Flirtinis with Flappers (18 page)

"Awh, baby, that's so sweet." Daisy rose from her chair and walked around the table. She took my hands in hers and pulled me to a standing position.

Uh…

"I really appreciate you looking out for me, doll. We women have to stick together."

"Exactly," I said. Why was she still holding my hands? And, uh, standing very close to me? Had she never heard of the three-foot-bubble rule?

"I love you, Louise," she murmured. Then, before I could properly respond, she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth against mine.

Oh. My. God.

For a moment, I didn't know what to do. Was this just some sisterly gesture? Maybe this was something women in the twenties did. An innocent—

Her tongue darted out to lick my lips.

Nope. Not that innocent.

Oh dear.

What should I do? What would Louise do? I'd never thought in a million years to ask the Men in Black whether Louise's best friend was a lesbian. Or if Louise was even remotely bi-curious. For all I knew, maybe Daisy and Louise locked lips on a daily basis.

Even so…

I reached out, placing my hands on her shoulders, and gently pushed her away. She looked back at me with such a confused, lost puppy dog face that I realized without a doubt this was her first foray into girl-kissing. And I was the lucky girl who got stuck breaking her heart.

I sighed. "I'm sorry," I said. "You're beautiful and sweet. But I just can't…" I trailed off. What more could I really say? There was no way to make this easier. Less awkward. "I'm not, you know…"

"I thought… I mean, I hoped…" Daisy scrunched her little doll face in frustration. "God. I'm such a Dumb Dora. To think that someone like you…" She trailed off, her big brown eyes filling with tears. "Don't tell anyone, Louise. Please don't tell anyone. I'd rather die than let anyone know."

She sank into the chair, putting her head in her hands, and started sobbing away. My heart ached for her, and I longed to take her in my arms and offer her a comforting hug. But I was worried the gesture would be taken for something it wasn't, and the last thing I wanted was to confuse the girl any further.

Poor thing. It was difficult enough for women to love women in the twenty-first century. But now, in the twenties, it must have been darn near impossible. For her to get up the courage to even make a move, to kiss her best friend and hope that the best friend wanted to kiss her back… Well, that must have been the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. I had to let her know I saw it as an act of courage rather than an act of weakness.

"It's not a big deal, sweetie," I assured her. "I understand. And just because I don't feel the same way doesn't mean you should be embarrassed. It's perfectly natural."

Daisy shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "What are you talking about? Natural? It's not natural! It's an abomination of nature. I'm a freak." She scrambled to her feet and paced the kitchen, stomping in frustration. The neighbors below were going to be so pleased. "I've tried and tried to fall in love with men. I've necked and petted fellas who everyone says are perfect catches. But I've never felt a thing for them. The only time I feel goofy is when I think about other women." She paused, looking over at me, her eyes black with smudged makeup. "When I think of you, Louise, I think…I think I'm in love with you."

After finishing her rant, the young flapper burst into a fresh set of tears. Concerned, I started to stand up, but she put out a hand in a gesture to stop.

"No. Please. You'll only make it worse."

"But, Daisy…" I had to let her know it was okay for her to feel as she did. That she couldn't help being born with a particular sexual preference and that she needed to embrace who she was and not fight it to the point where she made herself sick.

"I've got to… You've got to go!" Before I could get a word in, Daisy made strides to the front door and yanked it open. She gestured for me to leave.

I considered arguing the point further, convincing her that all was okay but then decided she probably needed some alone time to nurse her embarrassed confusion before racing me again. If she'd been feeling that way about Louise for a long time and finally picked this morning to make her move—well, my rejection was bound to mess her up for a while, poor thing.

Why was it we humans always ended up causing each other so much pain? Life evolved into a series of miscommunications and unreturned desires. You liked him. He liked the girl down the street, who liked someone else entirely. And we danced the dance, played the games, and allowed ourselves to get hurt over and over and over. And to what ultimate gain? Was there a light at the end of this tunnel? Was there hope that two people could find each other and truly be happy for a lifetime? Was there a person out there with whom you'd feel completely content and who would also feel completely content with you?

Was that even possible? Rational?

