Ready for a drink, I opened the front door. Tor had truly spread the word. Dozens of fey waited outside, each one of them holding a bottle of some sort. My mouth watered as fey after fey entered with their lovely payments.
I smiled at Tor and offered him my eggs as I got a glass and opened the brandy he’d handed me. The subtly sweet liquid warmed my throat with the first large swallow. Exhaling contentedly, I faced the fey.
“So, Tor, tell me what you’re looking for in a woman. Big boobs? Childbearing hips?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Really? You’re going to be that picky?”
His expression turned troubled, and I chuckled.
“I’m just teasing you, Tor. If you want that, I’ll make sure to let Emily know to match you up with someone like that.”
“I won’t be picky,” he said. “Emily can match me with any female.”
Of course she could. None of these fey were picky. They’d take anything with a hole. I didn’t say that, though. Instead, I wrote his name in the slot, promised Emily would do her best, which I knew she would, then called the next fey and his tribute forward.
The chart filled up in no time, and I turned away the rest of the gathered fey with a promise that we’d do it again sometime. It sucked saying “no” to so much good booze, but I didn’t want to rile them up by collecting and not delivering. Alone in the house, I turned to look at my b-day haul. I could already taste all of it. In fact, I itched to open another bottle just to do so. But I didn’t.
The bottles of tequila I put in the cupboard above the stove. The rest, I hid in my room.
My logic about dividing my supply was simple. The fey talked, so Emily would know that they’d brought booze here. However, Emily wouldn’t know that each one had brought a bottle. That meant I could lead her to believe what was above the stove was it. She could keep an eye on that supply and think that my drinking had slowed while I continued to self-medicate in my room.
It’d be fine.
Someone knocked on the door. I took another quick drink from my brandy before going to answer it and turn away whichever fey hadn’t yet heard that the dating schedule was full for now.
The smile on my face melted away as I focused on the one fey I didn’t want to see. Merdon filled the space, looking down at me with his judgmental gaze.
“Why do you need thirteen bottles of alcohol?”
“First, that’s none of your business. Second, when did you learn to count?”
He glowered at me mutely.
“Fine. Whatever. Don’t answer. I’ll return the favor.”
I moved to shut the door, but he stopped me by placing a hand on the panel. That’s all it took. One hand, and I couldn’t budge it. He watched me steadily like a cat toying with a mouse. Did he seriously think I could do nothing?
His comment from yesterday roared in my ears, and I lost it. Jerking the door open wide, I got in his space.
“You don’t think I have the balls to face-off with you? Try me,” I all but growled at him.
We remained locked in a staring contest until he retreated a step.
“Emily will know,” he said.
I slammed the door shut in his face, showing him just how much I cared about his stupid threat. And to make sure he understood, because the fey were a little slow sometimes, I opened the curtain wide, grabbed the nearest bottle, and chugged until I ran out of breath.
If he was going to tattle, I was going to make the trouble worth my while.
He crossed his arms as he watched me and leaned against the tree, showing me he wasn’t leaving.
“Fine,” I said, taking another long drink from the bottle.
Then, I settled in to enjoy my day.
“Holy shit!”
The exclamation didn’t fully pull me from oblivion, but the clank of glass-on-glass did. My eye popped open just as Emily’s barely audible words reached my ears.
“Are you sure you got it all?”
Disoriented, I tried to piece together where I was and what was happening. I lifted my head and looked down at myself. I was tucked into my bed and still wearing my dress. There wasn’t any light coming from the window, so it was either really early or late. Frowning, I tried to recall which, but all I could come up with was day-drinking