I grabbed what I hoped was an extra shirt of his and rousted Gina, helping her to strip and turn on the shower. She needed it. I found a tray of bagels in his kitchen, a half-full tub of cream cheese, and a note saying Help yourself in clean block handwriting. A fresh pot of coffee, still warm, was the only thing to prove Asher’d been there.
I was on my second bagel when Gina made it down the stairs. “God, I’m so embarrassed.” On her, one of Asher’s shirts hung almost to her knees.
“Don’t be. Everyone’s been there.”
“I know. It’s just that I’m not supposed to be that person. I didn’t go to vet school for this.”
I proffered the bagels, and she shook her head, looking a little green. “I’m just glad you called me.”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your date,” she said, and I stared blankly at her. “That guy who was here. This is his house, right?”
I snorted. “The only person I slept with last night was you. I have the tile prints on my ass to prove it.”
She made her way around the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. “If you’re not dating him, can I have his phone number?”
“He’s not really rebound material.” Though I would bet that Asher wouldn’t be above helping someone out with revenge sex. “He’s a shapeshifter.”
Gina made a face. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” The clock on the microwave said it was ten A.M. I needed to get back home. Gideon was less independent than a houseplant, and the only reason I remembered to feed Minnie was because she’d tell me to. “Gina—”
“It’s just that they’re going to ask. That’s what sucks.” She set her glass into the sink. “I introduced him to my parents, Edie. I thought he was the one.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think I’d ever felt like that. I’d stood on the edge of The Oneness before, and maybe peeked into the valley below, but I’d never made the final jump. I’d learned that if you thought of people as disposable, it hurt less when they disposed of you.
But that didn’t stop me from putting an awkward arm around Gina as she slumped over Asher’s kitchen sink and cried.
* * *
We gathered ourselves into my car not long after she stopped crying. As I drove she narrated a tangled web of semi-plausibility. She’d told her parents she was working last night, and now she’d pretend she had car problems and had to wait for the mechanics and a tow.
“Why’s it so complicated?”
“I’m the baby of the family. I live with my parents. I just tell them I’m working when I go out on spend-the-night dates.”
“I’m the baby of my family too. When I turned eighteen, my mother flung open the doors and kicked me out of the nest.”
Gina sighed. “It’s different for me. I was working and going to vet school when my mother got early-onset Alzheimer’s. One of my brothers died in the war. The other moved away. My sister has four kids—taking care of Mom and Dad just fell to me. One day I was living at home to save money, the next I was stuck there because my dad couldn’t convince my mom to take a shower otherwise.”
“God. That’s tough, Gina.”
“Tell me about it.” She shook her head. “That’s what I traded. The Shadows keep her from getting any worse, and they get me, on Y4.” I winced, but she was looking out the window. She went on. “I’ve never actually gotten to be a real vet. What I would give someday to just take care of a yippy dog. Even just a hamster. Turn here.” She pointed in front of me. “If I’d stayed bitten, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my job. Y4 fires you if you fraternize too much—the Consortium won’t allow it. It might make you too biased, I guess.”
“Nah—probably because then everyone would do it, and there’d be no one left to work on the full moon,” I teased.
She gave me a halfhearted smile. “Really, if I lost my job, where would my mom and dad be? Part of me is afraid the Shadows will keep her alive forever, just to keep me trapped.”
“That’s a reasonable fear.”
“I know. Anyhow. It is what it is now. I’ll get out someday, just not today. Or tomorrow. Or four days from now.”
I turned into a neighborhood where all the homes were packed together tightly, and she directed me into her driveway. “You going to be okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll catch the bus into work tonight. I’ll be fine.”
That wasn’t exactly what I’d meant, but I nodded. “Call me if you need anything else, Gina.”