with frying pans and plates, and the next you’re arm in arm, giggling like lovebirds.”
“I still beat him up, don’t worry.” Cora grinned at Simon. “He likes it when I hit him.”
“Oh, yes, clearly.” Simon rolled his eyes. “All you’ll hear from my boxcar are my whimpered cries of harder, mommy.” When the table laughed, he growled. “I was being sarcastic.”
“We know.” Louis smiled at him. “Have a sense of humor about yourself, old boy.”
“I have plenty of humor. You all simply do not enjoy my level of genius, is all.” Simon huffed, stabbed a sausage with his fork, and waggled the combination at Bertha. “If you must know, we have a complex relationship built on mutual lust and a love of violent sex.”
“I’m sure ‘soul-crushing and desperate loneliness’ is in there too somewhere.” Cora plucked the sausage off Simon’s fork and took a bite out of it.
“Hey!” Simon frowned at her. “That was mine.”
“It’s mine now.” She grinned and took another bite of the sausage.
“Jezebel.”
“Jackass.”
They were both smiling.
“A romance for the centuries.” Louis laughed with a shake of his head. “Truly, they’ll pen poetry about you two until the sun burns away.”
“Eh, I think it’s about as sweet as Simon’s capable of getting.” Bertha sipped her whiskey-and-coffee combo again. “Nobody’s with him for the sweet romance.”
“Cheers to that.” Simon returned to his food. “Speaking of romantics, where is our dear Aaron this morning, Bertha? I rarely see either you or Jack without your little lover hanging at your side, let alone both.”
“Cooking up a new batch of shine.” Jack sniffed dismissively. “He’s working on a new recipe. Wants to make something smoother.”
“Oh, by Beelzebub.” Louis rolled his eyes. “That fool is going to blow himself up again, isn’t he?”
“Again?” Cora raised an eyebrow.
“The idiot tried to solder a copper pipe onto a tank without airing it out,” Bruce chimed in. “He didn’t really understand gas vapors. He does now. Blew his torso halfway to the lake.” He snickered.
“And the other half was by the big top,” Bertha added.
“That was a good day,” Simon finished. Everyone laughed.
Cora laughed along with them. It was strange to be enjoying the story of someone blowing themselves up, but here they were. She supposed it really didn’t matter when you just woke up a few hours later, patched back together and with nothing but the memory to bother you. She certainly didn’t dwell much on when Simon had shot her through the heart. She barely even thought about it.
When in Rome. This is my Family now. These are my friends. And they laugh when one of them accidentally blows themselves up. She supposed it was just a little bit funny. Especially because it was Aaron.
“So, okay, question,” Cora began. “Who here hasn’t slept with Aaron? Raise your hand.” She lifted her hand. Simon quickly lifted his.
She looked around the table. Jack didn’t. Bertha didn’t. Louis looked down at his food, shrugged, and muttered something about having been very drunk that night. She looked at Bruce. He was wincing, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look. It’s not so much as I slept with him, but more like…well, he was just on the other end, if you get my meaning.”
Cora laughed and groaned. “My god, you really are all a bunch of perverts.”
Bruce shook his head. “Nah, it ain’t like that. It’s just that it was Bertha’s birthday, and she, well, y’know, had never been with a black man before, and Aaron thought it’d be a good gift, so. Ah, hell. Yeah. We’re perverts.”
“That was a great birthday.” Bertha smiled dreamily.
“And somehow I get labeled the disgusting degenerate.” Simon huffed. “Really. You should all apologize to me.”
“At least there aren’t, like…weekly mandatory orgies.” Cora snickered.
“They’re monthly.” Jack’s tone was deadpan. It wasn’t until he broke and cracked a smile that she realized he was joking. Cora laughed and shoved him playfully, and his smile broadened. She could see why that man won over most people. He had beautiful warm eyes, and a fun-loving, caring demeanor. He was the knight in shining armor. Not the grinning devil across the table from her.
But her choice was already made. She reached her foot under the table and placed it against Simon’s.
“What’s your plan for the day, Cora?” Bertha asked after the laughter died down. “I was wondering if you’d like to come meet some of my freaks. Most of them are sleeping until we come out of the Inversion, but a few active ones are still up and