off any skin on them. That’ll gross Lizbeth out.” Johnny cackled.

My chest eased. My body was dying—again. We could ignore the necrotic elephant in the room, or we could laugh in its face. I, for one, chose laughter.

“Ass,” I muttered without heat.

“That’s a donkey, and I’m a faun.” Johnny pointed an accusing finger in my direction. “Goddess, what are they teaching human kids these days?” Johnny threw me a wink that made me laugh.

I was still chuckling when I reached Lizbeth.

“What’s so funny?” she asked with an arched brow.

I shrugged. “I think you had to be there.”

Lizbeth seemed nonplussed and scratched Trinket. The scuttlebutt leaned into the touch and chirped, immediately melting Lizbeth’s heart.

“God, she’s cute.”

I couldn’t disagree and simply answered, “Yeah, she is.”

I thought of Ray and the gift he’d given me. I could never thank him enough for Trinket. After yesterday, I wasn’t even sure I’d see him again.

A sharp pain lanced through my chest, and I furiously rubbed it away. I hated what I’d done to Ray. By all rights, he shouldn’t want to see me ever again, and yet those thoughts sucked all the humor from my body. Ray must have thought he truly dodged a bullet. After yesterday, there was no way he’d still want to bond with me. Not that I would if he still did.

Would I?

* * *

Dusk was busier than usual. I was glad. The crowd kept me too busy to contemplate my earlier existential crisis. With determination, I set aside thoughts of Ray and tried to tell myself I wasn’t disappointed when I didn’t see him in the bar. Ray was busy. He was a fairy lawyer and most likely had cases he was working on. And if not, from what I understood, he was pretty high up in fairy court life. Or at least Queen Silvidia counted on him for a lot. Ray didn’t have time to hang out with a zombie who’d decided to make a snack of him yesterday.

“It’s not all about you,” I scolded myself while viciously attacking a rather dirty glass.

I’d seen Bax drinking out of it earlier. Johnny kept large glasses around that were specifically used by trolls and the occasional ogre. They had big hands, big mouths, and big tongues. Everything about trolls and ogres was massive, including their appetites and thirst. They weren’t neat creatures and ate and drank with sloppy abandon. Pete’s and Bax’s glasses were almost always covered in thick mucous. I dropped more than a few glasses due to their weight and slipperiness.

I tried not to think about the goo sticking to the glass as I cleaned it. Who was I to judge? Trolls and ogres ate rotten meat. I ate brains. We were both equally gross.

“How you doing?” Lizbeth peeked her head through the door.

“Almost done,” I easily answered.

Trinket had moved from my shoulder and was sitting on the back of the sink. Her tail occasionally dipped into the water, and she flicked it at me. Each time, she tottered back and forth and made a sound that I figured was her form of a giggle. I’d taken to splashing her back, and we were now covered in questionably dirty water.

“Same,” Lizbeth shot back. “I just need to mop, and then if you’re good, I’ll take off for the night.”

By now, it was early morning, but Lizbeth and I thought of it as night. It was still pitch-black outside.

“I’ve just got another bin full to wash, and then I’m done,” I assured her.

“Cool.” Lizbeth released a tired huff. “Busy night. I can’t complain about the tips.” Lizbeth offered to share her tips with me since I helped clean up. I probably should have taken her up on it, but I’d refused. Some days, I found some extra cash stuffed into one of my pockets. Lizbeth was sneaky like that.

“See you tomorrow, Wendall,” Lizbeth said, and the door swung closed behind her.

“See you,” I muttered, even though she was probably too far away to hear.

“Just you and me now.” I flicked water at Trinket again, and she chuffed and squirmed with glee.

---