Mom, Sex, Guns, and Rock-n-Roll

December 29

Alex was carrying his shirt and drying his wild hair with a worn-out towel when he saw Sophie on the couch. He thought Dan and Sophie were already gone. It wasn't the first time his roommate's girlfriend had seen him half bare, so he dropped on the stairs and asked "Where are you guys going for New Years?"

"Skiing," Sophie said. "Dan's skiing. It isn't skiing when I do it, it's a ski patrol drill. Are you working?"

"Book store tomorrow and Saturday. I dropped my shift at the café tonight."

Dan came from the kitchen and stopped beside Sophie with a water bottle in his hand. "Isn't your mom coming in tonight?"

"This afternoon." Alex pulled his cellphone from his pocket to check the time. "I'm running late. Should be any time now."

"Ellie?" Sophie said. "Ellie's great. It makes me laugh when she calls you by your whole name like, 'Alexander Christian Duval.' You know you're in trouble."

"This is Zelda, not Ellie," Alex said. "Ellie's my stepmom. Zelda's my birth mom. I haven't seen her in years." He pulled his tee shirt over his head and pushed his arms through the sleeves. "She didn't give me much warning."

"Why would anybody come here for New Years?" Sophie asked.

Alex glanced out the window where a car pulled up at the curb. "Beats me," he said. "She lives in Manhattan and travels all the time. I can't even guess why here or why now."

"I want to do that," Sophie said. Dan was ready to go, and Sophie climbed up from the couch. "Who pays her to travel all the time?"

"She pays herself," Alex went to the window to watch. The sun was setting, and the light outside was starting to fade. "She started a discount makeup store online before she met Dad. It blew up into this huge thing when I was like three—after Dad finalized their divorce. Dad said she made millions, and now the company pays for whatever she wants to do."

"Luck or hard work?" Dan asked, but he didn't wait for Alex to answer. "Maybe it went bust, and she needs a place to crash."

"No luggage," Alex said. "She isn't staying here."

Zelda wasn't alone. A girl that Alex guessed was about his age followed her out of the taxi. She stood by the car and talked to the driver while Zelda sized up their student-ghetto house through big, dark glasses.

Sophie watched around Alex's shoulder. "Ooh, fur. She's over-dressed for this place. I see where you got your blond hair."

Alex stepped aside so Sophie didn't have to look around him, and she said, "I feel like I've seen them on TV."

"It's probably just the look," Alex waited with his hand on the door knob while Zelda tucked her glasses away.

"You're probably right. The glasses, hair up, short tight skirts, spike-heeled pumps." Sophie said. "Where's Toby? He's missing the show."

"At work," Dan said as Alex threw the door open.

He found Zelda crushing the doorbell. She pointed a long, light blue fingernail at the button. "This doesn't work." She seemed smaller than he remembered. "Give us a hug." she said, and draped her arms around Alex's neck. Zelda overwhelmed him, and he had to brace himself to keep from backing up. Her body, even under the mink, was fashionably thin; this was still the Zelda he remembered.

Alex let his mother go and stepped back. "This is my roommate Dan, and his girlfriend Sophie." His voice trailed off when his eyes flicked from Zelda to the girl behind her. "We have another roommate, Toby, but he's not here."

Zelda offered her hand to Dan and then to Sophie before she flipped it toward the girl behind her. "This is your sister, Grace." Dan and Sophie snapped their heads around to look at Grace. Alex didn't need the "sister" reference to rivet him there; her skin was pale, and her eyes were dark. Her symmetry was perfect.

"How long are you going to be here?" Alex worked to keep his words from tumbling over themselves.

Grace was hard to read, but the corners of her red lips curled. She answered his real question first. "I'm not your sister. Zelda likes to think I'm her daughter—but I'm not that either." Her dark hair was pulled back into a long, high ponytail that swung as she talked. "We're here 'til New Year's Day. What is that—Sunday? Then business in Milan."

Dan might have realized that Alex was floundering, but more likely he just wanted to leave. He put his arm around Sophie's waist and told Zelda, "It's good meeting you. We need to get to the mountain, but we'll be back Sunday. Maybe we'll have time to talk."

Zelda waited until the door closed behind Dan, and she sniffed the air. "Three guys live here? Do you think a housekeeper could help?"

"Three guys and a cat, girlfriends, and usually about anybody that needs a place to crash for a night or two."

"Like puppies in a box," Grace said.

"Maybe," Alex said. He wasn't sure he liked the comparison.

Zelda reached toward the banister beside the stairs then pulled her hand back as if on second thought it wasn't clean enough to touch, and she told Grace, "Find us somewhere to eat."

Grace put her head down and flipped through screens on her phone, and Zelda wrapped her hands around Alex's arm. "Sometimes Grace lets me make a decision."

Grace raised an eyebrow at Zelda and told Alex, "She's in charge." She went back to work, and when she looked up again she asked, "How's Sinclair's?"

"Not sure," Alex said. "Fashionable and expensive? I haven't eaten there, but in that neighborhood things are mostly fashionable and expensive."

"Good," Grace said. "We should have told the driver to wait, but I'll call a car."

Alex tore his eyes off Grace and asked Zelda, "Why here for New Year's Eve?"

"I thought we were going to Ibiza, but Grace booked us here." Zelda pulled her body against his. "I'm going to make the best of it."

"I got that car to turn around," Grace said and looked Alex up-and-down. "Aren't you going to need a jacket or something—and shoes?"

Alex had questions. He saved them until they were seated in a booth, and he was looking across the table at Grace. "You aren't my sister." He turned his water glass between his hands and looked at Zelda, "Is she your secretary, or what?"

Zelda tried not to spill her martini. "You can call her that. You can call her my travelling companion." She moved a little closer to Alex. "I found her panhandling in a parking lot in Santa Barbara. She was there for two days before I talked her into coming back to my hotel. I think she expected the worst from me and just wanted to get out with my purse."

Grace shook her head. "I was never a thief."

Zelda sat back while the server put a plate of calamari between them, and she waved a bit of squid toward Grace. "She was a quick learner, and she cleaned up pretty well. One of my vendors even used her as a model."

Grace snorted. "He was working you. You gave him the deal, and about a quarter of my face shows up on one page for their product line."

Zelda waved that off. "That was just the start. It'll happen again.

"I changed plans and stayed in California long enough to get her legally emancipated. I took her to Italy, and she's been following me around ever since."

Alex remembered that he didn't like calamari. He swallowed and asked Grace, "Why were you panhandling?"

"I'm from Chico. Mom and Dad probably didn't notice that I was missing until they got drunk and I wasn't there to smack around. I hitched rides south and stayed where I could find safe space—mostly in places like yours. I panhandled when I needed money. Staying alive was a full-time job with no upward mobility. It's easier to keep your mom organized and out of trouble."

"I don't get in trouble," Zelda said.

"When you're asleep." Grace folded her arms on the table and leaned toward Alex. "I don't think Zelda's ever seen anything she wouldn't try—sometimes more than once to be sure it didn't work."

Zelda bumped Alex with her shoulder. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Sometimes I see the train wreck coming and head it off." Grace said. "Sometimes I don't."

"Is that why you aren't in Ibiza?" Alex asked, but he didn't get an answer. Grace tightened her lips into a line, and Alex sat back when the server leaned over the table with his soup.

They talked over dinner, and Alex decided he might be out of Grace's league. So what if she came from a lousy background? She learned four languages to get Zelda around Europe and Asia while he worked two mundane jobs and scraped together time for classes.

He stood by the table when they decided to leave and zipped up the worn flight jacket his father handed down to him. He left an empty plate on the table, but the women left half of their dinner behind.

Zelda had alcohol on her breath when she leaned to his ear. "Can we find a club? I might be getting a little bored."

"Dynamo is just down the street," Alex said, and they stopped in the restaurant's entry while Grace checked her phone.

"We'll walk," she said and backed through the door.

Zelda followed her. "I don't want to walk. Call a car."

Grace rolled her eyes so hard it made Alex laugh. "I'm not calling a car to go a half block." She waved her hand down the sidewalk. "You can see the sign from here."

"And she says I'm in charge," Zelda said. Christmas lights along the street filtered through the barren branches of sidewalk trees, and the decorations lit them in red and green until they reached the bright-white washout from Dynamo's marquee.

"Can we check things? I want to check this," Zelda said, and plucked at her mink. Zelda and Grace tucked their purses into the jacket when they checked it and kept just what they needed with them.

It was still early for clubbing. The band wasn't ready to start, so a playlist thumped in the bar's dark, empty space, and they found a table where they could look over the dance floor to the stage.

Zelda enjoyed the way the early-arriving guys gawked at her and at Grace. Alex didn't. He couldn't do anything about it, so he took his drink with him and the crowd slowly grew while he walked around the bar.

He made up stories about the people he saw: toxic men looking for girls to use, older women ready to wrap their legs around someone younger, groups there to party, singles hoping to pair up. Alex watched people, and people watched back. He imagined they saw a loner on the prowl.

The band was assembling on stage when Alex stopped short of sitting down again. Zelda looked bored by the guy next to her while Grace ignored another one trying to get her attention. Alex made up their story. Zelda was a cougar hunting young meat. She was using Grace for bait. He set his empty beer on the table and dropped into the chair beside the bait.

"Could you stay here?" Grace asked. She looked up when the band started, and she leaned closer. "Where did you go?"

"Took the tour," Alex said. "It looks like the meat market opened early."

"Yeah, and you'd have thought we were on special." Grace's eyes followed Zelda when she got up to dance. It was still an early-night crowd on the dance floor, and Zelda found her way to the front of the stage before she turned around to face her partner.

Grace moved her chair over and leaned close. "I hope you don't mind, but if guys think we're together then they might leave me alone."

"Don't mind," Alex said, but he didn't want to get locked into Grace's friend zone. He made a show of checking her out. His eyes traveled down her body. The lines of her neck were long and smooth. She wore only a sweater to keep her warm, and it didn't hide the size or the shape of her breasts. Her waist was narrow. Her hips were slim.

