“Done. Oh, my God. What am I supposed to do about him now?”
Cheyenne snorted and nodded with raised eyebrows at a pair of women in their seventies, arms linked together, who passed the magical friends and couldn’t stop staring at the Goth chick’s getup. “Same thing you were planning to do with him before, I hope. Which is not letting him weasel his way into everything, right?”
Ember leaned over the side of her chair just enough to catch a final glimpse of the gray-haired women scowling at Cheyenne’s back and shaking their heads. “Those ladies have serious judgment issues.”
“That’s nothing. Some guy once told me I was going to hell for worshipping the devil.”
“How insightful of him.”
“I know, right? I tried to ask him what he suggested I do to fix that oversight on my part, and he ran away.”
Ember burst out laughing and turned toward the storefront coming up on their right. “Oh, boy.”
Cheyenne glanced at the Hot Topic sign above the door in thick black letters and leaned down to mutter in her friend’s ear, “Watch this.”
She slowed their pace a little and stared into the store as they passed. Four teenagers stood around one of the clothes racks in the center, all of them decked out in punkier versions of the Goth clothes the halfling had been wearing since 2012. The three girls and one guy looked up from the clothes rack and saw Cheyenne slowly pushing Ember past the storefront. The halfling wiped every ounce of expression off her face and met each of their gazes. Only one of the kids had any piercings—two studs on either side of his bottom lip—and two of the girls had added rainbow glitter to their eye makeup. The third didn’t wear any makeup at all, and she was the only one who didn’t join the others in making faces at the drow halfling staring them down.
Yeah, okay. Cheyenne stopped at the very end of the storefront’s window and stared at the teenagers trying to make the wrong person uncomfortable. The three joking around and making faces caught on pretty quickly that the Goth chick glaring through the window wasn’t going anywhere. Their smirks fell away in seconds, then Cheyenne glanced at the girl without any makeup. A slow, admiring smile lifted the corner of the girl’s mouth, and that was it.
The halfling turned slowly away from the window and pushed Ember down the mall once again. “Amateurs.”
Ember looked over her shoulder and shot the halfling an incredulous smile. “Maybe you should be a high school teacher instead.”
“What, and teach computer lab? No fucking way.” She grinned when Ember threw her head back and cackled. “That one on the end wasn’t so bad, though.”
“The one who smiled at you?”
“Yeah. I think she appreciated the gesture.”
Ember pointed over her shoulder at her friend. “I think she wanted to be you.”
“Oh, to be young and naïve!” They laughed again, and Cheyenne’s gaze settled on a man and his two sons under ten walking toward them. The boys stared with wide eyes, and their dad didn’t set a much better example. The halfling jerked her chin at the man and kept walking. “How’s it goin’?”
The guy tried to return the gesture, but his head twitched away from her instead before he put a hand on each of his kids’ shoulders and hurried them away from the scary lady who said hello.
“Wow. Is this a regular thing for you?” Ember glanced back at the boys and gave them a little wave. They hurried to put their dad between them and the much more normal-looking woman in the wheelchair.
“Absolutely.” Cheyenne winked at the woman in the tailored power suit walking briskly toward them, her heels clacking on the shiny floor. The woman stumbled away from the Goth chick, did a double-take, and hurried toward the opposite side of the mall’s center walkway to avoid passing within arm’s reach.
Ember cracked up again. “People.”
“I know. It’s pretty revealing. Some people don’t care what anyone looks like, and then I get decent conversations in. Like this old guy at Union Hill the other day. Dude was drooling all over my car and gave me his business card.”
“For your car?”
“Yeah, like custom work or whatever. Regular-looking guy, giant white handlebar mustache.”
“What?” Ember stretched her mouth open wide and wiggled her jaw around, trying to get her cheeks to stop hurting after laughing for so long at all the people here.
“Who knows? Maybe I’ll go check out what he can do.”
“You’re gonna Goth out the Porsche?”
“Why not?” Shrugging, the halfling caught sight of the Red Robin at the end of the shops before the next mall exit. “There it is. You good with burgers?”
“I don’t care at this point.”
“Sweet.” They pushed on, and Cheyenne paused when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. “Oh. Hold on a sec.”
“What’s up?”
“Phone call.” The halfling pulled out her cell phone and frowned. “From my mom.”
“The way you said that makes me think that’s not a normal thing.” Ember turned in the chair and glanced at the cell phone and then the halfling’s confused expression. “Everything okay?”
“Who knows? You mind?”
“You don’t need my permission to answer the phone.” Ember scoffed and turned back around.
Cheyenne accepted the call and brought the phone to her ear. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, Cheyenne. I just got off the phone with your finance manager. He called to notify me of a suspiciously high level of activity on your card over the weekend. His words, not mine. It’s none of my business what you do with your finances, but all parties involved wanted to be sure that the activity was authorized. You understand.”
The halfling grinned and forced down the laugh threatening to bubble up. Nobody laughs at Bianca Summerlin during a courtesy call. “It’s all authorized, Mom. Thanks.”
“Good. I’ll give the man another call, and
