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Mykie waved her off. “Thank you for the attempt. I’ll follow up with him myself after the funeral. This is all something he’ll need to know.”
The bartender nodded. “All right, M’am.”
Mykie pushed herself away from the bar and continued her way down the stairs, her eyes on the table she wanted to be at all night.
They were laughing at something Corbus must have said, from the look she saw on his face. Renly had his head leaning back as he belly-laughed as Caspar covered his mouth in an attempt to stop himself from spitting his drink everywhere. It was a strange sight, seeing them all together, but it warmed her heart, suddenly seeing a reality where she could sit at that table with them—laughing with them—and nothing would be out of the ordinary. She imagined herself sitting next to Corbus, his arm around the back of her chair and her hand stretched around the table to hold Caspar’s as they all had easy conversation about something stupid. She would share looks with Renly, who would tell her with just his eyes that he wasn’t jealous of the exchanges around him, but he’d show her what she was missing when they got home. She imagined that Corbus and Caspar would still be arguing with each other and fighting over who got to sit with her or hold her hand in public, but it would be all in good fun because they knew she was happy, no matter who she was holding onto at the moment.
Something was missing though.
In all her daydreaming, she wasn’t paying attention to her step and suddenly, felt all the air in her body rise to her throat as she missed the last two steps of the stairs. She closed her eyes and bent her knees, hoping that she would be able to catch herself without embarrassing herself too much.
“Damn it,” someone groaned as arms encircled her.
She opened her eyes, a gasp stuck in her throat.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be so heavy,” Blaine murmured. Even through the loud music surrounding them, she could hear the drawl in his voice as if he were bored with the situation. His eyes though, a dark pool of brown, shone with concern. She’d seen that look on his face only once before, and it was the night they shared his room. Every time she had moved, from the moment she slapped Renly until she joined him in bed, his eyes looked the same; appearing both knowing and unknowing as he examined her, just as he was doing now as he hugged her to his body.
Looking at him, she realized now why the table before looked so strange. He hadn't been there. Before she could further consider why the table felt incomplete without him, he raised an eyebrow at her, prompting her to speak.
“I slipped,” Mykie said, immediately filling with embarrassment.
Obviously, she slipped.
She pushed away from him gently as she righted her feet on the ground in front of him.
“What are you doing over here?” she asked, brushing her hands on her pants, unable to figure out what to do with them suddenly.
He looked away from her to look upstairs before his gaze met hers again, suddenly seeming to be on the defense. "There was a suspicious guy that left a few minutes ago. I thought I should warn you since you mentioned it wasn't safe here."
“You don’t have to worry about me, Blaine. I’m a big girl,” she murmured, unable to help herself from smiling as he scowled at her.
“Aren’t you the same girl that went home with a man you barely knew after a few drinks on the job?” he snapped.
When her smile dropped, he closed his eyes and seemed to take a breath before opening them again. “I wasn’t concerned for you, okay? You just seemed to find trouble, and I don’t want to be here when it blows up in your face.”
Mykie searched his face. “No, you were concerned. Admit it.”
Blaine scoffed and rolled his eyes. “After what I heard you and Renly had experienced, is it really that crazy of an idea?”
“For you to be concerned about me?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Yes. The last time we spoke, you were ready to expose my secret.”
He smirked.
“I didn’t even have to try. You made a mess out of it all on your own.”
Mykie stepped forward and Blaine’s eyes widened as she leaned closer to him. “Like I said, I’m a big girl that can take care of her own problems.”
“I’m sure you are,” Blaine murmured. “You’ve got your own brand of venom.”
Mykie searched his face. He seemed to know more than he did before. After noticing her snake tattoo, she was sure he had assumed she was not Cantil-adjacent, but instead a full-fledged member.
“I do,” she said, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to the people I care about, and that includes your friends. I would die before anyone could touch them.”
Blaine seemed to be frozen as his eyes bounced around, seeming to search her for some sort of lie. She was telling the truth, though, she realized the first time herself. There was no way she could walk away from this group of friends, now. Not after Caspar and the threat to Renly.
“I can admire that, if you’re telling the truth.”
“Why do you think I’m not?”
