Chapter 17: Rule #1 – Don't Panic
It only took Natalie a couple of hours to regret her actions. She spent the rest of the night trying to not look back at the man watching her. After the second performance was finished, she bee-lined the back door and left the club with a coat wrapped around the dance-wear she hadn't bothered to change out of. While she waited for Evan to collect her, she mentally lectured herself.
'On a technicality... You seriously asked the owner of the club to kiss you?!' Her palm came up to smack against her forehead. 'Maze is going to fire me. And it'll be back to random gigs till some sucker is willing to contract me again. Damn it, and this paid so well.'
As she chewed her lip and continued her internal tirade, a soft honk alerted her to Evan's arrival. She hurried into the blue car. She told Evan what happened, which was her second mistake of the night as he spent the rest of the evening harassing her about more details. He continued his questioning once they had returned home.
"Does he wear flavored lip-gloss? He strikes me as the kind of guy that likes to leave an impression." Evan asked, passing Natalie's last prepared joint back to her. "Did you touch his hair? Is it as soft as it looks? Oh! I bet he has edible body paint. The expensive kind that has flavor to it."
"I'm done talking about this with you."
"Maybe he doesn't need it. Maybe he's just tasty." Evan said in a dreamy voice. "Oh come on, you have to tell me. Oooor you can set me up with him, so I can find out for myself."
Natalie glared as Evan waggled his eyebrows up and down are her. Rather than respond and encourage him, she muttered about going to bed and made her way to the bedroom. Maybe the bed would swallow her up and world will have ended while she was sleeping.
Sleep came rather easy and the morning much sooner than Natalie would have liked. She awoke to an empty, light-filled flat with a note from Evan:
Hey,
Devin called last night,
went to get me some.
Love the only one in the house getting laid,
Evan
p.s. Don't forget to set up my date with your cute boss. xoxo
With a scoff and roll of her eyes, the note was dropped back on the counter as her attentions turned to her trusty coffee pot. Once again, she opted to forgo a cup and began creating her coffee pot for direct computation. Armed with caffeine, she retreated to the couch. The shelf under her coffee table held her box of rolling supplies. She set it, and the container her latest mistake had brought her, on the table. Her thumb grazed the label as she let her mind wonder to last night.
"Scotch, cigarettes, and everything naughty." She mumbled with a giggle. "These were the special ingredients for a giant pain in my ass."
Giggles gave way to small sigh. Her eyes closed as she leaned into the couch. If she ran her tongue along her lips and focused hard, she swore she could still taste part of him. She was still lost on that train of thought when a familiar knock came to her door. She opened it to Maze with a knowing smirk.
"So, you and Lucifer huh?" Maze asked as she breezed into the room.
Natalie set her expression to a blank slate as she made her way to the kitchenette. "I take it Patrick told you."
"Oh please, don't blame him. Apparently everyone saw the two of you in the corner. Lux is a buzz with rumors." Maze countered. From her perch on the couch, she spied the jar on the coffee table. She snatched it up, the shock on her face lost to the woman preparing their drinks.
Said container being slammed into the counter top, pulled Natalie's attention from the running blender. "What the hell, Maze!?" She asked once the blender had stopped.
"Lucifer making out with rando humans is normal, but handing out the good shit that even I don't get access to? The fuck's up, Nat?"
"I... I didn't know" Natalie said, confused. "I told him off for smoking all my bud, and he just showed up with it."
Maze's stare bore into Natalie. After a moment she shrugged and returned to the couch. "Meh, you can't be a force influence than Chloe." She said (as though that explained anything).
"I don't see how cop-girl could be a bad influence on anything besides a box of donuts, but whatever." Natalie responded as she brought their drinks to the coffee table. "So, you're not going to fire me?"
"For what?" Maze asked.
"Making out with the club owner on shift?"
"Ha! If I did that, I'd have no one to work the damn club. Besides, if you act like this being teased about it, I can't wait to see how this plays out." Maze retorted with a chuckle.
Natalie scoffed a laugh, and set into her task of turning the jar of dense buds into plump joints to refill her cigar box. The easy conversation through the early afternoon assured her that Maze was perfectly unbothered by last nights events. Lucky for Natalie, Maze moved on from last night to teasing her about drinking straight from the coffee pot.
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Lucifer paced in front of his private bar. He couldn't decide how to spend his evening. The thoughts in his mind were clouded by recounts of the strange kiss from the night before. As he had finally decided to spend the night lounging about Lux, his phone buzzed on the counter. With a check of the caller id, he smirked as he answered.
"Why Detective, this is a rather late call. Normally, late calls to me involve 'house' visits."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Lucifer. There's been a murder at a private beach. Ella is sending out a text with directions because it's buried in suburbia."
"Oh, the beach. What a lovely idea." He could hear the detective scoff before hanging up. Shortly after his phone buzzed again, Ella's directions received. A sense of satisfaction followed him out the door and down to the garage.