A quick glance at the clock showed that it was 6:06. Doris was awake. She always left for school by seven.
Doris answered on the first ring. “We’re all at the Strand, waiting to hear the gossip! I’ve already ordered hot water for your tea.”
Tea! Bird realized she hadn’t had any yet, much less breakfast.
“There in ten,” she said, grabbed her purse, and headed out to get her bicycle. Ouch. She was sore in places she hadn’t been sore since . . . well, since. She grinned to herself as she eased her bike down the hill to the road. There is nothing like practice.
When she arrived, she found Doris, Godiva and Jen waiting for her, along with a little silver pot with steam rising from the spout.
Bird took out a homemade teabag of Zao Bei Jian and popped it into the water pot. “Hi,” she said, smiling around. “Sorry I didn’t say anything before, but I—”
“Never mind that,” Godiva cut in. “People talk when they’re ready. We all know that. Get to what’s important.” She leaned forward, black eyes snapping. “Have you kissed him yet? And I don’t mean an old auntie peck on the cheek. I mean a real kiss. Preferably with tongue?”
“There might have been kissing,” Bird said, and felt a blush rise.
Three pairs of eyes skewered her.
“With lots of tongue,” Bird whispered.
“Bird!” Godiva leaned forward. “Don’t tell me—have you already done the deed?”
“Godiva,” Jen whispered, looking scandalized. “We’re in a public place.”
“No one is paying the least attention to a bunch of commando bats.” Godiva rolled her eyes. “Between the four of us, that’s close to half a century without any nookie with another breathing human being—”
Bird nearly dropped the teapot. “Ooops.”
“—you might as well say we’ve been revirginated. And everybody wants to hear about their besties’ first time,” Godiva finished. “I know I sure did, a thousand years ago. So seeing as one of us finally seems to have gotten lucky, and with USDA Grade A Choice, I might add with sincere appreciation, I want to be first to congratulate you for how fast you moved, and to remind you that we deserve plenty of detail.”
“Last night,” Bird said calmly. “Twice. He’s got staying power.”
Godiva sighed like air escaping a gigantic balloon. “Details, Bird Worcester! How many humina-huminas did he give you?”
“Godiva!” It was Doris’s turn to be scandalized.
Godiva grinned. “Okay, I’ll back off. Some. At least tell us who first put the moves on who?”
Bird busied herself pouring tea. “I think it was mutual.”
“Was it the dress that did it?” Doris asked hopefully.
Bird hesitated. She didn’t like keeping a secret from her friends—but it was, at least, a secret that no one had any idea existed. Until she had a chance to find out from Mikhail what he wanted said about him, she’d say nothing about mates, much less dragons.
So she offered the answer that would give Doris the most pleasure, “Absolutely.”
Godiva crowed, and held up her hand to high-five Doris. “Nice work—both of you! So. Details about the night that led to it. You went to a reception—where?”
“It was at the university,” Bird said. Her heart beat a little faster at the mention, but then she discovered that the old dread was completely gone. There was simply no room for it in all her happiness. “A reception for Mikhail’s book.”
Bird’s friends knew her past. At the mention of the university, all three women reacted characteristically: Jen looked down at her hands, Doris winced, and Godiva scowled. Then said, “I hope Finkface Skunkgibbon didn’t turn up. But he wouldn’t, if he wasn’t the guest of honor.”
“He did. But it turned out all right. Really,” Bird added as the other three looked skeptical.
“He apologized on bended knee for being a douchebag?” Godiva asked sarcastically.
“He hasn’t changed,” Bird said. “Which I find pretty sad. I learned something about him last night that makes me realize he never did love me. I wonder if he’s capable of love. No, that’s not fair, he loves the kids—in a way. The way his parents must have loved him, holding love for ransom.”
“I don’t get that,” Godiva said. “You don’t hold love for ransom.”