3 Straight by the Rules

by Michelle Scott

  I’d been ordered not to speak, but I wasn’t about to lie there any longer. “Psst,” I said, trying to discreetly get his attention. “Hey!”

  To my relief, he came over. “Barb said that you’re not supposed to talk.” His oily gaze slid from one end of my body to the other. “And we wouldn’t want to make Barb angry, would we?”

  This job couldn’t end quickly enough. “Try one of the spider rolls,” I said. “I hear they’re amazing.”

  He made a face. “I hate sushi.”

  Of course he did. Because my job wasn’t hard enough as it was, thank you very much.

  I amped up my charm a little. “Are you sure you won’t sample something? I mean, hardly anyone is trying the sushi, and I can’t leave until it’s all gone.” I lowered my voice. “And I really have to use the ladies’ room.” This was the truth. The large glass of wine I’d drunk earlier had made my bladder uncomfortably full.

  He gave me a lecherous smile. “I like seeing you helpless,” he said. “It brings to mind all kinds of possibilities.” He licked his lips.

  Okay, enough was enough. I was done being a sexy sushi tray. Helen wouldn’t be happy, but I was completing this temptation my way. I sat up and began brushing sushi off my arms and legs.

  Milo’s eyes widened. “What are you doing? Lay down! Barb is going to be furious if she sees this.”

  I plucked three California rolls from my shin. I was about to shove a piece into Milo’s mouth when my succubus reminded me that I couldn’t force my client to sin; he had to do it willingly. If he didn’t, the temptation wouldn’t be complete.

  Seeing that I had abandoned my post, Barb charged over. “What do you think you’re doing? That’s two-hundred dollars worth of sushi you wasted!” She turned on Milo. “What did you say to her?”

  “Nothing, sugar bear!” Milo backed away and held up his empty tray up like a shield. “She asked me to try some of her sushi, but you know I can’t stand the stuff.”

  Barb’s lips thinned, but she didn’t challenge him. Instead, she glared at me. “You can’t quit! The party’s hardly started.” With one hand, she pushed on my shoulder to make me lie back down, and with the other, she tried to put the fallen sushi back on my stomach.

  “I can quit, and get your hands off of me!” I stood up and made a grab for my robe which I’d stashed behind the table. Unfortunately, Barb got to it first and held it out of my reach. “Give that back!” I lunged for my robe, but after lying completely still for so long, the muscles in my poor legs cramped tight, and I nearly fell to the floor. I clutched the table to keep myself upright.

  We were drawing a crowd. A dozen cell phones snapped pictures. Ignoring the guests, I finally snagged a corner of my robe while Barb held on to the rest of it. I yanked, but she pulled harder. When a seam ripped, I swore loudly.

  One of the college students hurried up. “That sushi is spoiled or something. Eric ate a piece, and now he’s puking in the bathroom.”

  “It was fine when I laid it out,” Barb argued. She gave the robe another tug.

  “Which was over two hours ago,” I pointed out.

  She paled, dropped her end of the robe, and followed the student across room. As I reclaimed my robe, I saw Milo smirking at me from over by the mermaid sculpture. Furious, I grabbed a piece of sushi and threw it. My succubus not only allows me to travel through Hell and sense other people’s emotions, she also improves my eyesight, speeds up my reflexes, and increases my strength. The tuna roll hit Milo squarely between the eyes, and he staggered backwards.

  I armed myself with more sushi and advanced on Milo, furious not only at him, but at every other male at the party who had humiliated me. I pitched a Philadelphia roll with enough speed and force to make a professional baseball player proud. It stuck the waiter exactly where I’d hoped it would, and he clutched his crotch and doubled over. The crowd cheered, and more cameras flashed.

  While Milo gaped in pain, I took my final two pieces of sushi and shoved them into his mouth. “Eat that!” I demanded and sent my succubus into overdrive.

  Immediately, Milo’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, and he began to chew. Although he was fully under my demon’s spell, he didn’t like what he was doing. He pressed his hand to his mouth to keep the food in. His eyes bulged.