Grace straightened her back and let Alex look. "I guess none of the girlfriends staying in your puppy box are your girlfriend."

"Haven't been for a while," Alex said. "Girlfriends need more time than I have."

"I get that," Grace said. "I don't have time for a boyfriend, either." She waved down a waitress and touched Alex's hand. "Drinks are on Zelda."

Zelda came back as the waitress set Alex's beer in front of him. She was a little flushed from her effort, but she gulped the last of her martini and sent the waitress for another. "The guitarist likes me," she said, and Grace leaned forward to hear Zelda's story.

Alex could barely hear them over the music, so he didn't try. His eyes caught a movement under Zelda's top, and he noticed her nipples pressing against the fabric. His mother wasn't wearing a bra, but neither were a lot of other women around him.

"Do you like the view?" Zelda asked. She opened a button and fanned herself, and she showed him tan lines from a very small bikini top. "I had them lifted when I failed the pencil test and I could afford it, so go ahead and look. That way I know the money wasn't wasted."

Grace tugged on Alex's arm before he tore his eyes away. "Let's dance," she said. Alex was a little slow getting up, but then he pulled Grace to the middle of the dance floor. She watched Zelda over his shoulder then moved close, and their bodies brushed as they danced.

Alex wasn't sure if he wanted to stay close and touch Grace, or step back and watch her body. They did both with their eyes on each other, closing, turning, and stepping away until the band changed songs.

Grace pressed herself against Alex to talk close by his ear. "Zelda's having fun."

Alex rested his hand on Grace's hip and looked over her to check on Zelda. She had two men at the table, probably both ready to buy her drinks. "Then let's stay here," he said, and he kept his own attention on Grace as long as the next song lasted.

Zelda still had one guy at the table when they got there, and he pulled her up as Grace smoothed her skirt and sat. Zelda caught Alex's arm before he sat down. "Save the next dance for me," she said.

"Your mom has a plan," Grace said.

Alex sat and watched Zelda work her way back to the front of the stage. "Is that a good thing?" He asked.

"We'll find out." Grace watched and sipped at her drink, and she caught glimpses of Zelda while she danced. The crowd thinned with the song changed, and Zelda came back to the table.

"This is the end of their set," She said and tugged on Alex's arm. "Grace can keep the table, and you can dance with me."

Zelda reached the front of the stage before Alex caught up and asked, "How do you know it's the end of the set?"

She started to dance and Alex tried to keep his mind off the way her body moved. She leaned close with her lips by Alex's ear, "He told me," and gestured to the guitarist.

Alex didn't take long to figure out that Zelda wasn't dancing for him. She was flirting with the guitarist, and she had his attention. She showed off for him until the song rocked to its end and when it was over he bent down and said something to Zelda that Alex couldn't hear. He took her hand to help her on stage, and he walked her out the back.

Alex looked at Grace and found a guy in his chair next her. She looked back at him and shrugged with her palms up, and Alex weaved through the last couples on the dance floor to reach her.

Grace focused on the guy trying to get her attention and said, "My brother's sitting there." That and Alex looming over him got him to leave.

"They were starting to line up," Grace said, and Alex settled into the still-warm seat beside her.

"That was Zelda's plan?" He asked.

"Looked like it," Grace stroked his shoulder and said, "The band'll be back to work in a few minutes and Zelda will be back, too."

"Do you like watching over her?"

Grace put her elbow on the table and leaned her chin on the heel of her hand. "I do," she said. "I think I need to take care of someone. You know, to be someone my mom and dad weren't. Right now that means taking care of Zelda."

"Can you tell me about Ibiza now?" Alex asked. "You wouldn't in the restaurant."

Grace looked over her shoulder before she answered. She folded her arms on the table and leaned close. "Zelda's been getting hard to handle. Ibiza would have been a nightmare. There's so much going on in a place like that… I wouldn't have been able to keep track of her, so I brought her here."

"Seems like an odd choice."

"I suppose it looks that way, but I wanted to come here so you could help."

"Me?" Alex couldn't be more incredulous. "You don't even know me."

"You," Grace said. "I was worried, but I think you're the person Zelda believes you are. You're more important to her than you could guess."

"She abandoned me."

"She left you in a better home than she could give you. She doesn't see you very often because it hurts her. She talks about you, like during long flights late at night when it's just me and her and whatever's in her head."

Alex dropped back in the seat and waved to get a waitress' attention. "Does she know why you brought her here?"

"She knows, and she's never argued."

"So what's she doing right now?" Grace tightened her lips into a line, like she did in the restaurant. She left him to figure it out.

Alex asked for another beer and Grace got two martinis—one for herself and one that would wait for Zelda. The band was setting up again when the waitress came back, and they finished the first song before Zelda picked her route back to the table.

"You always know what I need," she said, and lifted her drink. Her blouse gaped open more than it had before. Her lipstick was worn. Stray locks fell from her hairdo. She stood by the table and watched the band for a moment then took a big drink from her martini.

"That didn't take long," Grace said.

"It was easy," Zelda said. "He got what he wanted, then he introduced me to a guy, and I got enough for three."

"Coke," Grace said before Alex could ask. "Can you keep the table for us?" She stood up and hooked Zelda's arm. "Let's get in line for the powder room."

Alex turned to watch them disappear through the crowd, and he slumped into his chair. Now he knew his mother's plan, and he shook off the mental image of Zelda sucking off the guitarist to set up her deal.

He tipped his beer and washed down his disgust. The music throbbed and dancers silhouetted by the stage lights bobbed and writhed. He wasn't going to turn down Zelda's coke if she offered it, but it had better be good.

Girls swung their hips and guys rocked their shoulders, and Alex tipped his beer to wash down his righteousness. Maybe what he really felt was jealousy.

Maybe what he really felt was too much beer for his bladder. Grace touched his shoulder, and Alex jerked around. "'Table's all yours," he said. "I'm going to the men's room."

Zelda was watching when he worked his way back from the men's room, and Grace kept her head down over her phone. Zelda's lipstick was fixed, her hair was back in place, but he could still see the soft curve of her breasts through her gaping neckline.

He leaned over the table before he sat down and talked over the band, "Where's your line of guys?"

"They annoyed me," Zelda said as the song hit its final crescendo. She touched Grace's hand. "What are you looking at?"

Grace glanced up as the band left the stage. "Parties. We've been invited to a ton of parties. Some tonight, some tomorrow, some Saturday." She waved her phone. "Some might even be real. I have names, phone numbers, addresses…"

"They'd be disappointed if I showed up with you." Alex said.

Grace changed the subject. "Did you know this was going to turn into a foam party—like after the next set?"

Alex shrugged. "I didn't know places still did that."

"This one does," Grace said. "We're getting out before they turn on the foam machines. If I'm getting groped, I want to know who's doing it. "

"Spoil sport," Zelda said. "I want my last drink in a go-cup then we can find one of those parties."

"Not me." Alex felt like he was letting them down in the most boring way possible. "I have work tomorrow."

Grace crossed her arms on the table. "Reality bites," she said, while Zelda flagged down the waitress.

The band was back on stage when the waitress brought go-cups for Zelda and Grace. Zelda stood with her cup, and tugged on Alex. "We don't need the table anymore. Dance with me."

Zelda turned around in the middle of the dance floor and stopped Alex there. She held the cup in one hand and swiveled her hips, and Alex caught the rhythm.

"Grace will be here too," she said. Alex circled to watch Grace pick up her cup and shake her head at a guy that leaned over her shoulder. She squeezed onto the dance floor by herself and worked her way to Alex.

"If I say 'No' to one guy," Grace asked, "why would the next guy think he has a chance?"

"We're optimists," Alex said and tugged Grace closer to him. Grace and Zelda laughed to each other, the beat pulsed, and the music swirled. People danced close around them. Alex was a little buzzed and a little tired, and his senses flooded with sound and motion.

He looked around when the band faded to the next song, and Zelda stopped him from leaving. Grace nodded at something Zelda said, and Zelda slipped her hand around Alex's waist. She held her body against him and curled her lips into a smile. "We're going to stay here and dance," she said.

Zelda flirted with Alex while they danced, and she etched an uncomfortable image into his mind. He watched her smile and her suntanned breasts under her gaping top. In his mind he saw his hard shaft slip between her lips, and he felt her tongue caress its head.

Grace kept her feet moving as the song wound down. She stroked her hand over Alex's back and sipped from her go-cup while Zelda fanned herself. Grace leaned close, and her breath brushed his neck. "It got hot in here," she said.

"It's you," Alex said. Grace laughed, but she'd broken Zelda's spell over him. He dropped his arm around Grace's waist, and she bumped him with her hip as the singer announced it would be their last song.

Couples wedged themselves onto the dance floor when the music started. Zelda squeezed close to Alex, and pulled Grace in. "We need to get friendlier," she said.

They moved together to the throbbing bass. Their hands slipped over bare skin, slick under a sheen of sweat. They inhaled the heat and the scent that rose from their bodies. Guitars howled, and the singers belted out their lines over the pounding piano.

Zelda and Grace collapsed on Alex when the music crashed to its end, and they laughed against his shoulders. He held them while they relaxed until the floor started to clear around them, and cool air moved between them when they stepped back.

"Let's get out," Grace said. A loud playlist took over from the band. A crew worked to set foam cannons by the stage, and the band covered what they couldn't move.

Grace pushed Zelda ahead of her and pulled Alex behind her until they reached the coat check, and then they waited by the curb while Grace called a car.

Zelda sucked the last out of her go-cup and threw it in a trash can by the curb. She ducked a blob of foam that escaped Dynamo's door and pulled her fur tight. "Why's it so cold here?"

Grace answered without looking up from her phone. "We're not in the Mediterranean. There's a car like right around the corner. He'll be here in a few minutes."

She slipped her phone into her purse and glanced up at the foam bits floating in the white marquee lights and then at Alex. "This sweater is thin, and you look warm. Share with a cold girl?"

