Andi’s eyebrows rose. “Do you want me to be Robin Hood, or are you whoring me out?” she teased.
“It’s a fine line, is all I’m saying.” Eumie closed their eyes and raised their hands up into prayer, intoning like a yoga instructor during Shavasana. “Go where the vagina takes you. You only live once.” And then they winked open one sly eye. “But if your vagina takes you into a billionaire’s mansion, you should definitely steal some shit. It’s not like he’ll know.”
“Eumie!” Andi protested.
“What?” Eumie answered with a straight face, before snickering into laughter.
“You know what!” Andi said, laughing along. “I’m dying. You’ve killed me, so I’m dead. No more about my vagina—”
“And speaking of dead things,” Eumie said, giving Andi a knowing look.
“Oh. My. God!” Andi sputtered. “You’re lucky I love you!”
“I am!” they agreed. “But it’s time you took down that shrine to Josh up in there. He couldn’t handle you because he didn’t deserve you. So, flip the sign between your legs from closed to open. You’re too young for that nonsense,” Eumie said, waving her away with both hands. “Go have fun. Even if it is with the devil.”
Andi grinned at her friend, trying to keep her thoughts off her face as her heart beat quickly.
He’s not a devil.
He’s a dragon.
Andi crept back up her stairs to her apartment, closing the door gently behind herself and quietly taking off her shoes, hoping beyond hope that she could dodge Sammy until she got into her shower.
“Hi! I’m alive! Going to sleep now!” she announced the second her hand was on her bedroom door handle, and she heard Sammy’s sleep-muffled response as she darted inside. She braced herself against her bedroom door, happy to see her normal things again. Her cheap red rug peeking around the edges of her bed made with cotton penguin-patterned sheets. Her secondhand chair covered in clothes she hadn’t bothered to put away. Her desk covered books and bills and a treasured family portrait of the three of them—her, her brother, and mom, all smiling at her dad who’d been taking the picture—but it was just as well he wasn’t in the photo now. To the left was a small bookshelf with even more books on it. More than a few of them had dragons in them and what the hell did they know! To the right was a floor-length mirror so she could check herself over before going out. A framed Fast and the Furious poster Sammy’d given her was on one wall in lieu of any real art. Sammy had pried it off her own bedroom wall to give to her when Josh had bailed because she needed better men—like Vin Diesel and the Rock—in her life, even if they were unattainable, except for in her imagination.
And thinking of imaginary things—the wheels that’d been propelling her forward fell off, and her mind started to spiral.
Everything Grand Auntie Kim had told her was true! He’d seen her naked—and she’d seen him naked—and she’d seen him with wings and scales because he was a dragon! A freaking dragon!
The knowledge of what he was and what had happened had been bouncing around inside her head like a pinball ever since she’d woken up inside his car. He’d saved her life—more than once—but he was a dragon, a dragon, a dragon! Some primal, frightened part of her kept shouting. But he didn’t look like one just minutes ago—completely human and covered in the same mess she was—although somehow, he’d worn it better, which was completely unfair.
What would Auntie Kim say now, if she were still alive? Why were there never girls in cars with dragons in any of Auntie Kim’s fables?
Could you still call them fables if they were real?
Andi opened a desk drawer, shoving a few pairs of glasses in multiple sizes and colors over and tossed the envelope of cash alongside them. Then she carefully stripped far away from her bed. She was guessing that the blue stuff wasn’t poisonous, especially seeing as Damian had had so much on him, but she had no idea what it’d do to her washing machine. She should have asked him what was more appropriate—ritually burning her clothes or just throwing them in the trash.
But it didn’t matter now because she could afford to buy new things—thanks to Damian.
She hadn’t looked into the envelope, but she was sure it was full of hundreds—months’ worth of scamming for overtime shifts for her, but nothing to him. Just money he’d found between his couch cushions; in his “castle” there were a lot of couches.
In the ordinariness of her room, his life seemed utterly impossible.
Andi went to rub her temple and caught herself in time. She desperately had to get clean.
For a slightly higher portion of the rent, she had the privilege of her own attached bathroom, and she went into it quickly, stepping into the tub and pulling the glass door closed. She turned the shower to maximum heat, knowing it’d take half of her shower for it to even warm up the way the pipes here worked. She went through half a bar of soap, lathering every part of her body, and then took her time scrubbing at her scalp and hair until she was sure it was clean. The entire time only one thought echoed in her exhausted mind: what on earth could someone like him want with me?
Is that what Mom thought when she first met Dad? Her mother had been a true romantic. She’d never met a Hallmark movie she didn’t like, plus she’d been raised super sheltered. Which was why she’d fallen for all of their dad’s lines—hook, line, and sinker. Even after she’d found out about the other family. His real family. Because it turned out she and Danny and her mom were the extra ones, which explained why he was mostly away on “business trips” when they were growing up. Her mother’d spent half their childhood covering for him, waiting for him to wise up and choose their family at long last, and it’d never happened. And once his other family figured out what he was up to, she’d made him give them up.
Andi would’ve liked to pretend that that part gave him pause—that he’d actually tried to fight for them—except she knew that wasn’t true.
Mostly.
He did fight—but just for Danny.
Danny could carry on the family name. Seemed her dad’s “real” wife had never given him a son. So, they offered Danny a place in the family; it would have meant skiing in Europe, summers in the Mediterranean, and fancy European boarding school like all the other super rich kids of Asia.
Danny’d torn up the letter on the spot, thrown it into the trash can, and spit after it—she could still see him doing that now in her mind, bright and clear—and it was the only reason she still put up with all of his bullshit.
Because he could’ve gone too, but he chose to stay.
Andi breathed in deep the steam of the shower and stepped on the tub’s plug, sealing it up before turning the faucet on, catching all of the now hot water for her to soak in.
So, what did a dragon want with her?
When she’d woken in Damian’s car, her first thought had been to escape, yes, when the wave of panic and memories of everything that’d happened hit. But she’d stopped herself. Why?
Because she knew if she got out, she’d be left with more questions than answers. And the longer she was with him, the more chances he might spill. She didn’t have Auntie Kim to ask things of anymore, after all. And as she inspected her motivations, she found she really didn’t want to go the rest of her life not knowing. It would be like going from the noontime sun back into a cave.