“Excellent decision. I’m a little heartbroken, but I’ll get over it.” Cheyenne started the car again and backed out of the restaurant parking lot. “If you change your mind, though…”
“Trust me, I won’t. Not after that image in my head.” Ember laughed and drank more of Cheyenne’s coffee.
I don’t even care.
“As you wish, O mighty smiter.”
Ember rolled her eyes. “I think you’ve got us confused, halfling.”
“Not today. We’re gonna do this right, Em. Get us into a badass new place that’s safe and has everything we need.” I owe her that much, at least.
Chapter Fifty
Five hours later, they pulled up in front of the Guest Center of the Pellerville Gables apartments on Libbie Mill East Boulevard. Cheyenne glanced at the tall buildings around them and shrugged. “Third time’s a charm, right?”
Ember smirked and shook her head. “We’ve already been to three different apartment complexes. I think we missed the cutoff.”
“What? No, in this situation, we’re interpreting the saying as three duds in the apartment search equals a winner with number four.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
The halfling chuckled and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Just let it percolate in your head. You’ll catch up.” With a wink, she popped the trunk and got out to grab the wheelchair one more time. I’ll be helping her for a while, so I better get used to it.
She jerked the chair out of its folded position with an almost fluid motion and grinned. “Hey! I think I’m gettin’ the hang of this.”
Ember let out a mocking groan. “Awesome. You get the hang of my wheelchair. I’ll wait.”
“Whoa.” Laughing, Cheyenne brought the chair around and locked the wheels. She stuck her hands on her hips and eyed her friend, still sitting in her car. “You’re gonna have to go easy on me, Em. I’m on a learning curve here. Don’t worry, I’ll quit slowing you down in no time.”
Ember snorted and steadied herself while Cheyenne bent down to help her transfer out of the car. It took the magicless fae only seconds this time to get herself adjusted in the chair, then Cheyenne wheeled her backward so Ember could shut the door. “We are getting pretty good at this.”
“See?” The halfling pushed her friend toward the ramp onto the sidewalk as Ember pulled the keyless fob out of her jacket pocket and locked the car behind them. The little chirp made them both smile. “We make the best damn team in the world. Only makes sense that we’re about to end up living together too.”
“Okay, I might be misreading the signs, but you sound more excited about this setup with every awful apartment we say no to.”
Cheyenne laughed as they headed up the walkway toward the front door of the Guest Center. “That’s ‘cause we’re getting closer to that Goth-box garage.”
“Maybe I should just say this is the one I want, no arguments, I’m putting my foot down now—” Ember froze in the chair and stared at the warped reflection of a girl in a wheelchair being pushed by a blurred black figure shaped like another girl. Then she laughed. “That’s always metaphorical, isn’t it? Putting one’s foot down.”
“Unless we’re talking about toddler tantrums, yeah. Hey, look at this. Automatic doors with a handicap button.” Cheyenne wheeled her friend up to the blue metal square on the outer wall of the building and nodded. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“That’s the first one we’ve seen today, isn’t it?” Ember leaned sideways and slammed her palm on the button. The door opened slowly to let them inside. “I like this place already.”
“Okay, well, don’t put your foot down just yet.”
They made their way into the wide, sweeping lobby of the Pellerville Gables Apartments, everything in bold colors and sleek, clean lines.
Ember tipped her head all the way back to study the unusually high ceilings and the track lighting. “Does this place look like a hotel lobby to you?”
“Stole the words right outta my head. Not a lot of black, though.”
The fae girl scoffed. “I’m pretty sure a good interior decorator can take care of that issue.”
“Oh. Now we’re talking about interior decorators, huh? When did we get so fancy?”
“Probably when you bought that super-fancy car outside and started throwing around the phrase ‘inheritance.’” Ember looked over her shoulder to grin at the halfling. “Plus, I kinda have a weak spot for decorating.”
“You know what? I’ll buy that.” Cheyenne found the receptionist’s desk against the right-hand wall just past a half-circle of black leather armchairs around a curvy modern coffee table with no identifiable shape. We need chairs like that. “Even with all the broken cabinets and the holes in the wall, your apartment looks a lot nicer than mine.”
“That’s because I have furniture.”
They laughed and pushed the sound level down into snickering as they approached the desk. The woman sitting there was only a few years older than they were, her platinum-blonde hair cut into a straight, severe bob. She readjusted the cat-eye frames of her lime-green glasses and smiled first at Ember. When she looked at Cheyenne, her smile faded a little, and her gaze moved to Ember again. “Hi. Can I help you?”
“That would be awesome,” Cheyenne replied with a firm nod.
The woman blinked—the little plaque on her desk said “Caroline”—and kept smiling at Ember.
“I called earlier this morning and made an appointment for a showing,” Ember said, her usual joking demeanor replaced by a perfectly polite bubbliness that matched Caroline’s.
Cheyenne pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. Like she was groomed by Bianca Summerlin.
“All right.” Caroline’s smile widened, her blue eyes magnified behind the thick lenses. “What time was your appointment?”
“Two-thirty. If you took my name down, it would be under Ember Gaderow.”
The receptionist clicked around and nodded. “Oh, yes.
