“I do now.”
As we worked our way through the club, dodging waitresses and weaving through people, the club began to rotate in clockwise circles.
I looked around. “That’s really interesting. How do you think they make the room spin like that?”
Drake groaned. “Tell me if you start to feel sick.”
“I never feel sick. I’m as healthy as a horse.” As soon as I said that I felt my stomach roil. “Usually.”
I made it outside before I threw up dinner and every drop of the cosmos (tuna fish and vodka apparently didn’t go well together). Drake held my hair and soothed my back. The world stopped spinning—mostly—and my head cleared a little. “Do you think that potted plant will be okay?”
“The potted plant is the least of our worries at the moment. Think you can make it to the car now?”
I lifted my head from where it rested on Drake’s chest to look at where he pointed. I shook my head. “Don’t think I can make it all the way down there.”
“It’s only ten feet away. Lean on me.”
I shook my head again and winced. “I think I need to visit the plant once more before we go.”
Lurching toward the foliage, I was vaguely aware of Drake holding me again. I would have commented on it but I was too busy trying to keep my innards from coming up.
Something white flapped in my face. I whacked it away but it was persistent.
“Go away.” I pushed it again, forcefully, feeling myself fall forward after it.
“Easy there.” Drake’s hold on me tightened. “I’m just trying to wipe your mouth.”
“Oh.” Might as well be cooperative. I pursed my lips and waited.
“Think you can make it to the car now?” he asked, patting my face with the handkerchief.
I peered around his arm. “All the way over there? Too far.”
“Come on. I’ll help you.”
He must have had too much to drink because we stumbled an awful lot on the way to the car. I wiggled my finger at him. “You should take it easy on those drinks the next time.”
“I’ll try. Milton, I think I need a hand.”
I looked up and grinned. “Milton!” Then I frowned. “It’s dark out. Why are you wearing your sunglasses? They’re prudent to wear during the day considering the damage the sun can do with UV rays, but you’re safe at night.” I tried patting his shoulder to reassure him but his body kept undulating so I missed.
“In you go, Katherine,” Drake said, and suddenly I was facedown in dark leather, my butt in the air.
I rolled over to sit up and fell onto the floor. “Oof.”
“Up you go.” Drake hoisted me up.
I fell into his lap again. I pushed at him with a grin. “Are you getting fresh again?”
What happened next is all a blur. I must have given Drake my apartment number because the next thing I was conscious of was being dragged up the stairs of my building. At least I think it was my building—everything was fuzzy.
I tried to straighten my glasses so I could see better but they weren’t on my nose. “Oh no!”
Drake glanced at me as he hefted me up a couple more steps. Or I think he did. “What is it?”
“The plant took my glasses.”
I knew he grinned because I caught the white flash of his teeth in the semidarkness of the hallway. “I made the plant give them back. They’re in my pocket.”
“Oh good.” Glasses weren’t cheap, and I had to save all my pennies. “I’m going to buy a house, you know.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.” I kept my head still, remembering what had happened the last time I tried to move my head. “A cozy house. After I get the promotion.”
“Promotion?”
“Mm-hmm. I’m VP material, you know. Linda sees that now that I’ve found her sperm.”
“What?”
I nodded. Bad idea. I tried to still the throbbing in my head with my hand.
Drake held me up against a wall, tilting my face up to his. “What’s this about sperm?”
“Linda’s—”
“Lydia.”
“Oh.” Right. “Lydia’s clock is ticking and she really needs sperm bad. So I gave her Luc—” Tears filled my eyes. “I didn’t mean to, though. Now I’ve lost my best friend.”
The door next to us opened. I turned my head and glared at Rainbow. “Where were you? I knocked and knocked and knocked but you didn’t answer. I wanted to ashk—” I frowned. There was something wrong with my mouth. First my eyes, now this. Good thing I still had control of my mind. “—
ask
you to go with me.”
“I was on a date.” She frowned at me, which I kind of noted even though I was entranced by her dreads, which rippled in sinuous waves.
Maybe she was Medusa undercover, like Bruce Wayne to Batman. I nodded sympathetically. “If I were Medusa, I’d keep it under wraps too.”
“Do you think you could help me find her key? I think Katherine needs to lie down.”
Rainbow nodded and came out to us. “I’ll look in her pocket.”
I giggled when I felt her touch. “You’re tickling me.”
“You smell like a distillery,” she mumbled as she poked through my jacket. “You don’t drink.”
“But Drake got me this really great drink with lime called cosmetology and it was great.” I frowned. “But I don’t know if it was organic.”
“Got it.” Rainbow held up something that looked very familiar.
I squinted. “That looks like my key.”
Then my door was open and Drake followed Rainbow in, pulling me along with him.
Drake grunted. “Her bedroom?”
“Through here.” She turned on the light in my room and we all went in there.
“Can we have a slumber party?” I pouted. “Please? I’ve never had one.”
Rainbow and Drake must have decided this was a great idea because they put me on the bed and undressed me.
I frowned. “I’m in my underwear. I’m not sure Drake should see me like this. But aren’t the little panties Luc bought me cute? Look—they’re low waisted so they fit under the pants. Isn’t that ingenious?”
He grunted and yanked the covers over me.
“I have an extra T-shirt you can wear to sleep in.” My voice was muffled from the blanket, and I had to bat at it a few times before it got out of my way.
