Page 352 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“Well obviously,” she rolled her eyes. “But Sir, I’m not exactly going anywhere. I mean,” she reached into her shirt and withdrew the necklace she wore, holding it up as if it were proof. “I’m yours, right?”

“You bet your ass you are.”

“And we live together, and you take care of me. I know you put me on your health insurance and you pay for my phone and my meds and my car insurance and shit.”

“Well... yeah.”

“And I’m collared.”

“You are.”

“So... Do you notwantto get married?” I knew before she even finished the question that the idea upset her.

“Of course I want to fucking marry you, Alice! But... That’s a big decision made in a very short amount of time.”

She shrugged.

“Wait a minute– did you just propose to me?”

A clever smile spread over her face. “Yes.”

“You brat.”

She grinned like she was quite proud of herself.

“Alice, you need to sign for the house and we can talk about this later.”

“I’m not signing it.” She pushed the paperwork away. “You can’t make me.”

She was technically right on that count... especially since there were witnesses.

“Did you plan this?”

“No, actually it just came to me in a sudden flash of inspiration. The brat gods must be smiling down on me today.”

I shook my head in frustration. “Okay... I’ll tell you what. How long do we have before the bank moves to sell the house?” I looked to the manager.

“One year.”

To Alice I said, “If you still want to marry me in a year, we’ll get married–”

“No, that’s stupid! I might be dead by then!”

“Why would you bedead?”

“I’m past my expiration date!” Leaning back in her chair, she let her arms fall off the armrests of the chair. She looked at me as if it were completely obvious.

“You’re nuts.”

“You’ve known me for over a year now, and you’rejust nowfiguring this out? And no, I’m not waiting a year. I’ll wait... a month. A month is good.”

“Alice, sign the papers.”

“Nope. Not until you marry me.”

“If you sign the papers now, we can start working on thesewonderful thingsyou want to do, and get the house thing figured out later.”

“Nope.” She popped he lips and dug one of those fucking tootsie pops out of her purse.

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