Page 26 of Ink & Snow
Simeon nodded. “Is there anything I could say to convince you?”
“No, sorry.”
He looked at the wreaths I’d carefully piled in two more moving boxes. “Not even if you overcharged me for another one of these?”
“I mean, you could try that. But no.”
Simeon nodded. “That’s fair. And maybe I should mention that Elias can be, how do I put this—”
“A fucking handful?”
He smiled like the thought warmed his heart. “You have no idea. But yes. He’s harmless. It’s just how he is.”
“Noted. He pull any of that shit with the interns at city hall?”
Simeon cocked his head. “You mean Ella? Ella’s a child.”
He looked both shocked and defensive in a way that made me regret asking. But it was a reflex. One born from knowing that if and when certain people thought they were entitled, that they could make some kind of bullshit argument for their actions, they would act. And their disgusting fantasies would become someone else’s reality, forever. Wounds that bled into the mind, wounds that festered. I’d seen it too often.
Simeon’s face softened before I could even apologize though. “I appreciate you looking out for her.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you or Elias.”
Simeon snorted. “You haven’t. And to be completely honest, I wouldn’t be so sure online research is the only thing he’s teaching her. He hacked the Moonlight’s computers once and shut everything down. He thought I was working too much, and that was his way of getting me to slow down.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Simeon shrugged. “Wish I were, but no. He locked everything with a password and said he’d only give it to me once I came home and…rested. Blackmailed me without batting an eye.”
And then it dawned on me. “That club your third guy owns. Business and pleasure?”
Simeon smiled. “Yes. And that’s also not a secret. We’re a liberal small town here. People come to visit precisely because of that.”
I pointed at my wreaths. “I think your liberal sex club needs one of these.”
Simeon sighed. “You know what? When Elias comes by later, I’ll tell him he can buy one more off of you. He’ll flirt before he pays you.”
“He can try all he wants. Won’t mean he’ll get change.”
Simeon shook his head. “If you don’t mind me saying, I can see what he’s thirsting for here.”
I shrugged, but when Simeon bent to pick up one of the boxes, I couldn’t quite stifle a smile. Being appreciated and not taken for fucking granted was nice. I’d only have to get Amory to appreciate me too.
Chapter Eight
Ittooktwohoursfor me to get seriously worried about frostbite. Garnet, who’d not been shy about telling me that his second job was as a pole dancer atSilken Chains, had given me two cups of steaming coffee, but that had barely helped.
On the plus side, the wreaths were selling like pumpkin spice lattes. I’d moved more than half of them to the midday crowd to my surprise.
“You cold?” Garnet asked.
He was on break and had decided to take it right next to me while we shared a third cup of coffee. Simeon meanwhile sold candy cane chip cookies to a group of kids, hot chocolate to the parents.
“How could you tell?” I asked, barely managing to keep my teeth from chattering.
“You need a proper winter jacket,” he said and pointed to where pretty much everyone had pointed me upon seeing my insufficient winter wardrobe. “You should go and ask the triplets to hook you up. They ordered me this spandex thing that you usually only get for gymnastics and did a wicked job customizing it. I’m telling you, my ass has never sparkled so beautifully while I was sliding down a pole.”
“Shh!” Simeon hissed, motioning at a snot-nosed elementary school kid.