Alex understood what she meant when she tugged down on his jacket zipper. "I think I'll like this," he said. He opened his jacket, and Grace slipped her hands around his waist. He held his jacket as close around her as far as he could, and Grace tipped her head and kissed him on the neck.

Zelda rolled her eyes and looked away. "Just have sex right here," she said.

"Wanna watch?" Grace asked.

Alex pulled his head back enough to focus on Grace. "Does she watch you?"

"I do not," Zelda said. Grace didn't answer because the car pulled up at the curb.

Grace gave the driver the address for Alex's house. She slid in after Alex, and the driver closed the door behind her. Alex's neck got tired from turning side-to-side while Grace and Zelda tried to plan the rest of their night. They were almost to his house before they fell back in their seats.

Zelda turned and laid her knee over Alex's lap. She leaned against his chest and toyed with his hair. "Like your dad," she said.

"I'm a lot like Dad," he said. He worked his arm under Zelda's fur and around her waist. It seemed like the natural place for it.

Grace watched Zelda inhale from Alex's neck line then sat forward as the driver pulled up at the curb. He looked doubtfully at the darkened house, and she said, "Hold on. We need to work something out."

"Are you going to be boring like your dad?" Zelda asked, "or will you come party with us?"

"Oh God, Zelda!" Grace said. "Stop it. Be a better Mom!"

Zelda talked with her lips almost touching Alex's ear. "I'll be better tomorrow."

She stopped and sighed, and her body relaxed against her son. "No, I'll be better tonight." She looked at Grace and said, "Kiss your brother and say goodnight."

Grace kept her eyes on Zelda while she turned on the seat and leaned on Alex's shoulder. She bit his neck and whispered in his ear, "For Zelda. You don't mind, do you?"

She didn't need to ask, because Alex couldn't answer. He was overwhelmed. Zelda was still all around him. Her breath burned on his ear. Grace's body was hot and tense against his. Her long ponytail fell across his neck and he drank from her mouth. She gave him her lips, and the touch and the taste of her tongue.

Alex broke their kiss to catch his breath. Grace fell back into the seat and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand while Zelda unwrapped herself from around him.

"Good night, Alex," Grace said. She climbed out of the car, and Alex gathered himself so he could follow her. He stopped Grace from getting back in and said, "You still plan on finding a party?"

"At least one," Grace said. "Let us know when you're good tomorrow, and we'll come get you."

Alex watched the car pull away before the cat met him inside. He fed the cat, threw his clothes off and laid in bed. Thoughts of Zelda and Grace ran through his mind, and their effect surged through his body.

He relieved all those pent-up tensions and stared at the ceiling when he was done. Maybe it was natural to feel that way about Grace, but the Mom he hardly knew? He should have stayed with them, because now it was definitely jealousy that roiled his gut.

December 30

Alex messaged Grace from the bus. "I'm off. What next?"

Her answer came back. "Give us a few minutes to get there. We'll figure it out."

Toby and Frida were cleaning house when Alex got home. Frida pointed at him as she walked by with a dirty glass in her hand. "Don't forget the party tomorrow."

Alex only vaguely remembered that he and Dan both agreed to Toby's New Year's Eve party.

Toby stopped on the stairs and waved a toilet brush as he talked. "We figured people could put coats in your room. That good?" He hardly gave Alex a chance to say no. "We both work tonight. You're working tomorrow, right?"

"Dropped that shift," Alex said. "My mom and her friend are coming here now. I don't know if I'll be here tonight, and I don't know about tomorrow."

Alex stripped his bed and slammed things into the closet and drawers so people could use his room. He was emptying the wastebasket when he figured out that Toby and Frida were already gone. He made sure the cat had food and water and saw a car pull up at the curb.

Grace stopped to talk to the driver while Zelda climbed the steps, and Alex wondered if they always matched their outfits. They both wore long jackets over flared pants that swirled around their ankles.

He threw the door open and found Zelda checking her nails. "Doorbell's still broken," she said. He stepped back to let her in, and she sniffed the air as she turned around inside. "Is that 'Eau de Dirty Mop?' It's all the rage right now."

Alex held the door for Grace. She trailed her fingers over his shoulders and stopped beside him. "Somebody cleaned the puppy box."

"Toby's having a New Year's Eve party," Alex said.

Zelda told Grace, "Get him caught up with us," then turned on Alex. "And we weren't invited?"

"I need a table," Grace said. She glanced around, then slipped her bag off her shoulder while she walked to the dining table.

"I forgot about it," Alex said. "You're welcome, but it might not come up to your standards." He didn't realize what Grace was doing until she laid a mirror on the table in front of her.

Grace drew a line on the glass then turned in the chair. "Come and get it," she said, and offered him a straw.

Alex bent over the table to clean up the line. He stood again with a numb nose and medicinal taste in his mouth. Grace had walked away, but Zelda was close beside him with her hand on his hip.

"That was good." Alex blinked and sniffed on both sides, and watched Zelda moving to a beat he couldn't hear. "Rock 'n' Roll?" he asked.

"Korn," Zelda said, "But only in my head."

Grace looked up from her phone and said, "I found an indoor shooting range pretty close. Let's kill some time."

Alex wasn't sure he heard right. "A shooting range? I don't have a gun."

"You don't need one." Grace flipped her hand toward Zelda's bag. "Zelda has a new one, and she wants to play with it. I can get a car here in five minutes."

That rhythm was still drumming in Zelda's head while she shot. She tapped it out with her right heel, her long coat swayed with her body as her hips kept time, and she blew a tight pattern in a man-shaped target twenty yards away. Zelda was flushed with excitement when the slider locked open. She laid her Glock on the counter and turned around.

"You look like you had fun," Alex said.

"If Death has a cock, it's a gun like this," she said. "I just got him off fifteen times. Now I'm Death's favorite girl."

Grace picked up the gun and released the clip, and Zelda touched Alex's chest. "You next."

Alex watched Grace reload the clip, and she held the gun out to make him watch. She clicked the clip in place and drew the slider back to chamber a bullet. She held the gun out in front of him with the muzzle pointing down-range. "Don't touch the trigger," she said and showed him how to grip it with both hands.

Alex got used to the weight of the pistol while Grace ran the target out to fifteen yards, and he frustrated himself trying to hit it.

They each emptied three clips, and Grace was loading it for the last time when Zelda said. "I can't live on coke. I need something to eat."

Grace tucked the gun and its loaded magazine into Zelda's bag, and Alex rubbed his tired hands while he backed through the sound lock doors. "Let's go downtown," he said.

They left their glasses and their earmuffs on the counter, and he backed through the front door into the parking lot. "There are a lot of places to eat, and they block the streets at nine. It'll be a big warm-up party for tomorrow."

Grace called a car, and they waited for it under a parking-lot lamp. The beat that rocked Zelda's body was gone. She tugged on the front of Alex's flight jacket and asked, "Did you have fun?"

Alex shrugged, "It was fun, but I didn't get the kick you got."

Zelda searched through the bag, and held her gun out so it caught the dim light. "Here's the thing," she said. "Death solves problems." She clicked the clip in place, and Grace turned to watch. That clip held their last fifteen rounds.

Grace caught her breath when Zelda touched the muzzle to Alex's shoulder. "One squeeze, and you're not my problem anymore." She tipped the muzzle up under her own chin. "One squeeze, and I'm not my problem anymore."

"I'll trade you," Grace said and hurried to dig a snuff bullet out of her purse. She took Zelda's gun, and kept her bag. "The car's pulling in."

Zelda loaded the bullet, inhaled her bump, and passed it to Alex. He opened the car door for Zelda and closed it behind her, and he walked around the car to where Grace gave the driver instructions.

She stopped Alex from getting in and talked with her lips close by his ear. "Zelda didn't chamber a round, or I'd have taken her down. I've never come so close before." She slipped a weight into Alex's jacket pocket. "Hold onto that. She can have her bag without it."

Alex slid into the back seat next to Zelda and got his bump. Grace slid in next to Alex and reached over him to drop the bag by Zelda's feet. He handed the bullet to Grace and touched his pocket while the car pulled out. She'd slipped him the gun with the clip still in it.

They climbed out of the car downtown, where the streets were lit by holiday decorations and by the lights from bars and theaters. Custom cars crawled by with their music thumping, and people walked through the slow-moving traffic.

"Fine dining," Zelda said and surveyed the deli trucks parked in the middle of the street. "Get me a kabob and something to drink."

They shared a curbside bench, each watching in a different direction. Alex sat in the middle and watched people pass on the sidewalk. Grace and Zelda sat at opposite ends. One watched up the street, and one watched down, and they argued about Zelda's gun without looking at each other.

Their argument died, and Zelda looked doubtfully at the bottled margarita in her hand. "I know more interesting ways to put 'cock' and 'tail' together." She stood up, and her eyes searched the street. "I'm allergic to boring. Let's do something."

Alex found a handcrafts shop, and Zelda rolled her eyes at everything while the police closed the street to cars. Traffic thinned, and the food trucks pulled away. Bars piped music to the street, and the concrete and asphalt became a dozen different dance floors.

Zelda and Grace sipped their drinks from go-cups, and Alex held a bottle of beer by its neck when the coke and the music put rhythm in Zelda's step. She slipped her bag off her shoulder and handed it to Grace, and she dragged on Alex's arm. "Dance with me," she said.

She didn't wait for Alex to answer. Zelda held her drink out and started dancing where she stood, and he had to pick up the beat. Grace dropped her purse into Zelda's bag, backed up to give them room, and stepped into a guy who asked her to dance. Her ponytail bobbed when she agreed.

The refrain was the good part, and Alex watched a smile grow on Zelda's face while she danced in front of him. She stepped close during the verse. Her body brushed against him, and he talked with his lips by her ear so only she could hear. "You aren't giving me as much to watch tonight."

