Page 110 of The Love Bandits

If I weren’t convinced this was about to fuck me over, I’d probably laugh. Because I’m pretty damn sure this is the first and only time Mrs. Dahlia Rosings has ever tried magic mushrooms, let alone Anthony and Nina.

“Joy,” I say tightly. “You can’t just give people psychedelics without telling them. That’s something you could get arrested for.”

“They’re not drugs,” she insists, her always pink cheeks getting pinker. “They’re one hundred percent natural.Mushrooms. From a garden. Nothing you grow in soil can hurt you.”

“What about cocaine? Hemlock? Fuck, what aboutmushrooms? Mushrooms kill people.”

She averts her head to the side. “It’s the quantity that can do the killing, and it was really the smallest dose, honey. They’ll all be fine.”

“They’d better be.”

I’m slightly reassured that she looks more remorseful than concerned. But it fucking bothers me, a lot, that Lainey’s under the influence of something without having chosen it. The others too.

“Is there anything we can give them to reverse the affects?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

Only time will do the trick.

Joy looks worried now, like she realizes she messed up, but it’s too late for all of the people in there to undrink the tea. Ithits me that I very much know how that feels—doing something stupid on impulse and then having to pay the price.

I reach out and squeeze her hand. “We’ll deal with it. It’s okay. Just…Jesus…just promise me this is the last time you’ll ever dose anyone with mushrooms or anything else they don’t know about.”

She nods several times, her hands messing with her sweater as she peers into the living room.

“We should go back,” I say, needing to check on Lainey. Needing, also, to see if we can at least make use of this mess and get the information we need.

We return to the other room just as Nina rises unsteadily to her feet, her gaze fixed on the rug. Mrs. Rosings and Anthony don’t appear to notice, because they’re in the thick of arguing about something related to his father. I slide onto the couch next to Lainey, who’s tracing a finger across her palm, murmuring under her breath. She’s okay. She’s going to be okay. I put an arm around her and lean in close. “Lainey, I don’t want you to panic,” I whisper, “but there was something in the tea. Mushrooms.”

She glances at me sharply, her eyes wide. “Mushrooms?” she repeats in an undertone. No one’s paying attention to us—Nina just climbed up onto the couch and shouted. “There’s so many of them! They’re hissing!”

“Is that what that noise is?” Anthony mutters.

Nodding to Lainey, I move my hand over her back in a slow caress.

“Oh. My. God,” she whispers, her eyes shifting from Nina to Anthony, who’s rubbing his forehead now, and then Mrs. Rosings. Her boss has a distant look on her face, as if she’s not seeing what’s in front of her but a different tableau, from another place and time. Her departed husband, maybe.

“I’m here with you,” I say, rubbing Lainey’s back in that same repetitive pattern, hoping it helps ground her.

“Anthony, I don’t like snakes,” Nina says, getting onto her tiptoes as if that can save her from the snakes in her head.

“Fooled me,” Mrs. Rosings retorts with a snort and then clucks her tongue. “Get down from there. You look like you’re auditioning to be an exotic dancer.”

Anthony hesitates and then gets to his feet and steps onto the couch too, wrapping his arms around Nina. “It’s okay, Nina, there are no snakes. There’s just that strange sound. It’s like my ears are buzzing. Are your ears buzzing? And the room looks different. It’s…it’s really dull in here. Where’d all the pictures go?”

“You’re worrying about pictures at a time like this?” Nina snaps. “There are at least a dozen snakes in the carpet.”

“There aren’t any snakes,” he repeats. “Why don’t you sit down with me and drink some—”

“Water,” I say sharply, nodding to Joy and Rosie, who’s been watching everything with a wide-eyed look that suggests she wasn’t in on the psychedelics plan. Good, because otherwise I’d fear for the world with the two of them living in the same apartment. “Can you get everyone some water?”

“I’ll do it,” Rosie agrees quickly, peeling off from the living room before I can tell her where the kitchen is.

“Someone’s getting you water,” Anthony says to Nina. “You’re going to be okay. Let’s sit down.”

“I don’t like snakes,” Nina repeats in a lower voice, then glances back down at the floor, blinking rapidly.

The optical illusion must have eased temporarily, because she sits down with him as if none of it had happened and primly looks up at me. “Is it my turn? I lost track.”

“Just a second,” I say, figuring I should find Rosie and redirect her. “I need to use the restroom.”

---