Goddess Unravelled

The Red Ribbon

The day of the book launch Alice had the others come up to her suite for lunch. There they proceeded to lay out their plans for the day over cucumber sandwiches, courtesy of Maya, and tea. In fact, Alice had too many cups of tea and found that her hands were shaking quite a bit. Although, she thought, it might be nerves. She spent most of lunch convincing the others to let her meet the blogger alone.

“What if I pretend to be your boyfriend?” Altair spoke around a mouthful of sandwich. “Oh wait, I am your boyfriend. Does this Bango guy know that? Sure he isn’t asking you there to seduce you?” He waggled his eyebrows, but Alice wondered if he was partly serious.

“It’s Bingo, and you’re staying at a distance like everyone else, because if you don’t, you’ll scare him away. I need to find out what he knows. And don’t speak with your mouth full of sandwich, it’s disgusting.” She gave him a narrow look and he held up his hands in defeat.

Alice looked around at the others. “Okay, so I go in first, you follow after. We’re not together, so remember not to look at me like you know me.”

“Got it.” Gabriel put his plate down on the table beside the couch. “But I’ll say it again, I don’t like it. What if he tries something?”

Maya rolled her eyes. “Have you met Alice? You should worry about the blogger.”

The elf shrugged. “She’s not infallible. What if he turns out to be a god or something?”

“You’re such a worry wart. Just relax for once.”

Alice held up her hands to stave off another argument between them. Maya had been short with him all morning and Gabriel kept getting more and more sullen. Pouty, actually. It was driving her crazy.

“Alright. No more fighting,” she said firmly. “We have to get ready to go.”

Altair set his mug down on the coffee table and poked her in the ribcage playfully. “And you have to wear a red ribbon in your hair. God, I can’t wait to see that. It will be like dating Little Red Riding Hood.” He edged closer and said in a low, gravelly voice, “Does that make me the big bad wolf?” he poked Alice again, and she leaned away, trying to hold back laughter.

“Oh gross,” Gabriel complained, and Alice caught Maya rolling her eyes at him again. Luckily she didn’t say anything other than, “I think it’s sweet.”

“I dug this up from the supply cupboard.” Azura reached into the pocket of her sweater and drew out a long, satin ribbon. It was vibrantly red, and Alice thought it would probably stand out in a room full of people well enough. It didn’t look like it had any threads of magic on it.

“It’s part of the supplies? It’s not going to choke me out or anything, is it?”

Azura looked down at the ribbon. “No. I was thinking of making them tie themselves, but at this moment, it’s quite boring.”

She sighed. “Thanks, you may have to tie it for me. I’ve never bothered with a ribbon in the hair before. It sounds like too much work.”

Azura came over and instructed her to stay still, and Alice shut her eyes, enjoying the feeling of the older woman brushing her hair back. Then the ribbon tugged her hair a little and she grimaced. Why hadn’t she picked something else? Like pinning a rose on her collar.

No, that was just as bad. She really had to stop watching old spy movies.

“Okay. That looks good.” Azura stepped back, examining her handiwork. “Well, you look like you’re going to a farmer’s market, but it will do.”

Alice groaned. She didn’t bother looking in the mirror, because she knew what she looked like. She’d decided to go very low key today, in case Adam did show up at the book signing. She’d picked a t-shirt and a black skirt that went down to her ankles. Hopefully she would be able to meet with this Bingo character without Adam noticing her. She wished she’d asked him what time he was thinking about going, just so she could have planned to show up when he wasn’t there.