“Um,” she looks at me sheepishly. “Well, I’ll take a rum and Coke, and I’ll tip you one dollar on my five dollar drink.”
I laugh as she shoves six bucks onto the counter and I turn to make her drink. Foxy is a cool girl. She’s friendly, kind, and sassy: all of the things I like in a friend. She’s an ESL teacher who spends most of her time working with kids who are still learning English. There are a few families who don’t speak English at home, and she does a great job working with those kids and helping them learn the basics. In fact, some kids travel from other communities just to be tutored by Foxy.
When I hand her drink back, Foxy is looking at her phone.
“Hot date tonight?”
“Nah,” she shakes her head and puts the phone down. “I got a new app, though.”
“Which one?”
“Team Shifter.”
“The dating app?”
She laughs and smiles.
“Yeah.”
“How does it compare to the other ones?”
“Well, it’s specifically for people like us,” she says, gesturing between us. She glances over at the new guy, but he’s reading a book now. Really? He brought a book to a bar? Weird. The rest of the place is empty, so I don’t feel bad leaning over the counter and chatting with Foxy for a few minutes.
Besides, maybe I could use this app to meet someone myself.
“He’s a shifter,” I say.
“How can you tell?” Foxy whispers.
I look over, but he doesn’t seem to be eavesdropping. The jukebox is on and a 90’s hit song is playing throughout the bar. It’s a relief to know he can’t hear what we’re saying.
“I smelled him,” I whisper.
It’s weird.
It’s weird that I can smell other people and know whether they’re human or not, but what can I say? Shifters just smell different. I can’t quite explain what the difference is. I can’t always tell whether someone is a wolf like me. I can’t always tell whether someone is a different creature. Claw Valley has plenty of different kinds of shifters: panthers, lions, tigers. Hell, I even heard a rumor that there’s a bear in town, but I’ve never met one.
I’d never want to meet one.
Not after Mom.
“What do you think he is?” Foxy whispers. We look over at the new guy. He’s got deep chocolate skin and beautiful eyes. His focus is totally on the book in front of him. He’s not buried in a phone or anything like that.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe he’s on the app.”
“Yeah,” I scoff. “Right.”
She shrugs. “You never know. You want to try?”
“I don’t know if Team Shifter is right for me.”
“Suit yourself,” she shrugs. Then she starts swiping.
“Wait, there are no pictures.”
“Yeah,” she says. “That’s the point.”