Page 67 of Never Never

“I’m just joking, Fox.” She exhales hard and looks up at the place. Even at this distance, the spinning lights of the sign turn her face all kinds of colors: red, blue, purple, green. She looks—not nervous, exactly. But not like someone who’s excited to be here.

And weirdly, in spite of myself, in spite of knowing this is just a mission and just us being…friends? Roommates? Whatever. Despite all of that, I want her to have fun. I don’t want her to be nervous or worried. Not with me.

Because if there’s one thing I can do, it’s be protective.

Briefly, I think of Wendy. Her outburst, back at the apartment. If there’s something I need to…I don’t know. Discuss? With Tink?

But I don’t even know what that’d be. So instead, I decide to do what I do second best, and keep it light. Big smile, super friendly. Big brother energy.

“Ready to lose some money?” I ask her.

Tink nods. “Let’s get this over with.”

Inside, it’s loud, bright, and…loud. We’re barely through the revolving doors when a million different sounds are screaming for attention. Slot machines chinging, voices chattering, music blasting, even though we’re still in the big marble entryway and not even down on the games floor yet. It looks loud, too: lights flashing, velvet ropes sectioning off this way and that, people streaming past from the elevators to the steps to the games and back and forth and back and forth again.

And signs. So many signs.

I swallow hard, heart beating in my ribs, and walk as slowly as I can without seeming weird, trying to take things in.

But they’re everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling, stuck to the walls, posted beside service counters and various windows. Names of games, I’m guessing directions with arrows pointing, numbers sometimes. It’s overwhelming.

I’m not that dumb. I can get by in most places: stores, gas stations, even the library with Wendy I’ve memorized where to go, the covers of the book series she likes. Failing that, I almost always have Kit with me to bail me out. But this…I have no map for this. I don’t know what goes where in a casino, where they tend to put different stuff, and I have a sinking feeling they’re probably designed to confuse you, too, even if you can read. And that’s before you even get to playing the actual games…

I feel cold sweat spring up on my chest and neck.

Fuck. I’m so fucked.

Immediately, I look at Tink. She’s got her hands in the pockets of her big puffy coat, staring ahead, with a slight frown on her face. Concentrating.

I can’t back down. Obviously. Not now, not when she needs me. But⁠—

“Coat check, miss?” A guy in a dark red shirt and black vest appears at her side and points her toward a little window in the corner of the lobby.

“Oh, um.” Her voice sounds higher when it comes out, and I wonder if that’s on purpose or not. “Sure, thank you.”

She walks toward it, and after a split second of being frozen like a dumbass, I follow, jogging to catch up. With the heels on, she can go pretty fast, it turns out.

“—should get the lay of the land, I guess?” she’s saying in a lower voice when I get there, “and then figure out which game to hit?”

Is that our plan? I have to lean in to hear her over all the noise. “Sure, yeah, of course.” I’m sure whatever she’s suggesting is the best option. I’m certainly not going to be the goddamn mastermind here.

“Next?” calls a voice from inside the coat check.

“Oh, um.” Tink steps forward, juggling her little purse from hand to hand as she tries to shake the coat off her shoulders. “Hang on⁠—”

All of a sudden, I spring into action. “Please, allow me.” I say it kind of jokily, and Tink picks up on it, giving me this little smile that kind of says don’t you dare! and I smile back with a try and stop me sort of look. But when I gesture for her coat, she nods and sets her little purse on the ledge in front of the window.

Oh. Okay. I take the coat slowly, tucking my fingers just on the inside of the fluffy fur collar. Trying to grip it without, you know, touching her too much. Even so, my fingertip grazes the back of her neck, and…

…and it’s really soft.

Not that I notice, because I don’t.

I slide it quickly down her arms and off, leaving her shoulders totally bare in her tiny little dress. And maybe I’m imagining it, but it looks like she has a little bit of glitter dusted over her skin. I swallow hard.

“Uh, here,” I say, pushing the coat through the window to the woman with a hanger. I look at Tink. “You ready to⁠—”

Tink clears her throat, and jerks her head at the window. “Your claim ticket?” the woman says, holding out a little slip of paper. “So you can come back for her coat? Unless you’re just giving it to me, but I don’t think your girlfriend would appreciate that very much.”