#talkmagically

“Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Kaia retorted.  “Why, what’s yours?  No, wait, let me guess.  Straight vodka?”

“Nothing straight about me,” Claire snorted.  “Whiskey, neat, though.”

“Ugh, no.”  Kaia waved her hands in a “keep it away” motion. “If Imma drink something, it needs to actually taste <i>good</i>.”

“Whiskey does taste good,” Claire protested.  “I mean, as long as you get something decent and not cheap rotgut.”

“It’s all rotgut.” Kaia shuddered.

This date was not off to a great start, if all they were going to do was argue.  It wasn’t a real argument, sure, but still.  There was also the question of whether this was a real date.  They hadn’t specified.  Were they just hanging out?  Then why hadn’t they asked the others … oh, right.  Too young.  Not that Claire couldn’t make them i.d.s, but Alex might not go for that and Patience definitely wouldn’t.

Still, it was just the two of them.  And Jody had smiled knowingly when she’d told them to “have fun, but not too much.”

Yeah, date or not, having to have Jody bail them out of jail would not be a good end to it.

So they’d chosen this bar.  It wasn’t rough like a hunter’s bar.  Claire didn’t want that to be Kaia’s first experience, though she supposed they’d have to visit one at some point.  Not for her birthday though.  Instead, she’d steered them towards this semi-hipster place with lots of craft beers and a pretty wide selection of the hard stuff.  The place was clean and well-lit, and less than half the other patrons were giving them creepy stares, so she decided it had been a good choice.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Claire said.  “We order you a shot of whiskey, my choice of what kind, and I’ll try this purple starfucker thing.”

Kaia looked at her warily.

“One shot,” Claire said.  “One ounce. Even if you hate it, it’s over quick.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kaia agreed.  “What’re the stakes.”

Ooh, now that’s a twist Claire hadn’t expected.

“If you like the whiskey, you have to cover all my turns doing dishes for a week.  If you hate it, I cover yours,” Claire said.

“Okay,” Kaia nodded. She put her chin in her hand and looked at Claire thoughtfully.  “Now for you.”

Claire wondered what she would come up with.  Dishes were the main chore Jody had them all do.  Neither of them had enough money to speak of, so betting that would be stupid.  

“If you like your purple starfucker,” Kaia said, “you have to make my bed for a week.”

Claire’s eyes widened. “And if I hate it?”

“I make yours for a week,” Kaia said with an eyeroll.  “Obviously.”

Claire felt a little uneasy about that bet.  It was just a chore, though, right?  Handling the sheets on Kaia’s bed didn’t have to <i>mean</i> anything.  Or having Kaia handling hers.

Who the hell was she kidding?  Of course it would mean something.  Just picturing Kaia smoothing down the covers of Claire’s bed had her imagining pulling her down onto it and messing it back up.  That was a bit much for first date material, wasn’t it?

“Getting cold feet?” Kaia asked with a sly smile.  “Scared you’ll lose?  Twice?”

“What?  No!”  Claire wasn’t about to back down.  She’d taken on werewolves by herself.  Which she would rather do than the dishes, true, but still.  She wasn’t <i>scared</i> of anything here.  “Bartender!”

The bartender came over and took their order.  Claire had made sure, first, that they had the whiskey she wanted Kaia to try.  It probably wasn’t entirely fair, but they hadn’t specified whether the whiskey could be flavored, and Claire <i>did</i> like the Jim Beam maple.

When Kaia explained how to make the Purple fucking Starfucker—who named that thing anyway?—Claire was surprised it used Southern Comfort.  She hadn’t known they had a peach version, was surprised the bartender had it, even here, but then, he’d had the maple whiskey.  Maybe it wouldn’t suck after all.

Soon enough, they both had their shots in front of them.  Claire picked hers up and held it to the light.  It was definitely purple, but with a name like that, she’d half expected it to be glittery too, not that any of the ingredients would’ve made it that way.  Kaia, meanwhile, was sniffing hers.  Claire held out her glass, and Kaia reluctantly clinked the glasses together.

“Nostrovia,” Claire said with a fake Russian accent as she tossed hers back.

“Right, that.” Kaia did the same.

Claire had to admit, the taste wasn’t something she’d have gone looking for.  A bit fruity with the peach SoCo and cranberry juice.  The amaretto kept it from being too much, though. The blue crap, as far as she could tell, just added the blue to make it purple.

“Huh,” she said, setting down the shot glass.  “That didn’t suck.”

“Neither did this,” Kaia admitted, still looking at her glass like she expected it to do something. “But I do think it’s cheating to use maple whiskey.  Without that, it’d probably taste like shit.”

“Hey, there’s a whole line of whiskeys that taste like pies,” Claire said.  “The cherry one tastes like cough syrup, but the rest are pretty good. Especially the pecan.”

“So this isn’t the one sweet whiskey in the whole world?” Kaia asked, eyebrows raised.

“No way.” Claire pointed to the bottles lined up against the wall.  “See, there’s a honey one right there.  Took me a second to decide which to go with, but I like the maple better.  They’re both good though.”

“And you liked yours, too.”  Kaia frowned. “Maybe those should cancel each other out, then.”

“What?  You just wanna get out of doing dishes,” Claire said. She wasn’t sure how she felt about making Kaia’s bed.  No, that was a lie.  She wasn’t sure it wasn’t too early in this … whatever it was … for her to be feeling that way about it.

“Well, actually, I was thinking,” Kaia said.  “Jody’s got that sherriff’s conference next weekend.  Maybe instead of making my bed, you could help keep it warm?”

Claire’s eyes widened and she felt her cheeks pink up.  “That sounds like a win-win situation to me.”

“Kinda the point,” Kaia replied with a wink.