Zelda laughed, and answered in his ear. "We dressed warmer, but you can still look." She laid her hand on the heavy bulge in his jacket pocket and her eyes met his. "So you have my boyfriend."

"I do," Alex said, and Zelda stepped back to let him look at her body. The refrain started again, and her hips did the talking through the rest of the dance.

Alex and Grace were done when the music changed. They stepped back to give other people room to dance, but a man stopped Zelda before she could follow. She glanced at Alex, and she smiled at her new dance partner.

Grace leaned against a lamp post, and Alex stood close beside her. She touched his chest, and he wrapped his hand around hers. "You're totally out of my league, you know?"

"Go on," Grace said. "I love compliments."

"You're beautiful. You're smart. You're in control. I'm just this." He motioned to himself with his bottle of beer.

"You sell yourself short," Grace said. "The way I look is an attention-getter. You'll get used to it, and then what?"

"Then you'll still be smart, and I'll still want to take you to bed."

Grace laughed and looked past him to watch Zelda dancing in the street. Alex's eyes followed hers, and he asked. "Why is she like this?"

"A little crazy?" Grace asked. "Maybe self-destructive? I got her to talk to a Psychiatrist in Zurich. She's coping with depression. He also thought she was seeking drugs, and he wouldn't treat her unless she got counseled for using. She wouldn't get counseling, and now it's worse."

"What does she have to be depressed about?" Alex asked. "Doesn't she have everything?"

"She doesn't have you. That doesn't make her depressed. Depression is a thing in the brain. But not having you hurts because she's depressed."

Grace tore her eyes off Zelda and searched Alex's expression. "She needs an intimate relationship with you, but she doesn't want to hurt you, and she's afraid you might turn her down. If she's ever going to get what she needs, then you'll have to give it to her. Could you even do that?"

"You mean sex?" Alex didn't know the answer to her question. He turned around to watch Zelda as the music changed. "I've never known her very well, and now I'm starting to wonder what it's like in her head, you know? Is sex the only way to get intimate?"

"There could be other ways," Grace said, "but sex is what's on her mind. Can't you tell?"

Zelda shook her head at something her dance partner asked, and she backed away. She held her empty go-cup high and picked her way through the dancers. "I'm dry!" she said when she got close.

Grace left them to talk while she bought a new round, and she came back juggling two go-cups and a bottle of beer. A guy followed her through the crowd and stopped her before she reached Alex. She wore a blank expression while he asked her to dance, and she said, "Je ne parle pas anglais." and turned her back on him.

"L' idiot," Grace said and glanced over her shoulder. "I told him 'no' inside, and he followed me all the way here."

The jealousy that bothered Alex the night before raised the hairs on his neck. He watched L'idiot work his way back to the bar until Zelda hooked his arm and pulled him to an open space to dance again.

The verse was a little slow, and Alex rocked his hips while he waited for it to pick up. "Keep doing that," Zelda said. She matched his rocking motion and moved closer. Their thighs touched, and their hips touched. Alex slipped his free hand under Zelda's jacket and let it rest on her hip, and she held her drink over his shoulder.

"I like the way you move," she said, and their bodies undulated like they were having slow sex to the beat of the music. The lights along the street reflected in Zelda's eyes, and Alex inhaled her warm scent and the alcohol on her breath.

Zelda let her lower lip slip through her teeth, and the pressure in Alex's jeans answered Grace's question. If Zelda wanted sex, then he could give it to her.

They stepped apart when the refrain began and joined again for each verse, and they looked away from each other when the music changed. Grace stopped Alex from walking away, and they picked up the rhythm of the next song.

Grace leaned close to Alex's ear and asked, "You're coming back to the hotel with us, aren't you?"

He touched her arms to keep her close and answered, "Looking forward to it."

"So am I," Grace said. "I'm sure Zelda is too, but she may not do more than tease you."

They lost sight of Zelda until the end of the song. The crowd thinned before they found her squared up in front of three teenagers in hoodies. She pointed a finger gun at the tall one and mimicked its recoil.

"Shit," Grace said. "I need to see what that's about."

Zelda pulled her hand away when the kid snatched at her wrist, and Alex reached them before he tried again. "Back off," he said. He inserted himself in front of Zelda while Grace pulled her away.

The guy got in Alex's face and pointed past him. "I'm going to shut that bitch's fuckin' mouth."

It seemed too easy to guess what happened. "You might be lucky her real gun is in my pocket."

Alex glanced around and found people watching them with their phones in hand. "Someone may have already called security. You can stay here if you want." He dodged a group of noisy girls and found Grace on the sidewalk trying to calm Zelda.

Zelda straightened her back and smoothed her top, and she said, "That stinking little monkey groped me."

Grace scowled at Zelda and told Alex, "That's her way of saying 'thanks.'"

Alex clenched his jaw and tucked his hand around Zelda's elbow. "Let's go. If the cops get here and find me carrying your gun, then that's going to be a problem."

"I'm dry again," Zelda said, and shook the ice in her go-cup. She was the only one who still had a drink. Grace rolled her eyes and stopped them outside the first bar they reached.

Zelda hung on Alex's arm while they waited. Her body swayed to the music, and Alex watched the crowd until Grace side-stepped a couple going into the bar and handed Zelda her drink. "I got a car while I waited. It'll be about twenty minutes, and we have to be outside the barricades."

They stopped on a side street in the light that spilled from the large windows of a corner café. Inside, white-aproned waitresses balanced platters on their shoulders and worked their tables. Outside, people passed in small groups or waited on the sidewalk.

Alex leaned back against the wall, and Zelda came close with her drink held out to the side. He watched the streetlight reflected in her eyes and the curl of her lips. "Twenty minutes to wait," she said, "and I'm already bored."

Zelda ran a long, blue fingernail along his jaw and turned its point up under his chin. "Are you going to entertain me?"

Alex wrapped his hand around Zelda's and pushed it down. "What happened to the music in your head?"

"Still there," Zelda said. "Nine Inch Nails, right now." Her shoulders moved to a backbeat that Alex couldn't hear. "Sometimes their lyrics are… aggressive." She sipped from her drink and stroked the front of his jeans, and Grace watched Zelda slide his zipper down.

Alex didn't stop her, but he asked, "Are you going to carry through with this?"

Zelda stopped. She searched his face before she turned to Grace. "Your sister will, and then we'll all be entertained."

"At the hotel," Grace said. "Where it's warm, and we have beds."

"Now," Zelda said. "There," and she nodded toward the alley behind the café. She hooked Alex's arm and then Grace's arm, and she tugged them around the corner.

Alex leaned against the wall in the dark. Zelda blocked the view from the street, and Grace knelt in front of him to open his belt. She tugged his jeans down while Zelda sent thrills through his body. She kissed his neck. Her breath was hot against his ear.

He felt Grace close her lips around his hard cock, and he groaned into the night sky. Alex couldn't see what she was doing, but the image of her face with his shaft sliding between her lips was sharp in his mind.

Grace drew him over her tongue slowly, and Alex touched her hair to feel the way she moved. Lamplight fell across the brick wall on the other side of the alley. He heard laughter from the street. He inhaled Zelda's scent and felt her body pressed against him.

The warm sensations from Grace's mouth filled Alex's cock and his balls, and they overflowed through his body. The sounds she made came in rhythm, faster and faster. His muscles tightened, and he pulled Zelda close.

Alex moved his hand up to the back of Zelda's neck. She gasped through her nose when he pulled her mouth to his and thrust his tongue into her. Her grip tightened on his jacket, and her tongue met his.

He gave in to the thrills that rushed through his body. Alex banged his head back against the wall and slammed his eyes tight shut. He grunted against Zelda's cheek, and his hot essence gushed into Grace's mouth.

Alex kept his hand on Grace's head until he'd emptied himself. Grace coughed and turned away, and Alex let Zelda go. For that moment, he was too relaxed to do anything but lean back against the wall.

Grace climbed to her feet. She wiped him off her cheek and sucked her fingers clean. She tugged Alex's pants up and left them for him to close.

Alex zipped his pants and watched Grace rinse her mouth from Zelda's go-cup, and he told her, "I'll return the favor."

"I have something to look forward too," Grace said, and checked her phone. "The car should be here." She handed the go-cup back to Zelda, "Are you entertained now?"

"That was fun," Zelda said, and Grace flagged the car down at the curb.

The lights in the hotel lobby were low, and people coming and going from their own warm-up parties talked and laughed while they lounged on the furniture. Alex rested his arm around Grace's hips as the elevator door hissed shut behind them. Zelda talked without expecting a conversation, and Grace's breath warmed his neck until the doors opened again.

Grace keyed them into the room, and Alex followed Zelda. The air inside was perfumed. A lamp on the desk was the only light at first, and Alex walked into an open travelling wardrobe without seeing it. He stumbled onto a rumpled bed and looked around. It was one room divided by a counter. There were two beds on the side with the bathroom and a sitting area on the side with the door.

The dark room woke up around him. Zelda complained about the music that Grace started while Grace turned more lights on. She put her phone down by the television and told Zelda, "Find what you want." Zelda forgot about the music, and Grace pointed to Alex. "Let me put the gun away."

Alex handed over the gun, laid his jacket over the wardrobe, and closed the bathroom door behind him. Zelda was at the bar with a glass and a bottle of vodka when he came back. Grace was busy with the gun, so Zelda handed Alex the empty ice bucket. "You need something to do. Fill this?"

Alex was lost in the corridor for a while. He handed the bucket to Zelda when he got back and looked around for Grace. Her shoes sat in front of the wardrobe he'd stumbled over, her clothes draped over its top, and a there was a line of light under closed bathroom door.

He dropped into a chair and asked a question he didn't need to ask. "Grace is in the bathroom?"

Zelda dropped ice into her glass and said, "She told me it was my turn to entertain you. How should I do that." She left her drink on the bar and let her jacket slip down her shoulders. Zelda laid it over her wardrobe open in the corner, and Alex's eyes traced the curve of her ass. She looked back at him and smiled because she knew where his eyes went.

