Page 36 of Fast and Dirty
My dipshit friend gets out the last of his chuckles, moving to set the bakery box on a now bedazzled tool chest.
“Not my fault you wanted to play that game with the cards where you share your dark secrets and shit.” That’s how I gainedvaluable intel like how he’s afraid of snakes. Dangling a rubber snake from his showerhead started a prank war. Unfortunately that game night, he was also able to find out how much I fear clowns. I suppose I should be thankful that it wasn’t a jack-in-the-box he hid in my tool cart.
“I brought you some makeup donuts and some coffee,” he explains. “Just to get it out of the way.”
“Aww…thanks honey.” I mock him, walking over and lifting the lid and helping myself to one that’s smothered in vanilla frosting
“I saw your girl while I was picking these bad boys up.” He nods casually down at the donut box and talks around the bite in his mouth.
“What girl would that be?” I ask around a mouthful of pastry and frosting, trying to feign innocence.
“Don’t play dumb with me. It’s insulting,” he mutters, taking a drink of his coffee and after swallowing gets a satisfied glow of a smile. “You know exactly who I’m talking about. I just wanted to let you know I sunk my teeth into her biscuits less than twenty minutes ago.”
I feel a small ball of irritation ignite inside me and bristle up my spine as I snap to attention, turning to him. “If you want to keep working with your hands you’ll keep your teeth out of her biscuit.” I get even more annoyed when he does little to stifle a laugh. “What the fuck are you talking about, anyway?”
“She’s working down at Maggie’s,” he reveals with a sigh, like he’s sorry he has to close out this particular joke and stuffs his free hand in his pocket. “Maggie’s got her doing biscuits for her first day, and they didn’t turn out half bad. I couldn’t resist the urge to come give you shit about that one.”
“And to witness the detonation of your glitter prank.” I point at him. “I owe you for this, by the way,” as he scoops up a donut out of the box.
“Oh don’t get your rhinestone g-string twisted,” he waves me off with his pastry before shoving a bite in his mouth.
“That’s rich coming from a guy eating a donut with sprinkles,” I point out, and then suddenly, all the glitter and sprinkles in this room are making a lightbulb flicker to life - the seed of an idea I tuck away for later.
Ryan strolls in with a push broom and stops in his tracks looking down at the sparkly crime scene. His eyes shift from the luminescent spillage on the floor up to me. “Who the fuck slaughtered a fairy in here?”
I tip my head in Hunt’s direction. “This sick bitch, right after he plowed her.”
Hunt just smiles around another bite of donut, like a douche.
“Fuck this shit,” Ryan lets the broom drop and skulks out of the room.
“You’re doing a real bang-up job with that one.” Hunt gestures with his last segment of donut.
“It hasn’t been very long,” I point out, blowing a rogue piece of disco dust off my lip. “Give me to the end of summer and he’ll be facing forward.”
“Face forward my ass,” he scoffs. “Care to put a wager on that?”
The idea seed that implanted in my head moments ago is already starting to sprout.
“You’re fucking right I do,” I nod at him with a grin.
After makingsome real coffee -aka, black death- I hurry up to my apartment and take a shower so that I don’t stink like yesterday's axle grease or look like a second-grade art project when I see Kira. I ask Jackson to open the place up when he arrives, and he’s all too happy when he sees the abandonedbox of donuts. I order Ryan—for the second time—to clean up the smeared sparkle fairy crime scene. My wrath towards Hunt fires up all over again when a stream of glitter swirls my drain.
Throwing a ballcap over my wet hair, I dart out of the office and step out onto the street in time for a fire truck to blast past me.
There are no sirens, but the lights are revolving and the truck does honk at a few pedestrians to get out of the way before it takes a sharp right, the direction I’m heading.
When I make it to Maggie’s, sure enough, that’s where the fire crew - likely lead by Jace - have parked.
Breaking off into a run, I lengthen my strides, trying to get there as quick as I can, hoping Kira’s alright.
I duck and dodge my way through a few other pedestrians to get to the cluster of people gathered around on the sidewalk in front of the bakery door. I gently shove and excuse myself into the crowd and find Kira at the center, arms wrapped around herself and Maggie at her side, a motherly arm around her. She speaks calmly in Kira’s ear while soothingly rubbing her arm but I can’t help but interfere. I step right into her, placing a hand on her hip.
“Hey are you alright?” I ask, looking down at her, checking for damage. Other than smudges of flour on her face, she seems unmarked.
“I fucked up.” She looks a little shaken up.
Maggie takes that moment to release her, and I take that opportunity to wind my arm further around her waist and tuck her into my side.
