That’s definitely behind us. It seems that both Julie and Max have lost their wild hairs a couple of years back, around the time we graduated college. Even though I’ve been trying to keep them on their toes, which Max can’t always appreciate. Sucks for him.
But now I’m glad that I went to the party. This human girl, Cyra, she’s interesting. Max keeps looking at her, getting that protective gaze he sometimes has and I can understand why. She’s pretty and seems to be fairly headstrong, but she’s also got a fragility to her, even though she hides it well most of the time. And he’s a sucker for people like that. Must be the wolf/dog inside him, always wanting to protect people.
I turn to Cyra. “Have you been doing this for long?”
She glances from the road to me and back. “What? Get into a random stranger’s car?” She’s got spunk, I like that.
I can’t help my laugh and from the corner of my eyes, I catch a slight smile on her lips too. “Not exactly what I was going for, but I’d be curious about the answer to that.”
Max bangs his knee into the back of my chair, cutting off more questions from me. “He meant how long you’ve been playing a princess at birthday parties. At least, I hope that was what he meant, otherwise...” Yes, his warning is not lost on me. Protective guy.
Cyra smiles, her eyes twinkling slightly. “Ah, that. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years. It’s a great job to have when you’re in college, since I can always plan it in on the weekends.” She seems to relax some, but not fully, not as much as her calm voice would make us believe.
“Are you always the same princess?” Why am I even asking about this? Well, because I’ve not really got anything else to ask her and Max will kill me if I ask any questions he thinks are ‘inappropriate’.
“No. I do a couple of different princesses. It depends on what the client wants.” She pulls her sleeves up and then the front of her dress which had started to slide a little low, interestingly low... “I play the character they want for the afternoon, keep their kids entertained, they pay me. Simple, easy.”
“Do you ever do adult—” But before I can finish my sentence Max smacks the back of my head, hard.
“Different question, creep.” He grumbles and I laugh. I can’t help it, it’s fun to watch him get protective like that.
“No, I don’t do entertainment for ‘adult’ parties. And no, I’m not going to make an exception for you.” She levels a look at me and I’m pretty sure that no money in the world would convince her otherwise. Good for her, good for having boundaries.
“I wasn’t going to ask.” I was just curious, and it looked like something that would annoy Max.
“I’m preemptively turning down any requests.” Her voice is stern but she’s also smiling.
“Different questions then.” I look at the navigation for a moment, to see where we need to go. “Are you still in college? Or already graduated?”
“Graduated, two years ago. Just never left the city.” There’s that undercurrent again, something she doesn’t want to reveal. Ah, well, we’re strangers, what else should I expect? It’s not like she’s going to tell us her whole life story within an hour or two of meeting us.
“I think we graduated four years ago, right?” I meet Max’ eyes in the mirror. I suck at remembering these things, all the seasons just seem to flow into each other after a while.
“Five.” He grumbles. “This will be the fifth... winter, since graduation.” His eyes flit to Cyra. He was going to say ‘mating season’ but somehow didn’t. Because of her?
Cyra tensed when he paused, but relaxed when he said ‘winter’. Curious...
Somehow, I feel like I want to see her again. Of course, I can, when we drop off her car in a couple of days, but why do I feel like that’s not enough? Like I want to see her again, meet her again? Actually get to know her?
“We’re here.” I park the car and look around. The neighbourhood is... poor, is a good word for it. Not like some areas at the other edge of the city, but this is definitely the student and starter neighbourhood. No streets with large holes, or anything really obviously bad or run down, but the cars lining the street are mostly like hers, old, on their last leg and far overdue a replacement. The paint on the doors and windows of the buildings could use a new paint job. Not bad, just not that good either.
“Thank you.” She nods, opening the door, ready to get out.
“Should we walk you to the building?” Max opens his own door.
Cyra stills, this time it’s definitely more obvious, obvious enough for Max to notice it too.
He quickly closes his door. “Of course not. Letting a set of strangers into your house is probably a bad idea.”
“Yes...” Her voice is careful, like she somehow hadn’t even considered that. Then she looks at me. “Thank you for driving me. That was a very kind offer.”
“No problem.” I smile at her. “We’ll drop your car off as soon as someone’s looked at it.”
“Thanks.” She nods. “See you in a few days.”
“See you then.” I give a quick wave.
Max gets out anyway, intercepting her on her way to the door, giving her one of his rare soft smiles. “Thanks for the story this afternoon. You had everyone mesmerised.”
Her cheeks flush as she answers him, though I can’t hear her reply,