  “Now swallow,” I ordered. Using my demon’s power to bludgeon a human into submission was not, technically, what I was supposed to do, but I was through with finesse.

  Milo grimaced. He’d broken into a sweat, and his face glistened. He gagged and shuddered, but he finally forced the food down his throat.

  By now, the crowd had gotten into the spirit of things. Guests scrambled to gather the scattered rice-and-nori weapons. Chunks of sushi flew through the air. One caught me in the ear. Another struck the mermaid ice sculpture and clung like a barnacle to her shoulder blade. The entire room smelled like spoiled fish.

  My upper lip quivering in disgust, I released Milo from my demon’s super-charged power. The moment I did, the weight of all that unwanted sushi reached critical mass. His eyes popped wide, and his mouth opened even wider. He made a dash for the bathroom while I made a dash for the closest otherworld doorway.

  Within minutes, I was back in my kitchen. The note that I’d left for William was gone. In its place was a single, red rose.

  I held the flower to my nose and inhaled its sweet perfume. So he’d come after all! Although I hated to admit it, I’d been worried that he would stand me up. According to the clock above the stove, it was a few minutes after ten. Maybe if I hurried and cleaned up, I could still track him down.

  I didn’t even make it across the living room, however, before the apartment door opened. Jasmine and Tommy walked in. “Sorry to spoil your evening,” Jasmine said, “but Tommy can’t find his sketchbook. We had to come back here to look for it.” She turned on the living room lights.

  Seeing me, they stared. I must have looked dreadful. My robe was rather short and showed off a piece of sticky nori that was still attached to my thigh. Drawn in by the odor of sushi, Drinking Tea suddenly appeared from under the couch and began licking my calf. Red hot shame made my cheeks blaze.

  Tommy looked at his feet, embarrassed for me, but Jasmine continued to gape. “You smell like fish,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “And is that rice in your hair? What on earth are you doing?”

  “I’m taking a shower and going to bed,” I said, and quickly left the room. Forget meeting William. All I wanted to do was bury myself under the covers and forget that the night had ever happened.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, Grace called me from France to tell me happy birthday, but the sound of her voice made me miss her even more. As I hung up the phone, I realized another birthday also meant I was edging away from my most fertile years. I couldn’t hit the snooze button on my biological clock forever. I shivered as I wondered how long Helen would wait for me to become pregnant before she took matters into her own hands.

  Despite my dismal mood, I dutifully went to my dad’s house at one o’clock. Ari and I walked into the kitchen to find smoke billowing from the oven, and Jasmine and her mother arguing over a cookie sheet of blackened lumps.

  “You told me fifteen minutes!” Jas said.

  “I said five minutes,” Evelyn retorted as she pushed a lock of gray hair out of her eyes.

  My father’s wife is one of those women who are born to entertain. Thanks to her, my father managed to keep clients despite the fact that he is the most honest, and therefore, the most unsuccessful tax attorney in the Detroit metro area. Usually, Evelyn was so composed that I’d often wondered if she’d been royalty in a past life. But today, her poise was missing. “Pay attention, Jasmine!” she snapped.

  Furious, Jas dumped the ruined food into the garbage and left the kitchen in a huff. Ariel puffed out her cheeks as she surveyed the rising smoke. “This party’s going to be lots of fun,” she muttered.

  “Happy birthday, Lilith,” Evelyn said, strugglin
g to regain her calm. “Your father and Tommy are watching TV in the den.”

  Ariel, only too happy to leave crisis central, bolted out of the room to find Tommy.

  Evelyn scoured the scorch marks off the cookie sheet. “How is everything at home?”

  This was her polite way of asking what the hell was wrong with Jasmine. “Tommy moved out. He said he needed some space.”

  The corners of Evelyn’s mouth turned down. She didn’t know the entire history of me, Tommy, and Jasmine, of course, but she was an intuitive person. Back when Ted and I had still been together, she’d sensed trouble in our marriage long before anyone else. Including me.

  “Where is Tommy staying now?” Evelyn asked.

  “He’s sleeping on the couch in Neil’s office.”

  This time, her lips compressed into a hard line. “That’s no good. You tell him he’s welcome to stay here with Simon and me. He should be sleeping in a real bed.”