"I know what you'd like. Maybe I will too. A little help?" Zelda stood in front of Alex, turned to show him the zipper on her hip, and held her drink to the side. "I only have one hand. The job needs two."

"I don't know what I'm doing." Alex sat forward and grasp the tight waist of her slacks. He figured out the hook at the top and slid the zipper down. He pushed them down over the smooth nylon underneath, and they fell off her hips and down around her ankles. The tan line under her nylons outlined a small bikini that wouldn't cover much more than was covered by her thong.

Zelda stepped her high heels out of the pile of fabric on the floor. She held her arms up over her head. "Now the top."

He stood in front of Zelda and reached around her, unbuttoned her top at the back of her neck and lifted the soft fabric from the hem. He worked it up over her breasts and lifted it over her head and over her drink, and he tossed it onto her wardrobe.

Zelda turned her back to Alex without saying a word and sipped from her drink while he unhooked her bra. He slipped the straps from her shoulders, and she let it fall to the floor.

Alex rested his hands on Zelda's hips for a moment before he stroked them up her torso. She stopped him before he cupped her breasts. "House rules. Watch, don't touch."

"But you've had your hands all over me."

Zelda straightened her back and turned on him. "But aren't we having fun?" She pushed Alex back until he dropped into the chair. She left her drink on the table beside him and made sure she had his eyes on her.

Light spilled from the bathroom, and Grace watched from the doorway as Zelda pushed her nylons down.

Alex waited until she stood with her nylons dangling from her fingers and asked, "You don't tan nude?"

Zelda dropped her nylons and stepped back into her heels. "Not lately," she said and posed almost naked for a moment before she bent over Alex to pick up her drink. "I think you liked it, even if you didn't get to touch."

She found Grace watching and said, "He's entertained." She found a satiny scrap in her wardrobe, stepped around Grace, and closed the bathroom door behind her.

"You're entertained, and Zelda's as happy as she gets," Grace said. She wore just French knickers. Her hair parted in the middle, and ties behind her ears held two pigtails that fell in front of her shoulders.

Alex tore his eyes off Graces's perfect tits. "I bet you taste as good as you look," he said.

She draped her arms over his shoulders. "You can find out," She offered her mouth, and Alex pulled her close. Grace's breath brushed his cheek. Her tongue was soft and exciting, and her body rose in his arms.

Alex found himself suddenly out of breath, and he broke their kiss. "Which bed is yours?" he asked, and Grace fell back onto the closest bed. She laughed and bounced among the rumpled sheets while Alex crawled over her and pulled the bedclothes from under them both.

"Give me your skin," Grace said and tugged on the front of his shirt.

Alex drew back to look at Grace, and he rose to his knees beside her. He tossed his shirt on the floor and asked, "What is Zelda doing while we do this?"

"You only need to worry about me," Grace said, while Alex opened his belt. "Zelda will take care of herself."

Alex sat on the edge of the bed to pull his shoes and socks off, and he pushed his jeans and his boxers to the floor. He was naked when he climbed over Grace again. He kissed her lips, he kissed the sensitive spot behind her ear, and he felt the anticipation growing in her body.

Grace wrapped her arms around him, and she stroked his bare skin. She gasped while Alex dragged the soft skin of her throat between his teeth. He kissed her shoulders and slipped down to take her breasts in his mouth.

Alex closed his mouth on her tit and drew back, and he pulled her nipple between his lips. Her breath grew shallow, her body grew tense, and she squirmed with anticipation as he trailed his lips over her taut belly.

He stopped when he reached her knickers, and he rose to his knees to strip her naked. Grace bounced on the mattress, and she lifted her legs apart to set his table with a feast of soft flesh.

Alex kissed the inside of her thigh then he closed his mouth over her whole, soft mound, and he lifted her with his hands under her butt. Grace twisted and gasped, and every reaction, each more excited than the last, taught Alex how to get her off.

He pulled Grace's folds and creases between his lips, and he tickled them with his tongue. He found her trigger firm under its hood, and he slid his tongue along it and over it, faster until Grace clenched her teeth and groaned at the ceiling.

Now Grace wasn't out of Alex's league. Now she was his animal. She gripped Alex's head between her legs and thrashed on the bed. He pushed his thumb into her vagina and Grace slammed her eyes shut. She went rigid while spasms wracked her body.

Grace slipped into euphoria. Her chest heaved. Her arms flopped on the mattress. Alex rose to his knees and stroked his shaft, and Grace groaned and twisted around to bury her face in the pillow.

The only light in the room when Alex climbed over Grace came from the open bathroom door. The music was Zelda's. It had a throbbing beat and staccato lyrics. Alex kissed Grace's shoulder, and she giggled into the pillow when he kissed her neck.

"So maybe you're not completely out of my league," he said, with his lips close by Grace's ear. He stroked her smooth butt and slipped his fingers down the crack of her ass. "But you're smart. You're classy. You're beautiful."

He reached between her legs, and Grace made room for his hands. She looked back at him. "Go on. And what?" she said.

"And I want to feel you come again," he said. Alex worked the head of his cock over Grace's wet folds, and she tossed her head back when he lodged it in her. Grace closed one hand on the pillow and pushed on the headboard with the other.

Alex lifted Grace's hips, and she moaned as he thrust his cock into her. Her pussy stretched around his hard shaft, and the sensations from its sensitive head inside Grace washed away every thought until he stopped with his hips pressed against her ass.

Grace's butt was a beautiful heart shape that Alex held in his hands. He caught his breath and watched his gleaming cock slide out from below the crack of her ass. He closed his eyes, and clenched his teeth, and tried to control himself.

His hips slapped against Grace when he thrust back into her. He grasped one of her pigtails and turned her head to watch her face, and he fucked her.

Grace rocked under him. She clenched her eyes shut and twisted the pillow in her grip. She gasped for air, and Alex looked away to keep control—to the window, to the ceiling, anywhere but to Grace.

She squealed as her second climax took her, and she buried her face in her pillow. Alex held her and thrust into her until she collapsed under him. He slowed and stroked her shoulders and her back and watched the way the light and shadows defined her shape.

Alex couldn't control himself anymore. He slammed deep into Grace, and her body engulfed his whole straining shaft. Thrills flowed through his body and blanked his mind. His cock burned inside her, and he needed her to put his fire out.

His balls tightened and his essence pulse through his shaft. He forced Grace into the mattress and erupted inside her.

One ecstatic pulse followed another until Alex was empty. He collapsed on Grace's back. He held her and rolled onto the mattress with Grace in his arms. He inhaled her delicious, sweaty scent and tasted her skin until his softening cock slipped out of her.

A moan and a gasp made Alex look up, and he found Zelda on the other bed. She laid back with her eyes on the ceiling. Her nipples thrust up against thin satin. She stroked one hand over her belly, down to join her other hand, and she lifted her legs apart. Zelda held Death between her legs, and she arched her back from the thrill of his cock inside her.

December 31

Alex woke slowly. He found daylight seeping around the curtains and rolled onto his back to stretch. Grace was sitting beside him with her back against headboard. She had the bedcovers over her lap and a notebook open on her knees.

"Where's Zelda?" he asked and lifted the covers to peek. Grace was wearing just her French knickers.

"She cleaned her gun, sabotaged the morale of her New York staff then went to the gym," Alex rose on one elbow to see what Grace was doing. "You're the last one up," she said. "Did I wear you out?"

"I guess. But it was fun. What did Zelda do to New York?"

"Just a conference call, but she was in a mood, and it's a day when most people want to relax. The longer her depression goes on, the less respect she has."

Alex inhaled the scent from Grace's skin. "You showered." It made him conscious that he had not. He sat up beside her and asked, "Isn't that kinda old school? I thought you did everything on your phone."

"There's something relaxing about doing my journal with a pen and real paper."

Alex was curious. "Anything about me in there?"

Grace pointed out the last line. It read, "Next time, I hope Alex shaves." She stroked his cheek and said, "I called the desk and asked them to send a razor and a few other things. I think they hung it on the door a few minutes ago."

"I like the sound of 'next time.'" Alex threw off the bedcovers. He stepped over the clothes he'd left scattered beside the bed, and he opened the door before he remembered he was still naked.

Zelda stood on the other side with her key card in hand. Her eyes swept up Alex's body. "Four and a half stars. You could gain a little weight."

"Thanks, I guess," Alex said. He took the bag from the door and emptied it beside the sink while Zelda stepped out of her running shoes. She pulled her sweatshirt over her head, pushed her shorts down, and trailed her fingernails across Alex's back as she passed on her way to the bathroom.

"Come see me in my office when you're done there," Zelda said. She left the bathroom door ajar and started water running in the tub.

Grace leaned against the counter beside Alex. She turned on the hot water in the sink and said, "Don't make the boss wait too long." She watched until Alex was almost done shaving then touched his jaw line. "You missed a spot, and I have work to do."

Alex swept Zelda's sports bra and her panties from the floor and sat—still naked—on the toilet seat with the underwear wadded in his hands. He looked at her body and said, "I'll give you five stars."

"I'll take them." Zelda sat forward to shut off the water, and steam rose around her shoulders. "Your dad tells me you're in IT. Do you like what you're doing?"

Alex watched Zelda and sniffed at the wad of fabric in his hand. "Full-time school and two part-time jobs? I'll like it when it's over."

"Come closer, and we can talk." Alex hesitated, so Zelda made herself clear. "Get in," she said and guided Alex to sit with his back to her.

Zelda stroked a soapy washcloth over his shoulders. "I haven't bathed you since you were three months old. That was when I put all my time into my store, and your dad started taking care of you. I had no time for you and no time for your dad—then I had to find time for a divorce."

"Must've been a lot of work."

"The divorce? No. The store, marketing, vendors, bookkeeping… That was work. I got help with shipping, but I did everything else at first. Credit was tight after the dot com crash, so it all started slowly."

"Lift your arms," Zelda said. She reached around him to wash his chest. "I want you on my team."