Or were we chasing rainbows and mirages and risking our hearts and wasting our lives on this game called "love" for absolutely no reason at all?

*   *   *

"Well, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped," I said to The Rat as I walked back into the apartment.

"Mess everything up again, honey?" Ratty asked. He was lying in the middle of the bed, cleaning himself. Yes,
there.
Ew. I turned my head, not wanting to look.

"Do you, uh, mind not licking yourself on my bed?" I asked.

"Hey, you'd do it too, if you could reach."

"Actually, no. No, I wouldn't."

"Mm-hm. Right. So what happened? How'd you effortlessly succeed in screwing up the world before eight in the morning
?"

"You're the one who got me up early."

"And good thing I did. Sounds like you're going to need all day to fix your screwups."

I sighed and sank down into a stiff, upholstered armchair. (I so wasn't getting back on the bed until I changed the sheets!) "Well, it's really not my fault…"

"Right. Uh-huh. Neither was Mrs. O'Leary's cow to blame for the Great Chicago Fire. But do go on and explain why not."

So I did. I told him about meeting Daisy mid walk of shame. About going up to McGurn's room and learning the plan had changed. (I sort of left out the part that it was my fault he now wanted Daisy to wake up Moran. The Rat had enough ammunition on me as it was.) Then I got to the point in the story where Daisy kissed me.

Ratty sat up. "Talk about burying the lead," he cried. "She's a lesbian? How freaking awesome is that? Did you two get it on? Did you giggle as you ripped off each other's clothes?"

I sighed. "It was just a kiss. There was no clothes ripping."

"Was there tickling? Maybe, say, with a feather duster?"

"And you say
I'm
distracted from saving the world."

"Fine. Destroy my fantasy. Thank you very much. You could have made something up, you know." Ratty pouted. "I'd never have known the diff,
and
it would have killed the monotony that is my day-to-day rodent existence."

"I'm sorry," I said, lacing my voice with sarcasm. "Maybe I misunderstood my mission: I'm supposed to entertain you, not save the world."

"You're doing a lousy job at both, so I suppose it doesn't matter which you concentrate on at this point."

I opened my mouth to argue, then realized that unfortunately he was right. I really had ruined everything. Worse than he realized, even. How had I been so stupid to blurt out the part about waking up Moran? I mean, what had I been thinking?

I decided to get off my high horse. Sure, it was humiliating to grovel before The Rat, but at this point, I didn't know what else to do.

"So I'm stuck," I confessed. "I don't know how to change Machine Gun's mind. I don't know if Daisy will honor my request not to go see Moran and wake him up."

"I suppose not. Though if you had torn her clothes off and given her multiple orgasms she probably would have. Now, who knows?"

"I'm trying to be serious here!"

"Okay. You're right. Sorry." The Rat jumped off the bed and scampered over to me. "So let's look at our options now. You've tried to talk to Machine Gun, but he won't listen. You're not sure you'd be able to convince Daisy of anything unless you pour chocolate sauce on her body and lick it off."

I shot him a glare. He chuckled.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist," he said. "So that leaves one person."

"It does?"

"Who are you forgetting? Who's the guy you keep claiming is the most charming, convincing person you know?" He paused. "Besides me, of course."

"Are you talking about Nick?" Ugh, I was afraid he was going to bring him up.

"Give the girl a gold freaking star. Go to the head of the class."

"What can Nick do?"

"He's in the body of one of McGurn's men, right? If you befriend him, maybe you can convince him to get McGurn to change his mind again."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Nick's whole mission—the whole reason he came back in time to begin with—was to wake Bugs up."

"The right woman has convinced many a man to abandon their purpose, honey. You think Paris thought about the big picture when he stole Helen of Troy away from Menelaus? Or Romeo cared a lick for his family when he fell for Juliet? It's obvious Nick wants you. If you can seduce him, maybe he'll agree to talk to McGurn. After all, wasn't that the plan to begin with? To convince him not to change history? You're the one who tried to go the roundabout route. Look where that got you."

