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“This is my club,” comes a voice from down the bar, and I lean out to see Treasure swinging her way over. She’s dressed in daytime glam, a red tube top and high-waisted white trousers that glow purpley-blue under the blacklights. “Treasure. Proprietress.” She holds out a coffin-nailed hand, which Zuzu shakes.

“Zusanna,” she says.

“You’re Krye’s kid?”

Zuzu smiles. “How’d you tell?”

“Don’t get many Albanians around here unless they’re somehow related to your daddy,” Treasure says. “Besides, you have his eyes.”

Zuzu scoffs and mutters something unintelligible, but smiles. “Pleased to meet a fellow businesswoman. I run gym over in Marina myself.”

“Ooh, what kind of gym?” Another Mermaid pops up behind Treasure—Pearl, bearing a tray full of empties and wearing a top that’s more beaded curtain than blouse. I try not to blush, thinking about the last time I saw her—saw her with Pan, with his hands all over her. “Because I’ve been looking for a place to do Pilates⁠—”

“Kickboxing,” Zuzu interrupts. “Hard hits. Lots of bruises.” She squints. “Maybe not so good for someone in your line of work.”

Pearl wilts a bit. God, she’s tiny—even in her gleaming four-inch platforms, she’d barely reach my shoulder. No wonder Pan was tossing her around like a baby doll.

Stop, I chide myself. Stop…thinking that. Whatever it is.

Pearl hustles off with her tray, but Treasure stays put, eyeing me hard.

“Been a minute, Tink,” she says evenly.

“Drinks up!” Ruby leans in from behind, placing Zuzu’s clear shot glass next to a colorful Tiki mug crested with mint leaves and two fat wedges of lime that must be mine. “Enjoy.”

“Thanks,” I say, and gingerly pick up the drink.

“Trying something different?” Treasure says.

I sip the mai tai, which is strong, and delicious, and lift a shoulder. “What can I say? I’m a whole new woman.”

That gets a smile out of her. “I gotta say, Tink, I never even guessed. And I’m pretty decent at clocking that kind of thing. Now, in hindsight…” She purses her lips.

God, this thing kicks the shit out of room temperature lager. I lower my tiny cocktail straw after another healthy sip, frowning. “In hindsight what?” I prompt.

“Well, you were always the one with common sense,” Treasure says. “Now I know why.”

“Is that her? I—oop.” Another Mermaid—Emerald, blonde, bright-eyed, and with nothing on but a kind of green mesh poncho over pasties and hot pants—skids to a stop behind the bar, where Ruby has been, I realize, polishing the same glass for the duration of my conversation with Treasure. I bite back a sigh—my plan to get away from the guys to have a private convo with Zuzu seems hopeless. But Zuzu doesn’t appear bothered, already signaling for another, and I don’t really mind a chance to nurse my cocktail, either. So I give Emerald an awkward smile and wave.

“Uh, yeah, it’s me,” I say. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Emerald breathes. “Wow. So she really is a girl,” she remarks, more to Ruby than to me.

“Yes,” Treasure and I say simultaneously—Treasure kind of irritated, me equal parts amused and embarrassed. Because, well, obviously it’s been a hot topic of gossip around here: in hindsight, the news that the skinny blonde Lost Boy is actually a girl is probably the juiciest story of the past two weeks. Suddenly, I’m very, very conscious of how I look—still in guy clothes, even if I’ve ditched the binder and the swagger and the fake deep voice. Next to the Mermaids—hell, even next to Zuzu—I look like a mess. Frumpy. Weird.

“Okay, okay, sorry!” Emerald says. “But I just…wow. I have so many questions.”

“Tink’s still a customer,” Treasure reminds them. “She didn’t come here to be interrogated.” But I can see in her expression that she, too, has a few things she’s wondering. And maybe it’s just the one-third of a very strong mai tai that’s now pooling in my veins, or maybe it’s just the chance to, I don’t know, girl talk? for once, but I decide I don’t mind.

“It’s fine,” I say. “What’s, uh…what do you want to know?”

Emerald and Ruby glance at each other. “Um, like, everything?” Ruby says first. “Like, why, first of all? Are you⁠—”

“I’m not trans,” I say, just to preempt. “I’m definitely a girl. I just needed to…” I search for the right words. “Keep a low profile, I guess. And when I met the guys, they thought I was a guy, so…”

I run down the briefest and least detailed version of the whole Tink origin story, which, by the time I’m done, has drawn in Pearl, Sapphire, and the newest one, Diamond.

“But what about your boobs?” Pearl abandons her tray to lean a hand on her chin and stare directly at my chest.