"I'm in IT, but I wait tables, and I stock a bookstore."

She soaped her washcloth again to wash his arms and his back. "I'm not talking about my IT team. I'm talking about you, me, and Grace."

"I'm qualified to carry your bags."

Zelda straightened her back and squeezed her washcloth over Alex's head. "You have a lot to learn about selling yourself, kid."

She turned her face away while Alex shook his hair out then said, "You're my only heir. You have an interest whether you like it or not. You should start looking after it."

Alex turned around to face Zelda. "How am I your only heir? What about Grace? You call her your daughter."

Zelda soaped the washcloth and bathed Alex's feet and his calves. "But she isn't. She's learning how some parts work. You can learn the rest. The two of you are going to run my place."

"Not now, right? And not any time soon."

"Could be sooner than you think." Zelda looked up when Grace opened the door enough to look in, and Alex plucked the washcloth from Zelda's hands.

"Hour and a half," Grace said. "Then hair and nails. Stores are closing early, and we need to shop."

Grace left the door ajar, and Alex splashed around to get behind Zelda. He soaped the wash cloth and washed Zelda's neck and her shoulders. "Twenty-three years since you took care of me, but I've never taken care of you. Tell me what you want."

"I want you to come with us," Zelda said.

"Now? I mean, tomorrow?" Alex paused then finished washing Zelda's back.

"In my ideal world." Zelda leaned back against Alex's chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I have a semester left." He cupped Zelda's breasts in his soapy hands, and this time she didn't push him away. He kissed her ear, caught her nipples between his fingers and felt them stiffen.

"Dammit. Use you're imagination." Zelda said. "Imagine what you and Grace could do."

"And you?" Alex asked, but Zelda didn't answer. She moved to the pleasure of his touch and he whispered into her ear, "I don't want to say no, but I can't say yes—not yet."

Alex stroked his hand down, over her hip, and up between her thighs before Zelda pushed his hand away.

She almost parroted her son. "I'm not saying no." She turned around and took the washcloth back. "I'm saying 'not in the water.' Get up. You're done. I can finish for myself, and you need to talk to your sister."

Alex's stepped out of the tub to dry himself, and he was wearing his towel around his waist when he found Grace outside the door. She gestured with her phone and asked, "What do we need to talk about?"

"What did you hear?"

"Everything, since I poked my head in."

"Do you know what's in Zelda's will?"

"I think what you mean isn't all in her will. There's also a trust or two, but it all boils down to 'you get everything.'"

Alex dropped onto the sofa. "Is that why I'm getting so much attention from a girl who's out of my league?"

"Dammit, Alex, I'm not Princess Grace of Chico." Grace hesitated before she sat on Alex's knee. "Zelda needs you now, and some time we are going to need each other."

Grace gave a little squawk when Alex pulled her onto the sofa between his legs. She tensed, but he held her against him and talked into her ear. "Why do you stay with Zelda? You could do anything you want."

"Am I being interrogated now?" Grace let her phone fall beside them and relaxed back against his chest. "I like the challenges, and I like the rewards. It's what I want to do."

"Did I ever tell you that I like smart girls?" Alex pulled Grace's earlobe through is teeth and slipped his hand down into her knickers. "But I need to know where I stand. It sounds to me like you're using sex to hedge your bet."

Grace lifted her legs apart to make room for Alex's hand. "Maybe I am," Grace said, "but, God this feels good."

"I like everything about it," Alex said. "And for the record, I think you are the Princess of Chico."

He talked with his lips close by her ear. "Hands and arms, lips and teeth—how many ways can I use them to get you off?"

"Hundreds." Grace laid her head back on Alex's shoulder and moaned at the ceiling. The sensations from between her legs tensed her muscles. "There's your voice too. Your breath. The way you smell. They all turn me on."

Alex kissed Grace's neck and looked up to find Zelda in a hotel robe watching from the chair across from them. Grace gripped Alex's arms while he squeezed her pussy, and Zelda wrapped her arms around herself.

Alex thrust his fingers between Grace's folds and into her, and Zelda licked her lips. He held her against him with one hand over her tit and ground against her hardened bud. Grace's breath came in ragged gasps. He tasted excitement on her skin and inhaled it from her shoulder.

Grace's movements grew short and violent. She dug her nails into his arms and clenched her teeth. She bucked in Alex's grip and then relaxed in his arms.

He had that moment to savor his princess' surrender. He found it in her soft body and the way she gulped for air, but then she pushed away.

Alex sucked Grace off his fingers while she stood in front of him. He opened the towel that still clung around his waist, and he stroked his hard shaft. Grace stepped out of her knickers, and she climbed over Alex to straddle his lap.

"Your turn," Grace said, and she laughed in Alex's ear. She rose on her knees to offer him her tit, and she closed her arms around his head while he sucked her.

Alex rolled her nipple over his tongue and stroked his hands down to the flare of her hips. He dragged her nipple through his lips, and his touch crossed to her tailbone then down to touch her anus.

Grace straightened her back, and her nipple slipped from Alex's mouth."Sensitive back there," she said. She reached between them to stroke his cock, and she guided him into her vagina.

She closed her eyes and bit her lip, and Alex groaned as she settled down. Grace's wet pussy stretched around his thick shaft. Its sensitive head burned inside her. She braced herself on his shoulders and her body undulated on his chest—slowly at first, but faster as she learned the rhythm of his excitement.

Alex laid his head back on the cushion and the sensations from Grace's body moving in his arms and around his shaft drove every thought out of his mind. He moaned at the ceiling, and their bodies slapped together. It wasn't her own orgasm that Grace was after, it was his, and he gave it to her.

Grace gasped into Alex's ear when he tightened his arms around her. He held her down, and instinct made him buck. He released himself deep inside Grace's sleek body, and he emptied himself into her.

Alex reassembled his thoughts. The morning sunlight that once seeped around the curtains had faded. Grace was still, and her breath was warm on his neck.

"You're good at that," Alex moved Grace's pigtail off his neck, and he stroked her back until she sat up and found her phone beside them.

"I need to freshen up and call a car. Are you coming with us?"

"Beauty parlor and shopping?" Alex said. "God, no."

Grace took Alex's towel and stood up. She wiped the inside of her thigh then threw it over his knee. Zelda stood at her wardrobe with her robe hanging open from her shoulders. "What do girls wear to parties here?"

"I'll wear blue jeans and a bodysuit," Grace said, "but we didn't bring those."

Zelda stepped into briefs and picked up a bra. "I can't blend in with the college girls, so I'm not going to try." She held her arms out and asked Alex, "What do you want to see me in?"

A bodysuit and bluejeans were fine with Alex, but he dredged the back of his mind for anything not a bodysuit and bluejeans. "You'd look great in a garter belt and black nylons."

Zelda rolled her eyes then settled them on Alex's naked, four-and-a-half star body. "You wear them too, and maybe I'll think about it."

Neither of them were wearing a garter belt or black nylons when they reached Alex' front door. Grace stopped him from opening it, and dance music throbbed on the other side until Zelda was ready for her entrance.

Bright light and pot smoke greeted them, and Frida met them as Alex closed the door. "We didn't know if you'd be here! You were going to be with your mom and her friend and, you know, I had a different picture in my head." She leaned closer and hissed in his ear. "You should've warned me."

"I couldn't predict this," Alex said. The diamonds on Zelda's ears and on her chest glittered as Alex took her fur. "This is my friend, Frida." He took Grace's long jacket. "This is Princess Grace."

Grace slugged Alex's arm. "It's Grace," she said.

Frida laughed and told Alex, "Toby's out by the keg."

Alex hung their jackets in his closet instead of tossing them on his bed with the others. He made sure he had Zelda's hip flask and pocketed the bullet from Grace's jacket, and Frida met him at the bottom of the stairs with a plate of brownies.

"Made your favorite," she said. "It was totally by accident." Grace was by the dining table showing her leopard-spotted spike heels to two girls, and Zelda had a circle of guys in front of the sofa.

"This is great," Alex said. He held the brownie over his hand while he wolfed it down, and he tossed the crumbs into his mouth. "I'll go find Todd." He stopped to talk with Grace on his way and slipped her the bullet. "I'll stay mostly straight, and you can share this with Frida instead."

Alex stuck with his plan. It was getting late, and he was still mostly straight when he sat on the stairs with Grace and Zelda. Alex's friends grinned from under party hats and behind New Year's glasses. They danced in the dining room or laughed in pairs and small groups.

"It's hookup time," Grace said, and passed a joint to Zelda. She tugged at the front of her top to air herself out. "And it's hot in here. I think I'm done dancing."

Zelda took a drag and waited before she let it go. She waved with the joint before she passed it to Alex. "That little redhead would've been all over you if we weren't here."

"Rhonda? I know." Alex said and changed the subject. "Those nails make great roach clips." He tapped the ash onto his palm then shook his hand when it burned. He held it for a moment and decided to pass. "Blaney would have been all over you, and he wasn't the only one."

Zelda nudged him with her shoulder. "Tell me something I don't know. I could've picked from a house full of slack-jawed boys—if I wanted a slack-jawed boy."

"You can't blame the guys for being stupid." Grace slipped her feet back into her shoes and reached behind Zelda to take the joint from Alex. "You did everything you could to make them stupid."

Zelda held her hand up to Grace to say she was done with the roach, and she watched a guy slide his hand around the curve of his girl's butt. "How many of these hookups are going to be more than a lay?"

"Probably none of them," Grace said.

Alex shrugged. "Five more months, and we're all going in different directions. Not a great time to start something. Even Dan and Sophie don't know where they're going."

Zelda patted Alex's butt and pulled her flask from his back pocket. "Blood and money," Zelda gestured with the flask. "They're the only things that really keep people together." She rinsed her mouth with vodka and swallowed before she said more. "I gave you up when you were tiny. I've regretted that ever since, but here we are because of blood and money."

"Mutual interest? Love?" Alex asked. "Those seemed to work for Dad and Ellie."

