Val threw her hands up in surrender and got to her feet. Mai stepped into the apartment and let the door close behind her.
“Go get dressed and off we go,” Mai said.
Val looked down at herself, and Mai could practically hear the old discussion popping up. Not that there was anything wrong with that. It was a familiar and fun one. Mai simply would never understand Val’s sense of fashion, or lack thereof. For such an attractive woman, she seemed to do her best to hide it. Even alone in her apartment, Mai would never be caught dead in sweats. Sweats that didn’t even match.
“I am dressed, Short Stack.”
“No, Gigantia, you are clothed. Not the same thing.”
Val rolled her eyes and stomped melodramatically off to her room to change. Mai had to hand it to her, when she wanted to stomp, she stomped. Mai eased into an easy chair to wait, a small smile on her face.
A friend! Who would have thought it?
Two hours and half a dozen shops later, the two and a small mountain of bags were in a small boutique on Royal looking at hats. It didn’t matter that neither one ever wore hats, or that hats in general were very much out of style for anyone who looked under forty. Practicality had little to do with a shopping day.
Usually most of the bags would have been Mai’s, but there was something infectious about Mai when she really got going. Plus, since she was mildly irritated by Val’s reluctance to spend on herself, she often snatched items that Val liked and paid for them while the other was still in the changing room. Or slipped the clerk her card, so that when Val’s pride demanded she “pay her own way” she would find it already covered. Even friends could get caught up in power games.
Mostly, though, this was giving them time to catch up and talk. Mai started on safe topics, Val’s work mainly. Then steered the conversation slowly to where she was interested. At the moment, while fingering a feathered monstrosity she couldn’t imagine anyone would actually put on her head, she was telling Val how Griffen had managed to get caught up with both her and Fox Lisa.
“Really?” Val said, laughing. “Strip pai gow?”
“Yeah, and he didn’t see it coming. Can’t believe you haven’t heard that one before,” Mai said.
“Well, you never told me, and I don’t spend much time with Lisa.”
“And Griffen?”
“Brothers!” Val rolled her eyes. “He’s all about sticking his overprotective nose in my love life. But as soon as I turn it around, he gets embarrassed and shrugs me off. Big baby.”
Mai chuckled, but her eyes narrowed a bit, and her tone went just a touch sly.
“So… about your love life.”
“What about it?” Val said, expression faltering.
“Oh, so you can shrug it off, too? Maybe it’s not a brother trait after all but a McCandles one.”
Val looked at her surroundings. Most of the shops they had visited were big on personal attention, pampering that usually wasn’t found in these mall-filled consumer days. Unfortunately, that meant there was a shopgirl pretending not to eavesdrop a few feet away. Mai watched her gather up her bags.
“Come on. If we are going to dish, I’m going to need something hot and bad for me,” Val said.
“Sounds like your love life, all right,” Mai said.
Val glared at her, a very unfriendly look, and Mai waved to the shopkeeper as they headed back out to the street. Mai followed, though she had pretty much figured they were headed to Cafe Du Monde and Val’s favorite sweet vices.
“I wasn’t shrugging it off,” Val said.
Mai fell into step next to her and a little behind. She glanced at Val and cocked her head.
“If you say so.”
“What I meant was that there isn’t anything to discuss. Cold turkey,” Val said.
“Mmm, from what I hear it wasn’t too long ago you were seen knocking on Gris-gris’s door. And that sounded like anything but cold.”
Mai had to stop and turn around. Val had stopped in her tracks. Mai shrugged.
“It’s the Quarter. Word gets around.”
“Heard from who, Mai?” Val said.
“Not Gris-gris, if that’s what you mean. Doubt he told anyone who didn’t ask him directly. It was third-person by the time it got to me. Remember”—Mai darkened her expression and her tone—“the Lucky Dog vendors see all.”
Val shook her head and started walking again. Mai had expected at least a laugh from her but didn’t push it. After half a block of silence, Val spoke up.
“So what did it sound like, then?”
“What?”
“If not cold turkey, then…”
“Oh. Aggressive. That was the word I liked best. ‘Aggressive, ’ ” Mai said.
She could practically see Val rolling the word over her tongue, testing it out.
“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Val said finally.
“And since then?”
Mai watched Val weigh exactly how much to say. Val simply didn’t have enough practice at disguising her true feelings, and Mai had practiced reading people longer than Val had been alive. Though Mai wouldn’t kid herself; she knew her friend had more powerful blood. Still, experience beats power.
“Nothing… Well, not much. I sort of got invited to this masked ball,” Val said.
Mai grinned, that sounded promising.
“By who?”
“George.”
This time Mai stopped in her tracks, and for all her inscrutable behavior, felt her jaw drop. Val kept walking, and Mai realized belatedly that her friend had dropped that bombshell with expert precision. By the time she caught up, Val’s grin was wide enough to make the cat with a canary blush through his fur.
“Bitch,” Mai muttered.
“Yep. You had it coming,” Val said.
“How could I not hear about this?”
“You don’t know everything that is going on in the world? Gasp, shock, better turn in your junior decoder ring. You’re a has-been.”
Mai thought sourly that Val was definitely enjoying this far too much. Also, that her gibes were hitting a bit too close to home. Her face gave away too much, and she saw Val back-pedal a bit mentally.
“Relax. The only ones there were Griffen, George, and me. I doubted that George would be blabbing it about, and Griffen…”
“Has had his head up his ass lately,” Mai said.
“Well, up the conclave anyway, which smells about the same.”
By now the two had crossed Jackson Square and were settling into chairs at the Cafe. Unlike the shops, Cafe Du Monde was a wonderful place to talk semiprivately. The waiters were quick, and cash was collected as soon as the food arrived, and then they vanished to serve others and never appeared till it was time to clear dishes.
Mai was a coffee girl, Val hot chocolate. That said much about them. They both had an order of beignets, with an extra order to split.
“Okay, so talk to me, girlfriend. Why would you date George after he nearly killed your brother?”
Mai had to remind herself that other than rumor and the story of Griffen’s confrontation with the dragon hunter, she was not supposed to know George. Certainly not on any personal or professional level.
“Mainly I think he did it to get on Griffen’s nerves. I won’t flatter myself to think he really is doing it because he is interested in me or apologetic over bashing my head in at our last meeting.”
“Especially not after you emptied a shotgun into him,” Mai said innocently.
“Exactly.”
