Page 104 of Why Cheese?
“Oh!” Everyone winces.
Without so much as a groan, Cheddy pops up and shouts, “Yes!”
The people clap for their new Bacchus. I reach a hand out, but the gaps are closing around me. “Cheddy,” I cry, the crush of bodies pulling me deeper into the abyss. “It’s me. Ched—”
Hands clamp onto my waist. Next thing I know, I’m tumbling ass over head above the dancers. “Sorry, sorry,” I shout, nearly bashing my skull into someone.
My feet hit the ground, I think, and I slap a hand on whoever plucked me up. The terrain is vast with a sharp dive off a cliff from a gentle slope up to a solid point.
“Hi, Vi,” Cheddy shouts with a wave.
I paw his nipple a few more times to make certain it’s him and I’m not still falling. “Cheddy?”
“That’s me. Ooh, look what I can do.” He bunches down to his haunches, but I grab him by the shoulder.
“Yes. I just saw that. Are you…? Where’s Brie?”
“At the bar.” He pops back up and starts to dance. At first, it’s nothing more than closed fists and jerking side to side, but then Cheddy takes my hand and spins me like we’re in some medieval waltz. “He’s trying every cocktail on the menu.”
“Is that safe?” I shout above the house music that beats to a raucous waltz.
Cheddy takes me by the waist and lifts me into the sky. As he holds me with my forehead nearly against his, he spins us in place. His eyes never leave mine. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“That’s a lot of alcohol for one person,” I say. And a lot of money.
“The nobles always mix their wine with water. Don’t want the knights to get ideas and try to drunkenly overthrow their reign.”
“This isn’t a castle, Cheddy. They don’t…” I say before I stare around the club crammed with college students younger than me. “Okay, they might. But still…”
He sets me down, then lifts my arm, and spins me under it. I revolve quickly, fighting to catch a glimpse of Brie. There’s a shape sitting on a barstool surrounded by a mess of crumpled napkins. Is that him?
“This is so much fun,” Cheddy cries out. “Why didn’t we—?” His never-ending exuberance falls flat. “Oh, right. Well, no more. We’re free!”
“Cheddy. Cheddy. Chedward!”
He completely ignores me. With one hand locked to my waist, he waves toward the bar. “Brie, you ol’ tosser. Get over here!”
“Why?” Brie shouts, his voice slicing right through a dead zone in the beat.
“Cause Vi’s here.”
The slumped form at the bar sits up instantly. He drops to his feet, adjusts his shirt, then leans back and slugs down the last of his drink. After raking the hair from his face, he saunters through the crowd to reach us. Cheddy’s old-fashioned dance has descended to the more modern style of him holding me so I straddle his thigh while he undulates his hips. I lean back on his arm, trying to catch a glimpse of Brie.
When a chest adheres to my back and hands caress my waist, I nearly gasp out my lungs in shock. The quiet and awkward Brie pulls my ass back against his rising erection. He brushes his lips across my throat and starts to grind. “How’d you manage to ditch the bastard?”
“Um…”
“It took us a hundred or so years,” Brie says. He burrows the tip of his nose into the hollow of my collarbone. “You smell so good. Like new-fallen snow by a fire. With a pot of glögg!”
“I wanted to talk to you about Roq,” I shout while running my finger through Brie’s hair. Cheddy takes my other hand and cups it behind his neck, then he does a full barrel roll down his chest while I dangle off of him. It’s like I’m riding a mustang bareback while catching onto his mane to keep from getting crushed.
“No,” Brie shakes his head.
“No what?” Cheddy calls. He’s got his eyes closed while swaying to his own beat.
“Roq.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about Roq. Why did you mention him?”
