“I was. Anyway, it’s not important. You sound stressed, girl. What’s up?”
I frowned, but my brain was still buzzing from…everything. “Hurricane Rainbow showed up.”
“Oh, shit. Are you okay?” I heard the fridge open and her pour something. “How much did she want this time?”
I put my head down on my drafting table. “Oh, if it was only just money. So much other stuff is going on.”
“Do you want me to come over?”
“No. I’m heading out with Rainbow.”
“Wait, what?” A glug came through the speaker. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”
“She wants to do this road trip thing, and I kinda need to get out of here.”
“What the heck is going on? I knew something was up, but I figured you’d come talk to me when you were ready.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not ready. For any of it.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“I know.” I blew out a breath. “I did something.”
Luna was silent. “Like bank robbery? Murder?” She lowered her voice. “Do I need to bring my shovel? Go buy supplies in cash three counties over?”
I laughed and sat up. “No, there’s no body.”
Yet. I reserved the right to revisit that idea after I spent half a week with my mother.
Quickly, I recapped that I’d shared my comic and it had sort of gone haywire. Luna knew I’d been working on the comic for a while, and she was the only person who had ever seen it. And even then, she’d only seen a sketch of my little fox character.
I’d been guarding the comic for over a year. I didn’t know how to let go of it.
How to let anyone see what was inside me.
Roz and Sylvia had been mine for so long it felt like laying myself bare even saying their names.
“So that dude you made me read—Penn Masterson—he contacted you? The famous dude?”
“Yes.” My voice was a squeak.
“This is amazing!”
“No, it’s really not. I’m not ready. I can’t do this.”
“Of course you can. You’re a kickass goddess who can do freaking anything. Let me come over, and we’ll talk about this. We can throw some cards and drink lots of wine. I’ll be a buffer between you and Rainbow.”
“Thanks. I think I just need to get out of here. Go think about it. Maybe go through my drawings and fix them up.”
“Okay, I get that. But is there something else going on? What did PMS do? I’ll kill him.”
I huffed out a laugh. My bestie would slay any dragon for me, that was for sure. “He didn’t do anything. I mean, we did a lot of stuff, but none of it was bad. Exactly.”
I touched the burn on the side of my lip, and then I got up and went to my little shelf of balms and oils Luna had made for me. I swiped it over my lip as if I could erase everything that happened last night.
Sure.
My laptop dinged once, then twice. I crossed back to my kitchen and closed it without reading the email I knew was waiting for me—or would be soon, if it wasn’t already. I didn’t know how to answer Preston right now.