Bones by Zahra Girard

Author:Zahra Girard [Girard, Zahra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Bones

An aged brick building in a neglected part of Elmsburg, with a sign so faded it looks like it’s from the 1800s, Sunshine Parlor isn’t much to look at. What writing is visible on the sign isn’t even in English. I don’t blame Jules for being reluctant when we arrive. I can feel her tense herself against me as we pull into the nearly empty parking lot; she’s never been here, and this place looks like a serial killer’s hideout.

Yet, to me, it is something special. Because of who’s inside. Until Jules this is a place I’ve kept to myself for the same reason I don’t let anyone spend the night — getting close to someone just gives them more opportunities to hurt you, to disappoint you, to leave a wound that’ll never heal, and I do not want Sunshine Parlor to be tainted that way.

With Jules, it’s different.

“You’re not going to murder me, are you?” She says as she hops off the bike, staring at the building with her hands on her hips. “You did just buy me a goblin-killing knife, so I should warn you that if you act suspicious, I won’t hesitate to cut you.”

“Relax. This isn’t a murderer’s hideout. It’s the opposite.”

“This doesn’t look like a doctor’s office.”

“It’s a Korean massage parlor.”

“A sketchy Korean massage parlor.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. Like how, when I met you, you looked like the fucking hottest stripper I’ve ever seen in my life. Yet you turned out to be the hottest chef I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Thanks…?”

“Listen, I didn’t bring you here for a happy ending. They don’t even do that here.” She gives me a look that encompasses an entire question and I decide to answer it before she can speak it. “They have a sign inside. This is an honest shop. These are some hardworking women doing their damnedest to make it and send money back home to their families. I respect the hell out of them for it.”

“Getting a little heated there, huh?”

“I see them going through the same struggles my mom went through trying to support me, so, yeah, I get heated. I try to support them. They’re nice.”

I leave out the part how, the first time I showed up, pretty much right after moving to Ironwood Falls and after all the shit with Charlotte getting abducted went down, I needed a massage, and the second I walked in the door wearing my cut, the woman at the front desk, Eun-U — a matronly woman with a scowl so sharp I could shave with it — rapped her knuckle against the sign and told me, “No prostitutes here. Go away, biker boy.”

“You sure?” Jules says. “Because a guy like you and a place like this… it just creates a certain expectation, you know? It’d be like going to a bakery run by a French person. You’re going to expect croissants, pain au chocolate, and an elitist attitude.”

“Is there something on my face that just says,

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