Page 16

Story: Tenderfoot

“I’m liking this,” Raye said.
“Get Arthur to ante up, make it worth her while,” Luna planned.
“Jinx?” Shanti asked.
“She’s one of our informants. She’s a sex worker,” Jess explained.
“Ah,” Shanti murmured.
“You gals really live on the edge,” Willow said, sounding as if she was no longer sure she wanted to hang in that space with us.
“You’ll love her when you meet her,” I told Willow. “I mean, maybe you’ll love her the third or fourth time you meet her, because she has a hard shell. But under that, she’s totally sweet.”
“Right,” Willow muttered.
“I’ll text Jinx,” Raye decided.
“I’ll put in a DoorDash order,” Jess said. “We had to take off before we could eat anything at Oceans 44. Sauce or Joyride aren’t exactly Oceans 44, but they far from suck.”
“I could always eat a burrito,” Willow put in.
Couldn’t we all?
Jessie pulled out her phone.
I continued in my efforts not to peek at Javi’s texts.
I was telling myself I didn’t care what he had to say after all he’d said. He might feel badly for finally being honest, but it was out there. It had been said. There was no taking it back.
And sure, if I let him apologize (if that was what he was doing), we could maybe settle back into the place where I avoided him and he put up with me, but right now, I wasn’t ready to give him that.
This wasn’t my usual MO.
I could flounce, fume and wallow, but I wasn’t the type of girl to hold a grudge.
I guess we live, we learn, we grow into bad behaviors.
I’d sleep on it (if I could sleep). Maybe I’d feel better tomorrow (I didn’t have high hopes for that, but ever the optimist), and then I’d deal with his texts.
Yeah.
That sounded like a plan.
Jess got all our orders and set up delivery.
Raye set up a meet with Jinx after work the next day.
The Angels were back in business.
And I was feeling pretty proud of myself.
I’d successfully done what I’d never been able to do before in my life.
Controlled my emotions in order to get on with it.
It was costing me, I knew.
But by God…

Table of Contents