Tammy came rushing up to her and dragged her off to the ladies’ room to say, “Did you see them? Hot—they are both so hot! You can have Tony, ’cuz Stevie boy is mine.”
Jazz dropped her purse on the counter and looked in the mirror. She felt like she was glowing. Was she glowing?
She gave her long white-gold hair a tweak with her fingers, and her happy blue eyes stared at Tammy’s reflection in the mirror. “I got it! I got the job.”
Tammy jumped up and down and hugged her close. “Fate, you got the job, and now you can have Tony. Damn, but that has to be fate—he is just your type.”
“Yup, got the job, and maybe it was my skills that impressed them, not fate.” She stuck her tongue out at her friend. “But your Tony … I don’t know if I want to start anything tonight. Tam, I’m leaving in the morning.”
“So, enjoy him tonight.” Tammy winked at her.
Laughter filled the air as three girls entered the large bathroom, their heads together, their bodies still swaying to the beat of the live band’s music.
“One-night stands,” Jazz answered with a sigh, “are not my thing.”
“They don’t have to be your thing—and you don’t have to bed the guy. Just go and dance with him.”
“Tammy, I just came in to see you before I left …” She didn’t meet Tammy’s gaze as she rooted about in her purse. “… give you a hug, and then head on home for a frozen dinner and TV. I need some sleep before heading out in the morning.”
Tammy looked at her. “Jazz, you look at a guy and run. That is what this is about. You were supposed to spend the evening with me … eat, drink … it has only changed because a guy has entered the picture.” Tammy yanked her hair and shook her head. “Jazz, you have to get out of this funk you are in. It has been a month since you broke up with Joe the Creep.”
“I know, but … I thought Joe the Creep was special. What kind of judgment do I have, if I thought he was special?”
“Forget him, or put him down as a learning experience and move on. You can’t move on till you start flirting with the opposite sex. Sometimes, that’s what you go with, honey. Just forget all the rest—and have fun for one night.”
>
Jazz thought about this but couldn’t get herself wrapped around the idea. She was often sure she’d been born in the wrong century. Her problem was she never felt she fit in. She wanted that knight in shining armor to ride up and carry her off. She wanted Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, who would pledge his love forever. She wanted … more, so much more than what was hulking around, bumping and grinding out on the dance floor.
“Tammy, here is the thing. I don’t want to flirt up Tony at the bar. I have had a long, full day, and I’m flying out in the morning. I only stopped by to say so long for now and see ya when I get back.” She nudged Tammy towards the bathroom door. “Go have a great time.”
Tammy took her shoulders and pointed her at the mirror. “Look at you. A natural blonde … a shade that most girls can’t even find in a bottle. Look at those eyes, so blue—so big with natural, dark, thick lashes that took me thirty minutes to put on myself tonight. Babe, you are so beautiful, and you can have whoever you want—”
“That’s just it—don’t want anyone because I am happy on my own. Enough, girl,” Jazz said and laughed as she hugged her friend. She disliked being defined by how she looked. Hated that so many people saw her outside and never looked deeper than that.
Tammy sighed. “Okie dokie, honey. Go on, do what ya gotta do, and email me when you get to Ireland.” She eyed her. “Maybe you’ll meet your knight in shining armor over there in the land of the fairies and elves.”
Jazmine Decker hugged her friend fiercely. “You are the best, you really are, and I am a terrible friend.” So saying, she rushed out of the bathroom and headed for the front doors. She looked back and around one last time. The band had taken a break, and an oldie blasted through the speakers, Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding out for a Hero”. She smiled ruefully to herself. Yup, that was what she was doing, letting her life pass by, holding out for someone who in this day and age would never show up.
“You are not going to find one,” she said out loud as she stepped out into the night air. They don’t exist anywhere but in romance novels. Then her attention was caught by two exquisite males walking her way, evidently heading for the lounge. Both were tall, golden-haired, handsome, and dressed to show off their muscular bodies. They wore human Glamour to perfection, but she hurriedly and sharply turned away.
Habit. She always turned away when a Fae came into view. She had been doing that since she was a toddler—she was a Fios and couldn’t afford to give herself away to them.
Being a Fios meant she could see Fae whether or not they disguised themselves in human Glamour, as the ones she passed just now were doing. She could see Seelie Fae and Unseelie Fae through their Glamour, even through their Féth Fiada of invisibility. She could not be compelled by their mesmerizing gaze, and she was immune to their sexual ability called Lianhan that seduced human women and sent them into a rapture from which they could never emerge.
Her mother had taught her to never display that she saw them for what they were. The fear was ancient, but it was there, the belief that they would spirit her away to Faery and keep her imprisoned in their Realm so she could not give their secrets away—yeah, right, like anyone would believe her in this day and age.
She saw a cab, and luckily it was empty. She hailed it, it pulled up, and she jumped in, not aware she was holding her breath until she let it out inside the cab.
Damn, but the summer job she had taken would do her some good. She needed to get away; managing a tour group would keep her busy and earn her some much-needed money. Her job as a marine biologist was a dream job if you didn’t count the fact that the starting pay was beyond awful.
This would be great. She had been to Dublin with her parents a few years ago but never to Killarney.
She recalled Dublin and the time she had spent with her parents. She would treasure the memory forever. It had been their last vacation together before she lost them to a drunk driver. She had been with them; they were laughing, and her father had turned just a bit to tease her when it happened. A driver, passed out from intoxication, veered and hit them head on. She had been thrown clear of the wreckage and lived, but they had not.
Then Joe had entered her life, and she’d thought, wow! He turned out a ‘wow’ all right.
Tammy had tried to warn her off him, and Tammy had been right. Why couldn’t she see what her friend saw almost immediately?