Zelda gave her flask to Alex and said, "Your dad has no imagination, and Ellie has what? Does Ellie have options?"

Grace pulled her phone from her back pocket. "It's getting deep in here. Maybe we shouldn't wait for midnight." She read her screen and let her shoulders slump. "Too late. They'll take an hour to get here."

The music switched to a driving hip-hop beat and Alex stood and pushed Zelda's flask back into his pocket. "I'll be back." He picked a path through the party, and he rattled a set of keys when he got back. "Todd's truck. He owed me one."

He stepped around Zelda, ran the stairs, and followed a couple back down. The guy was tucking his shirt. Her hair was out of place. Alex draped Zelda's fur over her shoulders and said, "They were making out in the pile of coats on my bed, and the cat was watching." He helped Grace into her long jacket. "I told them to get a room—but not my room."

They said goodbye to Frida in the dining room and to Toby by the keg. The yard was lit by the moon when they got there. Now clouds hid the moon and the yard was lit by the lamp at the back door and by the light that spilled through the dining room window. That was enough for the beer pong players who were too drunk to know it was cold.

Alex led them to Todd's pickup, and Grace lit her phone so they could see where they walked. Zelda pulled her hand back from the chromed door handle and said, "This thing is as old as I am."

"It's a classic." Alex helped Zelda climb in, and she slid over the towels that covered the worn upholster. Grace followed her, and Alex climbed in behind the wheel.

He started the big V8 and turned on the headlights. One worked. Zelda moved her knees to let Alex shift into gear, and she flicked on the radio. She pushed buttons until she found a rock oldies station and Grace braced herself against the dashboard and asked, "Why does this feel like an adventure?"

Alex pulled into the alley and stopped. "Does this adventure take us back to the hotel?"

"I'm not ready to go back," Zelda said. "Do people here do fireworks for New Year's? I want to see fireworks."

Alex took the bullet from Grace and dredged his memory. He sniffed on both sides then passed it to Zelda. "There's a place I know." He pulled down the alley and into the street, and he took a back way into the airport. They passed a sign that read, "Observation Area" and stopped in a lot with a view of a taxiway with the brightly-lit terminal in the distance.

Alex climbed out and left the door open behind him. Zelda's oldies rocked the parking lot while he looked at the other darkened cars. The still air smelled like it was about to snow. Clouds hung low in the sky and reflected the lights from the city spread out below them. Bursts of color decorated sprawling neighborhoods then faded into the night.

"They're lighting them early," Grace said. "Some people can't wait."

"Didn't Zelda want to see this?" Alex asked. He turned around and found Zelda at the back of the truck. She drew her fur close around her and watched a plane moving on the dark taxiway.

Alex leaned beside her and watched people in the row of windows lit along the plane's side. "What's on your mind?" he asked.

"That," she said, and motioned to the plane. "I've been there a thousand times."

Grace leaned against the tailgate on the other side of Zelda. "We'll be there tomorrow, but it's different watching from here."

Zelda leaned her shoulder against Alex. "Right now, they're trying to finish something before they have to put their phones away, calming their kids, trying to get comfortable. In a few minutes they'll fly away and leave all this behind."

"They'll miss all the lights and the parties."

"Maybe all their problems and their pains too," Zelda said. "I'd like to do that. I'd like to fly alone into the dark night and leave it all behind."

Alex set his jaw and watched the lights reflected in Zelda's eyes. "You'd leave us behind, too."

The plane turned away and showed them the blue flame from its engines, and the DJ on the radio started the countdown to midnight. "ten, nine, eight…"

The other cars in the lot flashed their lights and honked their horns, and skyrockets exploded in the distance. Alex slid one hand behind Zelda's neck. He pulled her close, tipped his head and talked with his lips close to hers. "A kiss for the new year?"

It wasn't the kiss that Zelda expected. She caught her breath in surprise, but she opened her mouth and met Alex's tongue with hers. Her lips were tense, and then they were soft and welcoming. Alex slipped his other hand under Zelda's mink and around her back, and she rose against him. His breath came shallow. Her breath was warm on his cheek.

Alex's excitement hardened his cock. It tightened his muscles and tightened his grip on Zelda. He tasted her mouth and explored her until she pushed her hands against his chest.

He wrapped his hand around Zelda's, and watched her while he pushed it down to the hard bulge in the front of his jeans. She outlined his cock with her fingernails and straitened herself up close to him.

"You could see me, and you could touch me," Zelda said. "Those are games." She opened his belt and pulled his zipper down, and she reached into his jeans to wrap her hand around his cock. "If sex is what you want from me, then that's not a game. There's no going back."

"What I want is to figure you out," Alex said. "Maybe sex is the way to do that."

Zelda used her grip on his cock to turn his back to the truck and glanced past him at the other cars still left in the parking lot. She crouched in front of him where she couldn't be seen, and she closed her lips around his shaft.

Zelda took his cock deep in her mouth. Her lips and her tongue wrapped his shaft and thrills ran through his body from its sensitive head. Grace pressed herself against Alex's side, and he held her against him with his hand on her butt. She nuzzled deep between his fleece collar and his throat, and her lips brushed his ear when she whispered, "We might all get what we want."

Alex groaned and caught his breath. He felt Zelda's breath and her hand on his shaft. Her movements were slow at first, and the thrills rushed through Alex's body in waves. He murmured Zelda's name, and Grace kissed his face and his lips.

Zelda worked slowly at first, and faster as Alex's excitement grew. He touched her hair, but she pushed his hand away. She grasped his hips, and her mouth caressed the throbbing length of his cock. Its sensitive head plunged over her tongue.

"God Zelda!" Alex said, and he clenched his teeth. Alex struggled to control himself and to keep himself from collapsing. He squeezed Grace against him, and she laughed in his ear.

Zelda gave him gasps and wet little noises in rhythm. Alex dropped his head back and slammed his eyes shut. He forgot why he was trying to stop himself. His mind went blank, his weight sagged, and he let himself go.

Alex came in colors that burst behind his eyelids like the skyrockets over the city. His essence coursed the length of his cock and erupted into Zelda's mouth. He gave her what she worked for in gush after burning gush until his balls ached from their effort.

Zelda sucked the last of Alex's cum, and she let him go. She caught her balance with one hand, and she stood to lean her body against his and to catch her breath.

Alex heard Zelda swallow and said, "I want to fuck you."

Grace slipped the flask from Alex's back pocket and offered it to Zelda. "Of course you do," Zelda said and rinsed her mouth with vodka.

Alex lifted his hands under Zelda's mink and cupped her breasts. Zelda gave the flask back to Grace and held her hands out. She watched the enthralled expression on his face. He squeezed her tits, and her nipples grew firm.

Zelda wrapped her hands around Alex's wrists and pulled his hands away. "Now the hotel," she said.

Fat snowflakes were falling around them when Zelda stepped back to let Alex straighten his clothes, and the flurry grew as they joined a short line of cars leaving the parking lot. Zelda stopped Alex as Grace keyed into the hotel room, and she stroked his chin. "Take care of this for me, will you?"

Alex stripped off his shirt and washed his face, and Grace leaned against the counter by the sink. He glanced around her and asked, "Where's Zelda?"

Grace kept her voice low. "Getting ready for you. I hope you're ready for her."

Alex smoothed shaving cream over his face while he answered. "Don't know if I'll ever be." He picked up the shaver. "What are you doing?"

Grace whispered so only Alex could hear. "I'll probably do what Zelda did last night, but not with her Glock." She pushed away from the counter and walked away while Alex shaved. She came back when he tossed the towel on the counter and offered him the ice bucket. "You know where the ice machine is. Would you fill this?"

The desk lamp was the only light in the room when Alex got back. Heavy metal throbbed through the television speakers just loud enough to hear. Grace looked up from her journal, and Zelda set her phone aside.

Zelda still wore her diamonds and her fur. Alex put the ice bucket down as he walked around the counter, and he grasped Zelda's mink by the collar to pull her close. He looked down at her body and said, "I thought you didn't want to wear those." She wore a garter belt and black stockings with her heels.

"I didn't want to wear them to your party, but why wouldn't I wear them if they're what you want to see?"

"The jewelry and fur?" he asked.

"The fur feels good against my skin, and the diamonds make me feel special." She looked up and offered her mouth, so Alex took it. He backed her against the counter with one hand cupping her breast under her fur and the other on the small of her back.

Zelda met his tongue with hers. She was hungry, and she moved with the music: her tongue, her arms over his shoulders, her body against his. She sent thrills through him that tightened his muscles and hardened his cock.

Alex lost his breath, and he broke their kiss to get control. Zelda pushed away with her hands pressed against his chest and she laughed. "You're an excitable boy."

She turned back to the counter and dropped ice into her mixer while Alex kicked his shoes off and pushed his pants down. He dropped on the end of the bed and watched Zelda's ass framed by the garter belt and stockings, and he wrapped his hand around his cock.

"How long are you going to take to drink that?" Alex asked, and Zelda turned around with her martini in hand.

"As long as I want." She said and watched her son sit up and stroke his hand over the nylon inside her thigh. He squeezed his mom's soft pussy, and she stepped her high heels apart. "May not take that long," Zelda balanced herself with her hand on her son's head, and she raked her long nails through his hair.

Alex sat forward and buried his face between Zelda's tits. He tasted her skin above her tan lines, and he tasted her skin below her tan lines, and he pulled her nipples between his teeth. The position was awkward for both of them, and it only lasted until Zelda gripped his hair and pulled his head back.

"Don't go anywhere," she said and disappeared around the counter. Alex inhaled the scent of his mother's pussy from his fingers, and he sat on the edge of the bed until she came back with the coke bullet in one hand and her drink in the other.

Zelda put one knee on the mattress beside Alex. "Down boy," she said and nudged him back with her body. Alex kept his eyes on his mom's face, and he fell back on the bed with his arms over his head while she straddled his hips.

