Jet and Ava looked at each other and let out small giggles.
“I get back and she’s shut down, I’m not gonna be f**kin’ happy,” Hector clipped out, ignoring Indy’s request to avoid the f-bomb.
“The point of the Powwow, Hector, is not to shut her down but to sort her out,” Daisy threw back.
It was time to step in before the Battle of the Badass and Southern Diva escalated any further. I put YoYo down and she immediately ran to Roxie who was bent over, clapping and making kissy noises.
“I don’t think I need to be sorted out,” I put in.
Daisy’s Mother Hen on a Rampage eyes focused on me and she snapped, “Shirleen said there were problems.”
Shirleen, sipping a latte, calm as could be, chimed in from an armchair opposite Stella, “Looks to me like it sorted itself out. The girl’s been laid, my guess, fairly recently, guessin’ again, good and proper. Next problem!”
I closed my eyes.
Someone, please tell me that Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that I’d been laid “good and proper”.
I opened my eyes again, looked up at Hector and whispered, “Please, tell me Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that we’ve had sex.”
Hector bit his bottom lip and again I didn’t know whether he was biting back a smile or anger.
If it was my choice, it would have been the latter.
“Hate to say it, mamita,” he said, eyes scanning the crowd, some of whom were surreptitiously watching us, others settled in and openly enjoying the show, “but it seems she did.”
“Are they always like this?”
I could tell now he was fighting back a grin. “Far’s I can tell, yeah,” he replied.
“Why is my life so difficult?” I blurted out before I could think better of it.
I watched as Hector’s eyes went gentle and he replied, “This isn’t difficult and Sadie, it isn’t bad. They don’t mean you any harm, they just care.”
I knew he was right.
But still.
Everyone in the entire store knew I’d been laid.
His hand went to my neck and slid into my hair, his thumb against my hairline.
“Looks like the Powwow is a bust. You wanna go back or you want a coffee?”
“Coffee,” I answered. “I should get one for Ralphie too.”
“I’ll get ‘em,” he told me then his face dipped and his mouth brushed mine.
Then he was off to the coffee counter, leaving me affected deeply (yes, even by his brush on my lips!) and teetering without his body to support me.
“Sit down before you fall down, child.” Shirleen called.
I decided to do as she suggested before I caused an even bigger stir and took a seat in a big, comfortable armchair amongst the crew.
“I cannot believe you have a small dog wearing a cute sweater accessory!” Ally exclaimed. “Chickie, you got it goin’ on.”
“YoYo’s not mine. Buddy, Ralphie and I are watching her for a friend,” I told Ally.
“It’s still a cute sweater,” Roxie said, rubbing YoYo’s body all over and YoYo was loving it, wiggling in Roxie’s lap, showing her belly.