“Thanks.” Drake ran a hand over my brow and pushed my hair back. “Close your eyes now and sleep it off.”
“I’m not sleepy.” Still, I shut my eyes like he said. I didn’t think many people dared go against him. Besides, I was entranced by the way the darkness behind my eyelids spun in loping circles.
The light clicked off, and I heard him and Rainbow whispering. But their voices grew more and more distant ...
I opened my eyes and felt a million rays of light try to use my brain as a pincushion.
Groaning, I pulled the covers over my head.
“Are you awake?”
I cracked one eye open. Tentatively.
Rainbow grinned from the doorway.
“What are you doing here?”
Her grin widened. “Making sure you made it through the night.”
I’d never noticed how painfully bright her teeth were. I shielded my eyes from the glare. “Who let the sun in?”
She laughed. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t think I could move my carcass if I wanted to and, right now, that was the last thing on my mind.
“Here. Drink this.”
I peeked from behind the covers at the greenish-red looking liquid in the glass that filled my vision. “What is that?”
“Your savior. Trust me. It’s my guaranteed hangover cure. One of my ex-boyfriends still calls me all the time to beg for the recipe.”
I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to drink it—except that it looked like vomit—so I took a careful sip.
And gagged.
“No.” Rainbow shook her head, making her dreads bob up and down. “You need to down it quickly.”
She looked implacable, standing over me as she was. Or maybe I was distracted by the way my stomach flopped and my head pounded. In any case, I did what she told me to do. I still gagged, but at least I’d finished her witch’s brew.
“Good.” She eyed me closely.
I frowned. “What?”
“I’m just making sure it stays down.”
Gross. I ducked my head under again. “Go away and let me die in peace.”
“Get up.” She jerked the covers off me. Completely. “You’ll feel better after a shower.”
Pulling covers off a person like that was evil under the best of circumstances. I glared at her. “You’re the devil’s spawn, aren’t you?”
“Don’t you have to go to work today?”
I blinked and looked at my alarm clock. Only the numbers were a blur (where were my glasses?), so I leaned over to get closer and fell out of bed.
But I did catch the time. “Oh, shit.”
Rainbow threw her hands in the air. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
I crawled to the bathroom (I wasn’t sure my legs would work). Fortunately, Rainbow went ahead of me and turned on the shower, taking pity on me and helping me in.
The tepid water (the water in our building didn’t even aspire to hot) went a long way toward restoring me. By the time I’d rinsed I felt well enough to nibble on the toast Rainbow made for me. She’d even placed my glasses next to the plate.
She was waiting for me in my living room after I got dressed and wound my hair into a bun. “You look like the living dead.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Thanks.”
“Let’s go.” She headed for the door before I could blink.
My only course of action was to follow her. “Where are you going?” I asked as I locked the door.
She dangled a set of keys in front of my face. “I’m taking you to work.”
“You have a car?”
“Calling it a car is a stretch, but I like it.” She grinned, linked her arm through mine, and pulled me toward the stairs.
Frowning, I stopped in my tracks, more because of confusion than the uneasiness of my stomach. “I don’t deserve your niceness.”
“Sure you do.”
“Why?” I just didn’t get it.
She frowned. “Because we’re friends. Friends do this for each other. You’d take care of me if I were hungover and crotchety.”
I shook my head. A week ago, I wouldn’t have cared at all. “I’m crotchety?”
She grinned and tugged my arm. “Let’s go.”
Rainbow led me to an old Alfa Romeo parked on the street a couple of blocks away—not a convertible but the little sporty sedans they used to make. As far as I could tell, it was rust colored, but when she turned the ignition it sounded robust and healthy. Not what I would have expected.
But nothing about Rainbow was turning out as I expected, so I don’t know why I was surprised.
We had a mad ride through the City, one that would have rivaled the most insane taxi ride. But I arrived at work in record time.
Clearing my throat and adjusting my glasses, I turned to Rainbow. “Um, thanks. For everything.”
“No prob, babe. Go get ’em.” She smiled and gave me a hug.
What should I do? I wasn’t used to spontaneous hugs. Sure, Luc gave them all the time, but he didn’t clutch me like Rainbow was.
So I did the only thing I could—I hugged her back. And (I’m surprised to admit this) it felt good.
I didn’t realize until I’d gotten out of the car and she’d driven away that for once I didn’t notice her piercings.
I sneaked through the lobby and caught the elevator up to my office. I slunk down the hallway, hoping no one would notice I was two and a half hours late.
Didn’t it make sense that I wasn’t so lucky? When I checked my messages, I cringed to find out I had several from Lydia—via Jessica—to go up and see her immediately.
Sighing, I rummaged through my desk for ibuprofen or aspirin. Anything to dull the throbbing in my head. I took four tablets, smoothed my hair, and headed up.
Jessica scowled at me the second I walked in the door. “You certainly took your time.”
“I just got in. I wasn’t feeling well this morning.” I hated that I felt like I had to justify myself to her.
“Lydia isn’t happy with you.” She said it with a little too much glee.
I resolved right then and there that if I ever ran the company, Jessica was out. I bared my teeth at her (in a smile—I swear) and tiptoed into Lydia’s office.
She was furiously typing on her laptop. I mean
furiously
. I was surprised her keyboard didn’t snap in two.
“Sit,” she barked.
I did just that—promptly. I gripped the cold metal armrests of the chair to stop my hands from shaking (I think it was from my hangover, but it could have been sheer terror).