"Keep that thing hard for me," she said. She rose enough for Alex to lift his hard cock between her legs, and the sensations sent thrills through both of them as Zelda settled down with her son's shaft inside her.

Zelda straightened her back and watched Alex while she fucked him to the rhythm of the music. Her hips rocked and her breasts rolled. She tossed back the last of her martini and threw the glass on Grace's bed without breaking her rhythm.

Alex rested his hands on Zelda's hips, but she pushed him away while she sniffed from the bullet. He reached to her tits, and she dropped the bullet beside him. She held his hands against her and leaned into his touch.

Zelda danced like she'd danced for him in the bar, like she'd danced for him on the street, and she sent thrills up his spine. The rhythm of the music drove her hips. She leaned into his hands on her breasts, threw her head back, and gasped at the ceiling.

She lost the rhythm to her excitement and collapsed on her son's chest. He held her while she ground against him. Her necklace fell across his chest and locks that loosened from her hairdo tickled his shoulders. Her voice came in ragged gasps and grunts.

Alex tried to imagine what Zelda wanted from him. He touched her bare skin under the fur and down to her garter belt and pressed his hips back against her grind. He pulled her head back with a grip on her hair. Her eyes were closed. Her mouth was open.

Pain lanced through Alex's sides when Zelda's long fingernails dug into his skin. He let her head drop onto his shoulder, and he held her by her wrists. Her hands knotted into claws. She groaned into his chest while she came, and she collapsed on him, her bare skin still moving slowly over his.

"I like the way you dance," Alex said, and Zelda laughed against his shoulder. He didn't need to touch himself to know that he was still hard, and still inside his mother.

Alex sat up with Zelda in his arms, and he arranged her legs around him. Zelda's nectar seeped around his shaft inside her, and she still moved, slowly and quietly. He kissed her face, and he kissed her throat, and he asked, "Can I lay you down?"

"Do you know what you're doing?" Zelda asked. She watched him while she unhooked her necklace and took the diamonds from her ears.

He left the jewelry on the bedside table before he answered. "You've been showing me how to do you for days." He peeled her mink off her arms and pitched it onto Grace's bed. "I figure it's time to show you what I learned." Alex held Zelda against him with his hand on the back of her hips, and turned to lay her on the bed with her head on the pillow.

Alex held his shaft in one hand and worked its smooth head back into his mother, and she lifted her nylon-covered legs around him. He fought the sensations and watched her smile and the way her hairdo came down in tangles on her pillow.

He held his breath and thrust his cock into Zelda. His hips pressed against her thighs before he released his breath again. Zelda arched her back under him. Her excitement thrilled him, and he thrust into her again. Her breasts shook and rolled while he fucked her, and her voice came in gasps and groans.

Alex lowered himself into Zelda's arms, and she held him close. Her fingers clutched at his sides and clawed at his back, and the pain fed his excitement. It drove him deeper and harder. He grasped her hair and bit her throat, and Zelda moaned at the headboard. She chanted his name.

Zelda gasped at the ceiling. Her arms slipped away, and Alex felt his mother's surrender. His only thought was to empty himself in her. He poured his heart, his soul, and his essence into Zelda. Alex groaned through clenched teeth while his cream coursed the length of his shaft and erupted inside her.

Alex and Zelda both struggled to catch their breath. He waited for a moment while his body cooled, and he pulled Zelda close. "What do you want?" she asked.

"I want to feel your body touching mine." He pulled her leg over his hip. He kissed her face. His hands stroked her breasts, her back, her sides. "And I want to know something."

Zelda laughed against Alex's neck, and he kissed her ear. "Why do you do these crazy things?" he asked. "The teasing, the drugs, the alcohol?"

"Because they help me forget the pain," she said.

Alex felt a hand on his side, and Grace climbed into their bed. She squeezed her naked body against his back. She kissed his ear, and reached around him to offer him the scent on her fingers. "I got tired of doing it myself."

New Year's Day

Grace's naked body laid close against Alex's back. Her arm draped over his side. Her breath warmed his neck, but his arms were empty for the first time in hours. The princess made a little sound and rubbed her nose when Alex lifted his head. Something woke him. The clock said 10:30, but light around the curtains was soft as early morning.

The click of a chambering round cut through Zelda's music still pumping from the television speakers. Alex took a moment to realize what he'd heard, and then he lifted Grace's arm from his side. He rolled off the mattress and crouched by the bed.

Alex stayed low and caught his breath when he peered around the counter. Zelda stood by the window in only her garter belt and nylons. She pulled the curtain aside with one hand to look at the snow-covered world outside, and she dangled Death by her thigh.

Adrenaline surged through Alex's body. His muscles tightened, and his heart pounded. He poised to tackle Zelda before she could make Death's day then realized that she wasn't in danger until she lifted the gun with her finger on the trigger.

Alex moved quickly and quietly, and Zelda startled when he wrapped his arm around her waist and clamped his hand over the gun's barrel. Zelda screamed, "Leave me alone!" into Alex's ear. She tried to twist away and pull the gun out of his grip, but she was never going to break his grip on her or on that gun.

Zelda stamped and kicked. She pushed on Alex shoulder, and she clawed at his face and his arm, but he used his leverage on the barrel to bend the gun back against her wrist until he twisted it out of her hand. He threw Zelda into the chair by the window, and he stood over her ready to do anything he had to do to keep her down and away from the gun.

Grace's voice came from behind Alex. She shoved him out of her way and fell to her knees beside the chair. "Are you OK?" She checked Zelda's hand and her face. "You almost did it this time."

Zelda didn't respond at first. She was expressionless while Grace checked her then she lifted one hand to touch Grace's head.

Alex chest heaved. His head swam in its adrenaline bath and blood trickled down his cheek. "Why now?" was his only question.

Zelda sighed and looked away. "Why not? I was so relaxed. It would have been easy, and the pain would never come back."

Alex set the gun out of Zelda's reach, and he sank to his knees in front of her. "What about Grace? What about everything you've started and haven't finished--like your store, like me?"

Zelda ran her fingers through Alex's crazy hair while Grace wiped tears off her cheeks. "Grace will take care of my store. You and Grace will take care of each other. I know you will."

"You expect a lot from two people who just met." Grace said.

Alex trembled from the letdown while he studied Zelda's face for some sign of emotion. He found none. "Grace is my princess," he said. "You're my queen. I'll do anything she wants and anything you need, but you have to think past your pain. You have to finish what you started."

Zelda put an edge to her voice. "There's just darkness past the pain."

"I looked at your store yesterday when you and Grace were out shopping. I studied you. Maybe I can come with you, but we have to make a deal."

Zelda raised her eyebrow, and Grace laid her head on Zelda's shoulder to listen.

Alex ran his hands up Zelda's thighs and rested them on her hips. "If you get the counseling that Grace set up for you, then I'll go with you to Milan. I'll go with you to Zurich."

"And leave me there?" Zelda asked.

"The first month is intense," Grace said. "They won't let us see you."

"We'll go to New York." Alex said. "I could meet your people, but I need to be back here in two weeks for classes, and then I'd have a semester to take classes I need--business, econ, I don't know."

Zelda crossed her arms and glared past Alex at the table behind him. It seemed forever before she looked at Grace, and then to Alex.

"French might help," Zelda said. She touched Alex's shoulders and asked Grace, "How long does the program last?"

"As long as it takes," Grace said. "They thought maybe two months. We could see you in February, and you'd be out before spring." She stood with her eyes on Alex and asked, "Do you have a passport?"

Alex nodded. "At home. I had a plan to use it, but the money went to rent."

"I think I can get Alex on our flight tonight." Grace said. "You have to say yes."

Zelda wrapped her arms around Alex's head. She held him tight and kissed his hair. "I'll do it."

"We need to pack, and eat," Grace said. "We'll go to the puppy box. Alex can get his passport and whatever, and then we're outta here."

****

The airline's lounge was quiet, and the lights were low. Travelers talked in hushed tones or on their phones, or they worked alone. Zelda stood in front of Alex. She was too bored and too nervous to sit for another second. "You took my gun and my booze. I have no coke, and I have no pills. You're not taking away sex are you? Sex is the only distraction I have left."

Grace leaned close and laughed in Alex's ear. "You're going to get more than bruised and scratched."

"You might wear me out." Alex watched Grace's red lips curl into a smile. "I need to be back for classes like two weeks before you can see Zelda. Would you come back here with me?"

"Two weeks in the puppy box?" Grace asked, and glanced at Zelda.

Zelda flipped her hand. "For two weeks? You can do what you need to do from here."

Grace's grip tightened on Alex's arm. "I'm gonna sleep late."

"I need the powder room," Zelda said.

Grace stood up and smoothed her tight skirt down, and she hooked her hand in Zelda's elbow. "Seems like I've been in the powder room a lot." She hadn't let Zelda out of her sight all day, and she wasn't going to start now.

Alex watched heads turn while they walked across the lounge. He checked the charge in his phone and picked Ellie off his contacts. By now dinner should be over. Her dishes should be done.

"Are you over New Year's Eve yet?" she asked.

Alex stood up so he could pace while he talked. "May never be." He couldn't explain why. "Is Dad listening?"

"He's right here. What's up?"

"I'm going to be gone for a while. I'm going to Italy then to Switzerland and to New York with Zelda and her assistant."

"How can you afford that? Who's going to pay your rent?" He heard Dad's voice in the background without making out the words. "You're taking Zelda's money—you must be." Ellie said. "You know your dad and I never wanted you to do that."

"I'm working for Zelda," Alex said. "It'll be the hardest job I've ever had. I have so much to learn." He looked at the time. "I should call the bookstore and the restaurant and quit those jobs instead of just not showing up."

"How long are you going to be gone? When are we going to see you?"

Alex didn't want to read Ellie the whole plan and itinerary, and he wasn't going to give her the whole story. "I'll be back for classes, but I won't be alone."

"Alexander Christian Duval!" Ellie said. "What's going on?"

"Her name's Grace."