I looked at her innocently. “What, you think I have something planned?”
“It’s my birthday.”
“Yeah, so how does it feel being one of the ancient?”
She slid her wallet back into her big black leather purse. “It feels epic. In a very small way.”
“Okay, so what do you want to do?”
She looked disappointed. “You mean you don’t have anything planned? You did that stripper thing for my last birthday.”
Ah, the memories. I took her to a club called Precious Illusions with a couple of other girls from the office. We’d drunk ourselves senseless and shoved five-dollar bills in the general G-string direction of oily musclebound men with names like Shadow, Ace, and Diego. Good times.
I shrugged. “We could go there again.”
That earned me a look of shock. “But I’m a married woman!”
“Would you make up your mind, already?”
“And you’re also spoken for, young lady. What would Thierry say if he saw you canoodling with male exotic dancers?”
“Well, first of all I don’t canoodle.” I swallowed hard. “Second, I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I may as well. Thierry and me . . . we’re over.”
“What?”
“Yeah, we had a nice heart to heart this afternoon, which he ended by breaking mine. He doesn’t think we’re right for each other.”
Half shrug. “Well . . . ”
I sighed and gave her a dirty look.
Another half shrug, other shoulder. “Like I was saying the other day—”
“I don’t want to talk about this, Amy.”
She nodded. “We should definitely go see the strippers. That’ll cheer both of us up.”
“Fine. We’ll see the strippers.” I glanced at my watch. It was six-fifteen.Showtime . Time to get Amy to her surprise party. “But first I want to stop by Haven. I have to pick something up.”
“Okay.” She turned and glanced at herself in the reflection of a shop window that didn’t reflect me. She touched her hair. “What have I done?”
“It will grow out.”
She turned to face me with tears in her eyes. “Why doesn’t Barry love me?”
“He does love you.”
She sniffed loudly, and ran her hand under her nose. “Being a vampire sucks.”
“Can you say that a little louder? I don’t think the people over by the bus stop heard you.” I paused.
“Look, Janie’s here and she’ll give us a ride.”
“I think I just want to go home. I don’t feel so good.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t feel all that hot either. But I had to suck it up. There was a party to go to. A party that would contain Thierry.
“If you don’t feel like doing anything, that’s fine. But we have to stop by Haven.”
“Okay,” she said, wiping a last tear away. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave.”
Let the good times roll.
It was dark out when I knocked on the door to Haven at six-thirty. The little window shuttered open.
“Yeah?” Angel the bouncer barked.
“It’s me.”
“Me who ?”
I took a step back so he could see me. “Um. Sarah?”
“What’s the password?”
Right, the password. An extra security feature implemented just today to help keep the club even safer,
giving it a rather Harry Potter dorm room feel.
I wished I’d paid attention earlier when George had told me what the password was. I glanced at Amy,
then back at the beady eyes of the bouncer. “Is it . . .Open Sesame ?”
“Nope.”
“How about Red Rover ?”
“Not even close.” Amusement flashed behind his gaze.
My eyes narrowed. “How about,Let us the hell in or I’ll have you fired ?”
The door swung open. “That’s the one.”
I grinned at him. “Thanks so much.”
“Enjoy yourselves.”