There was a sound like squealing brakes in Vance’s head.Meether? MeetLilith? His friends in Clover City meet his little princess of darkness? Eh…
It was easy enough to imagine Lilith in his home, in his bed, in his garden, the two of them cuddling and kissing and eating and fucking and dare he go so far as to saylovingeach other. It was way harder to imagine her at a Tyndall, Soames, and Yardley holiday party, or sending her off shopping with Sable and Saoirse, or going over to Eric and Devaney’s house for dinner with their picture perfect suburban family. He couldn’t imagine Lilith being thrilled about those things either. Wouldn’t she feel incredibly self-conscious?
Hopefully not because of her financial situation—which clearly wasn’t her fault, and wouldn’t make her a bad person even if she’d lost her job for some other reason. He knew probably better than anyone else in his circle that there were terrible rich people and awful poor people just as there were kind wealthy folks and wonderful people with nothing.
He had no reason to think his friends would be weird about the money thing. He didn’t think they had been with Twyla who’d grown up in pretty dire financial circumstances or Cosima who had come to Hudson, Ian, and Ryker with literally nothing. Hell, no one would even need to know if Lil didn’t want to tell them.
But the clothes and her whole…look? She would be so out of place here, stick out like a sore thumb. No one liked to feel that way—like you were the subject of stares and maybe mocking, as though you didn’t belong and never would. Vance sucked air through his teeth.
“I don’t know. We haven’t talked about her coming down here yet. I don’t know if she would.”
“I’d be pretty curious to meet this woman who’s got you whistling while you pore over scads of discovery, and I bet a bunch of other people would be too. So maybe you could, I don’t know, ask her?”
Vance rolled his eyes at Arthur’s pointed question and shoved his way out of the elevator, feeling significantly less buoyant than he had just moments ago.
“And maybe you could, I don’t know, shut your face and buy me a sandwich.”