“Where’s my brother anyway?” asked Zoe.
“Overnight shoot,” said Cleo. “He works so hard.”
“Well, someone’s gotta,” said Zoe before she could stop herself.
She saw Cleo flinch, ever so slightly, then set her face back in a mask of calm.
“Oh god, hide me,” said Audrey suddenly, pulling Zoe in front of her. “It’s that guy from the restaurant.”
“The one with the nipple thing?” asked Cleo, craning around. “What happened to him?”
“He just left, phew.” Audrey unclasped Zoe. “First of all, he couldn’t make me come.”
Zoe was amazed to hear anyone talk so freely about this, but she tried not to show it.
“Also,” continued Audrey, “he called me sexy.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” asked Zoe.
“Not as an adjective, as a proper noun. As in ‘Sit tight, sexy,’ or ‘What are you ordering, sexy?’”
“Got it,” said Zoe. “Gross.”
“Plus, he’s hunted actual animals,” Audrey continued. “And had shoe trees in all his shoes, even the sneakers. Like a psychopath.”
“Shoe trees?” gasped Cleo. “And they let him work around food?”
“Stop laughing at me,” said Audrey. “That is definitely an undiagnosed symptom of mental illness.”
Zoe, who was always game for this tenor of conversation, gave Audrey a look of collusion.
“It’s definitely psychotic,” she said. “You’re lucky he didn’t murder you.”
“Right?” said Audrey, grabbing Zoe’s arm. “You’re fun. Cleo, she’s fun. How old are you again?”
“Nineteen,” said Zoe. “And a half,” she added quickly.
“Oh my god I hate you,” said Audrey. “Come on, let’s go fishing.”
“Fishing?”
“I stand at one end of the bar and Cley stands at the other, and we both look sort of dopey and lost until some guy offers to buy one of us a drink. We order two, letting him think one’s for him, then hightail it out of there and drink both ourselves.”
“Truly the only sport we’re good at.” Cleo laughed.
“Except we’ve stopped playing since you met Frank,” shot Audrey.
“Because he pays for our drinks,” replied Cleo.
“That’s true,” demurred Audrey. She nudged Zoe’s shoulder. “You have one generous brother, girl.”
Zoe thought with a pang about the medical bill. Not quite generous enough, she thought. “You know what?” she said. “I’m gonna head out. It’s late, and … Yeah, I’m gonna go.”
She dropped the cigarette to the sidewalk and stomped the embers out with the heel of her high-tops. When she looked up, she found a look of genuine disappointment on Cleo’s face.
“Oh, don’t go,” said Cleo. “I never get to see you without Frank. And I was hoping—”
“I’m out,” Zoe interrupted with a shrug. “Good luck with the fishing.”
She walked away without letting Cleo finish. It was rude, she knew, and probably undeserved, but the thought of her overdrawn bank balance had sapped her of the energy to play nice. She strode back past the bar entrance and felt a pull on the back of her dress. She expected to turn to see Cleo, but instead found the door guy towering over her. This close, she could see the blocked pores on the end of his nose, the film of sweat covering his forehead.
“Heading home already?” he asked
Zoe yanked down the hem of her dress, which had ridden up when he tugged it.
“Yup,” she said.
“I know you ain’t gonna do me like that after I let you in with that dodgy ID.”
Zoe gave him a tight-lipped smile and shrugged to indicate she had nothing to say to this. She turned to carry on walking.
“At least give me your number,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” she said over her shoulder.
He walked in step with her as she continued down the block. She would have dashed across the street away from him, but they were blocked in by traffic.
“Don’t you have to watch the door?” she asked.
She had been aiming for playful, but the question had come out more forceful than she’d intended.
“Oh, it’s like that? You think you’re too good for someone who does the door?”
There it was. The shift from admiring to aggressive; Zoe knew it well. She stopped so he could not keep walking with her. The other end of this block was quiet, and she didn’t want to go any farther with this man.
“I’m just not … dating right now,” she said weakly.
He stepped so his face was inches from hers and lowered his voice.
“Who said anything about dating?” he murmured.
He looked pointedly down the front of her dress. Zoe felt a hot flush of shame heat her cheeks. What was it about her that made her look like she wanted this? She suddenly hated this tiny white dress. She hated that her cleavage and legs were on full display—the very things she had initially loved about it. She wanted to throw her shirt back on and skulk home unnoticed. She wanted to disappear. The door guy was about to say some new, probably disgusting thing when she heard her name.
“Zo! Zo! Is this guy bothering you?”
Cleo and Audrey were trotting down the street after her, arm in arm.
“Dude, can you step away from her?” said Audrey. “Invasive, much?”
“We’re just talking,” he said, opening his palms.
Audrey grabbed Zoe’s arm and pulled her toward them. “Do you know how old she is?”
“She’s twenty-one,” muttered Cleo between her teeth. “The legal age. Remember?”
“Oh, right,” said Audrey quickly. “But, like, a young twenty-one.”
“Exactly,” said Cleo, turning back to the door guy. “Which I’m guessing you’re not.”
“And by the way, we know the owner,” added Audrey. “So … yeah, don’t mess with us.”
The door guy lit a cigarette and inhaled, laughing softly to himself as smoke escaped his mouth. He looked Zoe in the eye and flicked his tongue up against his top lip.
“You know where to find me,” he said.
“Gross,” Audrey mumbled under her breath.
Zoe was relieved not to have to deliver a suitably outraged response to this, since the two girls were shepherding her back up the street toward the bar. Cleo paused in the entranceway and turned to Audrey.
“We know the owner?” she asked. “Who is it?”
“No idea,” said Audrey. “But we could, you know?”
They looked at each other and laughed. Cleo turned to Zoe, her face serious again. “You okay, Zo? You want us to get you a cab home?”
She considered it. The thought of being alone in her apartment suddenly seemed incredibly unappealing. She realized, to her surprise, that she wanted to stay.
“Absolutely not,” said Audrey, answering for her. “Taking a dress like that home before eleven? We simply won’t allow it.”
“Come dance with us,” said Cleo in a singsong. “You might actually have fun.”
In spite of herself, Zoe smiled. It really was a fabulous dress, despite the trouble it was causing her.
“But I don’t have any money,” she said.
“We can fish!” said Audrey brightly.