  Jasmine, red-eyed but calmer, came into the kitchen, and Evelyn and I broke off our conversation. “I don’t want you working on your birthday,” Evelyn said and shooed me away before I could argue.

  In the den, my dad was enthroned in his well-worn recliner next to a table piled with books and magazines. Tommy sat next to Ari who read from her well-worn copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When he saw me, he smiled like a high school kid who realizes his prom date hasn’t ditched him after all. “Hello, Lilith! I’ve missed you so much!” Then, realizing how enthusiastic he sounded, a shadow of concern passed over his eyes. “I mean, it’s good to see you,” he amended.

  My dad’s eyes narrowed.

  I kissed the top of my dad’s head. “Happy birthday.” I set Helen’s tea, which I’d wrapped in tissue paper and placed in a pretty gift bag, on his lap. Instead of opening it, he mumbled a thank you and placed the present next to him on the floor.

  My dad was wearing what I’d always thought of as his warrior’s face. Part grimness, part fierce concentration, it was an expression that meant something deeply troubled him. Luckily, it was not an expression I saw very often.

  Wanting to draw him out, I picked up the top book in the stack next to him: a nonfiction title about economic policy in the Middle East. “Is this any good?”

  “I haven’t started it,” he said bluntly and continued staring at the TV.

  I set the book back down. “Are you okay?”

  He glanced at Tommy, and his face tightened. “I’m fine.”

  Pressing him was pointless. My dad rarely shared his feelings. All I could do was pat his shoulder and hope his troubles worked themselves out.

  Evelyn called us to lunch. To my horror, an enormous plate of sushi dominated the dining room table. After what I’d been through the previous night, it was the very last thing I wanted. The smell turned my stomach.

  Ari made gagging noises. “What is that?”

  “Simon ordered this especially for today,” Evelyn said. This surprised me since my dad enjoyed steak and potatoes more than rice and nori. Usually, he only wanted sushi when he felt nostalgic.

  Ariel crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I’m not eating it.”

  “I told you they wouldn’t like it, Dad,” Jasmine said.

  Evelyn and Jas took a little sushi then poked at their food. My dad placed several rolls on his plate and ate in determined silence. Ari sulked. It was the gloomiest party in our family’s history.

  “Dad, how is the Tigers’ new pitcher doing?” I asked, hoping to draw him out.

  Jasmine groaned. “Lilith, you know better than to ask him that.”

  While I didn’t care much about baseball, hearing my father give an endless monologue about his favorite team was preferable to his stony silence. But instead of a monologue, all I got was an offhand shrug.

  When the sushi tray was passed to me, I handed it over to Tommy without taking a single piece. I nibbled the edamame instead.

  “Lilith, I thought you liked sushi,” Evelyn said, worried.

  “I had a little too much of it last night,” I said.

  Jas wrinkled her nose. “So that’s why you smelled like fish when we came home.” Of course, my stepsister had to pick that moment to make an intuitive, mental leap. Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God! Is that what you were doing last night? I wondered why there was nori sticking to your legs.”

  “What?” Ariel asked eagerly. “What was she doing?”

  Please don’t say anything, I mentally begged my stepsister. But Jasmine had no filters between her brain and her mouth. Once a thought entered her head, she had to say it out loud. “Naked sushi modeling, right? I read about it in People magazine. Nude models lay on these tables and let people eat sushi off of them. It’s a whole fetish thing. That’s what you were up to!”

  My cheeks burned so hotly I thought I would combust. Tommy kept his eyes steadfastly on his plate, but Ariel gaped at me. Evelyn abruptly stood. “Who’s ready for birthday cake?”

  My father was furious. “What did you get yourself into, Lilith?”

  I wanted to bury myself in the backyard. “Nothing.”

  He jabbed a chopstick at me. “You’re acting as irresponsibly as Carrie! Don’t you care at all about your family?”

  There was a moment of shocked silence.

  “Daddy, that’s just mean,” Jasmine finally said.

  Evelyn stared at her husband. Although she’d hated my mother, Evelyn had never taken it out on me. “Simon, why would you say such a terrible thing?”

