“I’m not kidding, Mace. These talks get deep. There’s usually detailed descriptions of Hot Bunch on Rock Chick sexual activity. Do you wanna know how you compare to Hector? I don’t think so,” Daisy went on.
My eyes got huge. Not only because of what she said but because she had an audience. And that audience not only included Indy, Ally, Jet, Roxie, Jules, Ava, Stella and Shirleen but also a bunch of customers I’d never seen before in my life.
Not to mention, she was telling Mace what to do. I knew Daisy was a little bit crazy and over the top, but I suspected that was taking her life in her hands.
“Fucking hell,” Hector muttered over YoYo and my heads, clearly thinking along the same vein.
“You can say that again,” I whispered, staring at Daisy.
He caught my whisper, his eyes scanned my face and his arm gave me (and YoYo) a little squeeze.
Then Hector decided to intervene.
“You’re not talkin’ to Sadie about our sex life,” he told Daisy, my body went tense and Daisy whirled.
Then her eyes narrowed.
Oh no.
That might not have been the right thing to do.
YoYo yapped at Daisy or Hector, I didn’t know which, she was wiggling so much, she could be yapping at a random customer, how would I know?
“Hector –” I started, trying to control YoYo and the flow of conversation.
“I don’t care if you are a badass mother ex-DEA Agent hot guy,” Daisy snapped, interrupting my attempt to smooth over the situation. “You can’t control the Rock Chick Powwow. The Powwow goes where it goes. We just follow.”
“Sadie’s had a rough few weeks,” Hector reminded Daisy.
“You think I don’t know that?” Daisy shot back.
“Whatever the fuck this is, you aren’t gonna fuck with her head. She’s got enough fucking with her head,” Hector warned.
Daisy’s eyes bugged out and her brows went to her hairline.
“We’re not gonna fuck with her head!” Daisy screeched.
“Can we not say ‘fuck’ so loud in front of the customers?” Indy threw in a request.
Jet and Ava looked at each other and let out small giggles.
“I get back and she’s shut down, I’m not gonna be fuckin’ happy,” Hector clipped out, ignoring Indy’s request to avoid the f-bomb.
“The point of the Powwow, Hector, is not to shut her down but to sort her out,” Daisy threw back.
It was time to step in before the Battle of the Badass and Southern Diva escalated any further. I put YoYo down and she immediately ran to Roxie who was bent over, clapping and making kissy noises.
“I don’t think I need to be sorted out,” I put in.
Daisy’s Mother Hen on a Rampage eyes focused on me and she snapped, “Shirleen said there were problems.”
Shirleen, sipping a latte, calm as could be, chimed in from an armchair opposite Stella, “Looks to me like it sorted itself out. The girl’s been laid, my guess, fairly recently, guessin’ again, good and proper. Next problem!”
I closed my eyes.
Someone, please tell me that Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that I’d been laid “good and proper”.
I opened my eyes again, looked up at Hector and whispered, “Please, tell me Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that we’ve had sex.”
Hector bit his bottom lip and again I didn’t know whether he was biting back a smile or anger.
If it was my choice, it would have been the latter.
“Hate to say it, mamita,” he said, eyes scanning the crowd, some of whom were surreptitiously watching us, others settled in and openly enjoying the show, “but it seems she did.”
“Are they always like this?”
I could tell now he was fighting back a grin. “Far’s I can tell, yeah,” he replied.
“Why is my life so difficult?” I blurted out before I could think better of it.
I watched as Hector’s eyes went gentle and he replied, “This isn’t difficult and Sadie, it isn’t bad. They don’t mean you any harm, they just care.”
I knew he was right.
But still.
Everyone in the entire store knew I’d been laid.
His hand went to my neck and slid into my hair, his thumb against my hairline.
“Looks like the Powwow is a bust. You wanna go back or you want a coffee?”
“Coffee,” I answered. “I should get one for Ralphie too.”
“I’ll get ‘em,” he told me then his face dipped and his mouth brushed mine.
Then he was off to the coffee counter, leaving me affected deeply (yes, even by his brush on my lips!) and teetering without his body to support me.
“Sit down before you fall down, child.” Shirleen called.
I decided to do as she suggested before I caused an even bigger stir and took a seat in a big, comfortable armchair amongst the crew.
“I cannot believe you have a small dog wearing a cute sweater accessory!” Ally exclaimed. “Chickie, you got it goin’ on.”
“YoYo’s not mine. Buddy, Ralphie and I are watching her for a friend,” I told Ally.
“It’s still a cute sweater,” Roxie said, rubbing YoYo’s body all over and YoYo was loving it, wiggling in Roxie’s lap, showing her belly.
“The sweater’s not YoYo’s, exactly, it’s Ralphie’s,” I explained.
All eyes came to me.