Awesome.
“That looks good on you,” Hades teased before disappearing out of the room. She came back with ten tampons in her hand. Then said, “If y’all go out, get me some super plus, plus.”
Then she was gone, leaving me standing there watching her go.
“Do they make super plus, plus?” I asked curiously.
I’d had a sister. I was no stranger to periods and period talks.
What I wasn’t used to was someone needing anything that extra strength.
“It’s for people that have issues like my sister,” Simi said as she walked toward me. “Do you want toast?”
Ulitza put the toast into her mouth, then started to chew on her fist.
I gestured toward the cut-up avocado. “I was putting that on toast, but maybe you should just toss it. We can have regular toast. Right?”
“She can’t have it, but I can.” She started eating the slices, sprinkling some coarse salt on it and had nearly the whole avocado finished before she looked at me guiltily. “Oh, I forgot about you. Do you want some?”
Why did it turn me on to see her eating?
“No,” I answered. “Feel free to eat it all. I’ll hold her and feed her this toast. We can grab an early lunch after we’re done with the RV hunting trip.” I paused. “Did Hades leave without the meat?”
“We’ll do it on our way out,” she answered. “Then stop at the store and get the meat. What time do you have to be back?”
“Around noon. Then everyone can eat around one. Then I’ll have dinner ready by nine. That sound good?”
She nodded as she pulled the meat out of the fridge, tucked it under her arm, then said, “Let’s go.”
I did, catching up my keys as I did, then tossing them back down when I realized we were gonna have to take the van and not my bike.
Ulitza collapsed onto my shoulder, and then she was just limp.
“Did the kid pass out?” I asked curiously.
Simi looked over her shoulder, and my breath caught when she smiled.
The morning sun, paired with her gorgeous smile, made my heart ache.
“She’s asleep,” she answered. “And that toast is currently pressed to your neck. Do you want me to take it?”
I nodded. I could feel drool and butter running down my back under my shirt.
It wasn’t the greatest feeling in the world, that was for sure.
“You did the impossible,” Hades said when she met us halfway for the meat. “Sorry, forgot. Felt stuff running down my leg. I thought I better hurry.”
I shuddered as she all but ran away with the meat, and we detoured off to the van.
“Keys?” I asked her.
“Keene usually just leaves them in the van,” she answered.
“Car seat?” I asked.
“In the van,” she answered.
She was right.
When we got there, Simi took Ulitza from me, then deposited her in the seat.
I took the driver’s seat, and sure enough, there were the keys.
“Let’s roll.”
CHAPTER 19
So, what’s that sound like? Let me tell you, it sounds like not my problem.
-Simi to Val
SIMI
“You know,” Zip said as she stared at us. “Isn’t it really weird that you’re not sore whatsoever from a wreck that had you rolling multiple times?”
I put on the finishing touches to my makeup.
Tonight, I wouldn’t be doing anything cool or exciting. I wouldn’t wow people with my athletic skills fifty feet in the air. I wouldn’t seem ethereal and captivating.
I would be a clown.
I would be holding balloons and selling the overpriced monstrosities to all those little kids who would beg and beg until their parents broke down and bought them one.
It was generally a job that was only done when needed—as in everyone that usually did it quit or was fired—and that didn’t happen so very often now that we’d found ourselves a really good crew.
“I am a bit sore,” I said. “But I was sorer from the ride yesterday than I was from the wreck.” I paused. “Though my head still hurts. But I’m so used to that at this point that I’m able to work around it.”
“Hmm.” Zip applied bright-red lipstick. “Do you think you’ll be able to do your job when you no longer have a concussion?”
“Yes,” I said, and at the same time, Keene said, “No.”
I rolled my eyes. “Being pregnant doesn’t make me incapable of doing my job. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll start using a safety line.”
“Or you could talk to the man that you’re seeing and ask what he thinks, and if he says ‘okay’ then you could make sure it’s okay with your doctor that you’ve yet to see,” Tony added her two cents.
I sighed.
She was right, of course.
I would need to talk to Coffey.
Coffey, who was making the most delicious-smelling fajitas I’d ever smelled in my life and asked me to get out of his kitchen because I’d been distracting him with my excitement over his newest purchase.
“What RV did y’all get?” Hades asked as she came in wearing her “work clothes.” It was almost as if she’d read my mind. “I can see half of it poked out behind the food trailer.”
Really, all her work clothes consisted of were sequins and perfectly placed pieces of brown fabric that matched her skin.
She had on wicked high platform black boots, and her hair looked like she’d walked straight off of an ’80s film.
I loved her outfits, mostly because she looked supercool while also not giving a single fuck.
“One that is blue and black and white that has white-and-gold lettering on the side.” I shrugged. “I don’t know which one we got. I just know that we got one.”
Hades rolled her eyes. “Okay, what’s the inside look like?”
I began explaining, starting with the master bedroom.
“There are two parts. A main living part with the master bedroom at the front upstairs and a back part with a garage. So when we’re hauling it, we can put Coffey’s bike in the back. And make it the baby’s room eventually.”
“Speaking of baby,” Zip called from across the room. “When were you going to tell us about that?”
“I don’t know why they didn’t tell you yesterday,” I offered. “But I couldn’t remember enough shit about y’all to contradict them. You knew this morning as soon as I remembered that I didn’t like y’all.”
“Your man actually told me,” Hades corrected as she prodded at her hair. “Should I add more hairspray to this?”
Everyone collectively yelled “no.” Even Keene from the other room.
“Sad face,” she sighed. “Do you think I could get away with wearing this?”
She pressed her hand to her waist, where I could see the roundedness of her heating pack for her cramps.
Hades had PCOS. A very bad form of it.
She’d suffered during her periods since the day that she’d started, and ever since she’d had to go around with a heating pad for a day and a half to help alleviate some of the pain.