  My dad glared at his plate. “It’s the truth.”

  That pushed me over the edge. I quickly left the table and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I sat on the toilet and cried as silently as I could, pressing my face into a hand towel to muffle my sobs. My dad had, once before, accused me of being like my own mother. Carrie had been a succubus, too, and when she realized she couldn’t do Helen’s dirty work while raising a daughter, she’d found the kindest, most loving man she could to raise me. Then she’d left us. But now that my mother had died and I was fated to take her place, I was acting as outrageously as she had.

  There was a gentle knock at the door. “Lilith,” Evelyn called softly. “Are you okay?”

  I splashed some water on my face and opened the door. Evelyn and I have never been close, but when she saw my red eyes and puffy face, she hugged me. “Your father is going through a very rough time right now. I have no idea what brought it on, but he’s been so angry lately.” She sighed. “He won’t talk to me. You know how he can get.”

  Stoic. That word had been crafted for my father. “I noticed he’s wearing his warrior’s face,” I said.

  Evelyn nodded and ran her hand through her hair. “He hasn’t been this way in a very long time. Not since…” She glanced at me and pressed her lips together.

  “Since?”

  She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  “Tell me,” I pressed.

  Evelyn sighed. “Well, not since Carrie was alive.”

  She was right. During those infrequent times when my mother visited me, my father always became moody and snappish. Although he wouldn’t get too close to her, he’d hover in the doorway or pace circles in the next room. The minute Carrie was gone, he would apologize for his bad behavior and return to his kind, patient self. Yet, each time my mother came around, the cycle would repeat. It was one of the reasons I used to dread my mother’s visits.

  “My mother must have made things difficult between you and my dad,” I said.

  “That’s ancient history, Lilith,” Evelyn said, but the strain in her features told me that some wounds never heal.

  I returned to the dining room. My father had left, but Jasmine and Tommy were still there. Jas hugged me. “You’re a good mother,” she said. “Don’t let Dad worry you. Here,” she handed me an envelope. “This is from me and Tommy. Happy birthday.”

  Although I didn’t feel celebratory, I opened the card and withdrew a folded piece of paper that had been printe
d from a computer website. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “X-treme Matching dot com?”

  Jasmine was nearly jumping up and down. “It’s an Internet dating site. I paid for a two-month subscription. “I’m getting you Mr. Right for your birthday! Isn’t it great? I’ve already posted your profile and everything, so all you have to do is wait for the right guy to find you.”

  For a moment, I was speechless, then I managed a hollow ‘thank you.’ “Wow. Jas, that’s wonderful.” I hoped I sounded happier than I felt.

  When they left, Jasmine wrapped her arm around Tommy’s waist. Tommy also put his arm around Jas, but he continued to look doubtful. Talk about mixed messages.

  When Evelyn refused to let me clear the table or put away the leftovers, I went to my dad’s study. He stood at the window watching a pair of goldfinches at the feeder outside. He looked every one of his sixty-three years.

  I started to tear up again. “Dad? I’m sorry about making you angry.”

  He kept his eyes fixed on the birds. “Sometimes, you remind me so much of your mother.” He had loved her deeply, and she’d broken his heart. Sadly, he never had understood why she’d left him. “You used to have all of the good parts of her, but lately, those bad parts have been showing up as well.” He finally turned away from the window. Seeing me, his face softened. “I don’t want you to go down the same path.”

  “I know.”

  “What’s going on with you?” he asked.

  I wished I could tell him, but I didn’t dare. He already thought I was halfway crazy.

  My birthday present to him sat on the desk. “Aren’t you going to open it?” I asked.

  He accepted the gift when I placed it in his hands and pulled out the tissue paper. His nostrils flared. “Tea? Is that what I smell?”

  I nodded.

  He hurriedly opened the package. “Where did you find this?”

  “I have my ways.”

  He buried his nose in the bag. “This is amazing!” For the first time all afternoon, he smiled. “It’s the same kind your mother used to bring me. Thank you.” He hugged me. “I think I’ll make some right now. Do you want a cup?”