Chapter 12

Zeke let the others choose a seat first.

He was amused to see they left one end of the table for him. Art had claimed the end near his wife. Burnie sat next to his wife. Travis sat next and then Jasira so that she was at Zeke’s end.

On the other side, Erica had dragged Paul down to Art’s end. Joey sat next to Erica, then Sabrina, with Dallas near Zeke.

As Jasira went to claim her chair, Zeke beat her in that he pulled the chair out and gently pushed it in once she was seated. He even fluffed the napkin over her lap before seating himself.

Dallas was quick on the uptake and followed Zeke’s example with Sabrina. Erica scowled at Paul, who ignored her, sat down first, and immediately started talking with Art. Since the other ladies were already seated, their men didn’t get into trouble.

Ruth approached Zeke, and he asked everyone their preferences in wine. They agreed to go with his choices, except for Erica. She ordered a Beefeater’s Pink Gin on the rocks, as it was vegan approved. It wasn’t her first drink for the evening or her last.

Zeke soon stopped worrying about Erica as Jasira captured his attention. He found her a delight to talk to. She was intelligent and well-read. Dallas, Sabrina, Burnie, and Travis were often drawn into their conversations.

The chatter at the other end of the table was mostly centred around the joys of flying in space, the freighter business, and living in low-gee environments. Hilda and Sanya were happy to discuss these tops. Erica had little to add.

When Art asked her what she did for a living to include her, he was told she was a nail technician. Since no one else wore false nails, her topic of expertise had little value to the others.

Her professing that she hated flying in space excluded her even more.

By the time dessert came and the staff had left the room, Erica was drinking her fifth gin.

She’d spent most of the time when not eating, playing with the annoying bangles. When she dropped the set off her right hand, they clanked all over the tiled floor. She glared at Paul when he didn’t move to retrieve them, and neither did Joey or Dallas. They just sighed.

Paul glared at Erica, “I told you not to wear them. We spent half an hour trying to find them on the dance floor the last time we went out and the time before that.”

She scowled and pushed her chair back so roughly that it toppled when she stood, banging heavily onto the tiled floor.

Joey, being the gentleman he was, pushed his chair back to get the bangles that had bounced his way. They all heard a crunch when he stepped on one of the beaded bangles when he stood.

Erica screamed obscenities at him as she pushed him hard in the chest.

Joey stumbled back into his chair, caught his ankle on one of the legs and fell backwards. Zeke couldn’t say a spell fast enough to arrest Joey’s fall. Fortunately, Joey’s medallion reacted and saved him from hitting his head too hard.

Paul stood up, grasped Erica’s bare wrist, and towed her out of the room.

Everyone sat stunned for a few moments.

Joey’s groan had Sabrina, Dallas and Zeke hurrying to see if he was all right. Zeke mumbled a spell, and Joey’s grin said that it did the job. He let Zeke and Dallas help him up.

Not thinking, Joey said, “You are going to have to teach me that spell.”

Art groaned, “Joey!”

“Oops!” Joey said contritely as he rubbed his head.

Sanya glared at Art, “Sexual magnetism, huh?”

“Wow, she is quick on the uptake. I can see why you married her, Art,” Zeke responded.

“You can’t keep secrets from her,” Art said wanly.

Zeke replied, “Art, she would have found out as soon as you two had sex.”

“Stupid man, I always suspected that you were capable. How did you get magical items, anyway?”

Art looked at Zeke imploringly.

Zeke sighed, “Queen Wizard Lee came to visit me this morning. Before she left, she gave Art, Paul, Dallas, and Joey two-gemmed rookie boxes. Please do not tell anyone outside this room.”

“You’re shitting us!” exclaimed Burnie.

The four new magicians shook their heads. Dallas then did a levitation spell and had the strawberry on Burnie’s cake rise in the air. It wobbled up and down several times before he got it to hover over the top of the bowl for a few seconds. Then it fell with a small splat into the ice cream.

“Damn, that was harder than I thought it would be,” Dallas complained.

The others chuckled, and then the mirth turned into uncontrolled laughter.

They were enjoying coffee and a dinner mint when Paul came back.