I released a frustrated sigh. He was right. Of course he was right. But go out and seduce Nick? That was asking an awful lot. First off, I had no idea if Nick would even be receptive to any advances I'd throw his way. After all, getting kicked in the balls by a woman you were trying to have sex with can be kind of a deal breaker. He probably hated Louise's guts right about now.

Then again, Nick always was stubborn. And when he went after something, he never gave up till he got it. If he wanted Louise, surely a little kick wasn't enough to dissuade him from his prize.

"You're right," I said, giving in. "As much as I don't like the idea of having to interact with him, it's the only thing left to try."

"Good." The Rat nodded his approval. "Just, whatever you do, don't let him know that you're really Dora."

"Right. I understand. That's the last thing I want, anyway." I couldn't imagine what Nick would do if he found out who I really was. Though I did wonder…

No. I shook my head. It was much better to stay in character. Get the job done. Go back to my life as single girl in San Diego, Dora Duncan. This way I'd not only be saving the world…

I'd be saving my heart.

I watched from the bar, sipping my water and keeping a low profile as Nick entered the ballroom. He stormed across the shiny wood floor, his steps quick and his mouth turned down in a frustrated frown. His meeting with the big boss must not have gone as well as he'd planned. Funny. I would have thought he'd be happy that I'd oh-so-conveniently already changed McGurn's plans to include the Bugs Moran wake-up call that he'd been sent back eighty-something years for. Then again, Nick had always been a do-it-yourself type of guy. He was probably ticked off that his job had been made redundant by my idiocy.

Tommy the tuxedoed bouncer approached him, holding out a box of cigars, but Nick waved him off. He mumbled something I couldn't make out, then grabbed his coat off a hook and pushed open the front door.

I drew in a breath. Here went nothing.

After giving him a few seconds of a head start, I slipped off my barstool and walked slowly toward the exit. I'd decided it'd be much better to approach him outside the club, away from McGurn's spies. Speaking of…

"Going somewhere, Louise?"

I whirled around and saw Tommy had come up behind me. He set the cigar box down on a nearby table and folded his burly arms across his chest.

"Uh, out for a smoke." I said the first thing that came to my mind. Hopefully, he wouldn't ask to bum a light as I had neither ciggys nor matches to back up my story.

He furrowed his eyebrows, looking honestly confused. "Why don't you just smoke inside?" he asked.

D'oh. That was dumb. I forgot it'd be another eighty years before society denounced smokers as evil demons and relegated them to the circle of Hell that was Out in the Freezing Cold.

"I need a breath of fresh air," I amended, crossing my fingers he'd buy the idea of a smoker needing fresh air while poisoning her lungs. Although he didn't know about the poison part, of course.

Tommy frowned. "Jackie says you're not supposed to leave the club," he explained. "He says
you
and him got some hotel to go to tomorrow night to celebrate Valentine's Day, and it's very important that you stick around. He told me to make sure you did."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. That's
tomorrow
night," I said, emphasizing the word. "As in the day after today? I think I'm okay to go outside for a quick smoke this afternoon, don't you? I'm pretty sure I'll make it back through the door within the next twenty-four hours."

Tommy scratched his head. Evidently my day-of-the-week logic was a bit too complex for him to grasp. McGurn hadn't picked him for his MENSA eligibility, that was for sure.

"I don't know. Jackie said—"

'"Jackie said, Jackie said,'" I mocked gently. "Jeesh. I know he's your boss and all, Tommy, but really! Do you have to ask the guy for permission to use the bathroom?"

He frowned. "No, but—"

"You know, Tommy, I'm disappointed," I said, sighing deeply. "I always thought of you as a smart guy. The type to take charge. Make important decisions all on your own. I had no idea you were just another one of Jackie's flunkies."

Tommy's face darkened. "I ain't no…" He cocked his head, and I could practically see smoke coming out of his cars. "Whatever it was you called me. I ain't that."

I shrugged. "Okay, if you say so."

"I ain't," he insisted. "Jackie trusts me to run things down here. He lets me make…decisions."

"Yeah, right. Sure he does," I patronized, petting his arm. "Just like the one about me going outside for a smoke." I pulled my hand away. "Why don't you go upstairs and ask him for permission to let me go outside?"