‘He was,’ Mare said miserably. ‘So am I.’
‘Heads are gonna roll, huh?’ Dreama said, grinning. ‘The Queen of the Universe is gonna kick some ass.’
‘I’m not the Queen of the Universe,’ Mare said, close to tears. I’m not even Queen of Value Video!! and that’s about as low as you can go.’
Dreama’s face went slack. ‘Mare!’
Mare picked up a stack of DVDs. ‘I’m going to restock these. And then I’m taking my lunch break. That okay with you?’
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Dreama said, with a catch in her voice.
‘Everything,’ Mare said, and went off to shelve movies. Starting with Girls Gone Wild Cleveland.
Mare went to the Greasy Fork to pick up lunch on her way to Mother’s, threading her way through the crowd of locals and tourists. It was easy to tell them apart; the locals didn’t bat an eye when she walked in wearing her ripped blue tulle wedding dress, but the tourists all gaped. ‘Are you in a play?’ one of them asked.
‘No,’ Mare said over the tops of her heart-shaped glasses. ‘Why would you think that?’ and then moved on without waiting for an answer, heading for the register.
Pauline went past her, carrying her tray shoulder high like the pro she was. ‘There’s a lady over there in the booth, said you could sit with her.’
‘A lady?’ Mare said, turning to look at the booths. ‘I don’t know any
In the last booth, a brunette beauty with a fine-boned face and flawless skin sat looking at the menu with barely concealed distaste. Her ruby earrings and cashmere blue hoodie were drawing more glances than Mare’s blue tulle, but she didn’t seem to notice. Then she looked up and saw Mare and smiled, her red lips curving an invitation, and Mare began to walk toward her without realizing she was moving.
‘It can’t be you,’ she said, taking off her sunglasses as she reached the booth. ‘You haven’t changed. It’s been thirteen years and you haven’t changed.’
‘Diet,’ Xan said. ‘Exercise. Plastic surgery.’ She waved a languid hand. ‘Magic. Have a seat, Mare. You look beautiful.’
‘Well, blue is my color,’ Mare said, trying to get her snark back as she slid into the booth, the scent of cinnamon and sulfur taking her back to childhood. ‘I should have known you were here. They’re serving martinis here now. That had to be a sign of the apocalypse.’
Xan closed her eyes for a moment.
‘So you sent guys after us and now you’re here in person,’ Mare said. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Guys?’ Xan said innocently, but the red flash in her heavy-lidded eyes was just like old times, and the red ring around the black iris said Xan was cooking, magic at work.
‘Danny,’ Mare said. ‘Jude. Eldred.’
‘Elric’
‘Exactly,’ Mare said. ‘You sent them.’
Xan laughed, the lovely, liquid musical laugh that Mare had tried to emulate as a child, only to have Dee yell at her for sucking the helium out of her balloons. ‘Just trying to get back in touch, darling. Bring the family together again.’
‘How sweet,’ Mare said. ‘But you know how the holidays are with families who eat their young. So that would be no.’ She looked closer at what Xan was wearing. ‘Is that cashmere?’
‘Yes,’ Xan said, and peeled it off, shaking out her hair so that it fell over the white silk tank top she wore underneath.
The man in the next booth almost fell into his chili.
Xan held out the hoodie to Mare.
‘Really?’ Mare said, looking at it like it was a snake.
‘You can’t think I’d really wear a hoodie,’ Xan said.
‘Okay, what’ll it be?’ Pauline said, appearing beside them and pulling her pencil out from behind her ear.
‘I’ve never seen a waitress actually do that,’ Xan told her.
‘Pauline has studied waitressing on all the major TV shows.’ Mare held out the hoodie to see it better. ‘Wait’ll she cracks her gum and calls you honey.’
‘Funny,’ Pauline said. ‘So that’ll be crackers and water for you.’
‘With a side order of medium rare hamburger and chocolate shake,’ Mare said. ‘Hold the crackers. And make the water a Diet Coke. And add some fries. To go.’ With a great deal of self-control, she put the hoodie on the table and pushed it across to Xan. ‘I’m not staying.’
‘I’ll have the chicken Caesar salad,’ Xan said, closing the menu. ‘Dressing on the side. And Perrier with lemon.’
Pauline raised her eyebrows at Mare.
‘She’s my aunt. She’s not from around here,’ Mare said. ‘She’s not staying, either’
‘Looks more like one of your sisters,’ Pauline said, surveying Xan with a critical eye.
‘That would be the plastic surgery,’ Mare said. ‘And the magic. I’m starving, Pauline, and I have to be somewhere in, like, five minutes.’
‘Coming right up,’ Pauline said. ‘Plastic surgery, huh?’ She picked up the menus. ‘Did it hurt?’
‘They give you drugs,’ Xan said.
‘Huh,’ Pauline said and left.
‘Don’t be so quick to reject me, Mare,’ Xan said. ‘I have things to give you. Besides the hoodie.’
‘Well,’ Mare said. ‘Jewelry is good. And money is always in fashion.’
‘Or your One True Love?’ Xan sat back. ‘That took some heavy-duty magic, finding three soul mates for you all. And then convincing them to come to this backwater’ She looked around the diner. ‘I did manage to find them, though. Yours took the longest. Jude. He was in Italy and I-’
‘Oh, please.’ Mare put her chin on her hand. ‘If Jude is my soul mate, I’m putting in for a new soul.’
Xan leaned forward, her beautiful face smooth but her dark eyes intent. ‘I sent the men as a goodwill gesture. I don’t want you to be lonely, Mare, I want to help you. Jude can give you love, but more than that, he can give you real power, earthly power, not the parlor trick your magic gives you. He can take you straight to the top of the business you’ve chosen.’
‘Renting videos?’ Mare said, incredulous. ‘You think that’s my future? God, I’m going to kill myself, I really am. I think William has some rope left-’
‘Not renting videos,’ Xan said. ‘Have you even listened to Jude? He thinks you’re brilliant. He wants to take you to New York. Mare, you could run the entire company. You could…’ She stopped as Mare squinted at her. ‘What?’
Mare titled her head. ‘You know what’s freaking me out? There’s no expression on your face. It’s in your eyes, but your face is like this mask. Is that the surgery?’