Diana’s progress and consulting with the girls.

Diana was in a good mood that day. Apparently she talked to her coworkers and they were more receptive than she expected, so she made good progress in a single day. We talked about it as we drove back home.

“Then again, my expectations were low, so anything better than that seems like a miracle,” she said, chuckling.

“And I’m guessing that it helped that Luke happened to come back just today?” I asked her.

“Less than you’d think, shockingly,” she said. “More like… it drove my point across more than it made it for me. I told them how the boss was very picky with things, yet he rewarded proper and exemplary work. We used our free time to clean everything, took inventory and finished the prepwork for the night shift. The waiters at the restaurant began suggesting the soft drinks menu and we got more orders. Then two hours before closing, Luke shows up, inspects the place and congratulates us on the initiative. He let each of us have a full bottle of anything to take home. The guys seemed pretty happy.”

“What’d you pick?” I asked her.

“A bottle of cognac,” she said. “But more importantly… Luke asked me to bartend for a private party of his at the hotel. It’ll be on one of my days off, but he’s paying well, so I figured I’d do it.”

Of course he asked Diana. No way he’s not going to ask the best bartender he has available. It only made sense. “He asked me, too, actually.”

“Oh, is that why he called you in?”

“Not exactly. Apparently you let slip that I made you a cocktail using magic.”

She grimaced. “Yeah... I happened to mention that you were getting a lot better at mixing magic into your drinks, he got curious and asked for details. He’s been really looking forward to your progress on that, so…”

“Well, he asked me to make him a drink like that, which is why I had to grab some bottles from the bar. He really, really liked it and asked me to serve it to his guests at his party.”

“I think I expected it. It’s too interesting not to show off. And drinking that felt like a dream, so it’s no surprise he’d want it again.”

“Is it really that good?” I asked, skeptical.

“You haven’t tried it yourself?” she asked me.

“I have, but it only makes me feel somewhat tingly. Maybe it’s a resistance against my own magic?”

“Well, I’ll tell you again that, yes, it is that good. Makes me a little jealous that you can make something I can’t, actually.”

“Sorry…”

“It’s fine so long as you make it up to me by letting me have those cocktails every once in a while.”

And now I have no choice but to get better at that, too.

We arrived in time for me to start making dinner. I hadn’t made a stir fry in a while, so I went with that since we had fresh vegetables. Would it be cost-effective to plant vegetables outside or would it not be worth the effort? I dismissed the thought because I really didn’t need to add yet another daily obligation to the list.

As we ate dinner, I told the girls about the problem my tentative band and I were having with practice time.

“Would it be too awkward if I invited them over on Sunday to practice?” I asked.

“I don’t see why it would be,” Mila said. “So long as Sarah doesn’t forget to put on pants after she comes out of her bedroom.”

“Or Grace remembers to wear a bra,” Alice added.

“Just because it’s freeing as hell doesn’t mean I’ll walk around without a bra when there are guests over,” Grace argued. “But yeah, I have no problem with you inviting them over, either.”

“You guys need all the practice you can get,” Noelle said. “The event is in less than two weeks now, so yeah, have them come.”

“Will they stay the night?” Sarah asked.

“I’m not sure. I doubt it. They have a car.”

“Then yeah, let them come over. Not that I’d have a problem if they’d stayed, but you know…”

“We’ll probably just lock ourselves in the music room for five or six hours, so we won’t be a bother. That said…” I turned to Noelle. “Are you really okay with Eric being here?”

Noelle smiled at me. “Are YOU okay with Eric being here?”

“Kind of. I want to be, if that makes any sense.”

“Than so am I. I’m willing to believe we’re not the only ones who’ve grown up a bit. Still… I hope you won’t mind if I happen to be streaming all day.”

“No one would blame you,” Alice said.

I sighed. So there was no excuse, then. I’d have to invite the group over to my house. I’d also have to make sure the domain effects Frey mentioned don’t mess with them.

I spent the rest of the evening in the music room, practicing on my own. Playing in a band is different than playing on your own, but I still had to learn the songs. I should’ve gone to sleep early, but the pressure in my chest kept bugging me to practice just a little longer.

I couldn’t bear the idea of fucking up the show because I hadn’t practiced enough. I also couldn’t bear the idea that we would screw up because of me. If any of the others made any mistakes, I wouldn’t mind. I knew I wouldn’t blame them, neither out loud nor in silence. I’d be hard to forgive myself if I was the one making mistakes, though, so… I went to bed at like 3:00 am, and only because Cake started screaming at me.

The next day we spent our lunch break practicing as well. Luna reserved it this time, and we’d done this enough times to notice that not many people were booking these practice rooms. At least, we had yet to run into a day where all the rooms were booked. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it’s barely the start of the year, so maybe there’s that. When classes were over, I once again had to leave in a hurry since I had to work and couldn’t stay for practice.

The girls dropped me at work, where I again found Diana in a fairly good mood.

“What happened now?” I asked, smiling.

“The day shift left the prepwork ready for us,” she said.

Oh. Oh shit. That was a first. Things like squeezing lemon and orange juice, making the syrups, preparing the garnishes… We always had to rush that in about an hour before opening.

“See? You didn’t need to overthink things so much,” I told her.

“I still think Luke’s… encouragement did more than anything I said, but…”

I gave her a light, harmless kick on the butt, just because I didn’t want to risk Dylan coming in just as I gave Diana a spank. “You did your part and your boss backed you up. Isn’t that how things are supposed to work?”

She chuckled. “In an ideal world, maybe.” She shook her head. “But yeah… I suppose I can let myself be happy about the progress.”

“Mmm… But if we have free time now, what do we do?” I asked.

“I know what you’re tempted to do, but there are still things to be done. We need to sweep and restock the empty bottles.”

I sighed. “I’ll go get the bottles…”

Since I was practicing until late last night, I didn’t do… anything lewd with the girls. It was marginal, but I was feeling just a bit tired.

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