Open Mike at Club Bebop by Val Roberts

Author:Val Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wylde Hare Press
Published: 2014-08-20T01:38:01+00:00

Chapter 7

Day at the Races, Night at the Opera

“Hey bizin, share a table with a real man?” One of the Blue Dragons, who couldn’t have been old enough to be in a bar legally, was hovering next to the empty chair with a casual expression and tense shoulders. Bannister appeared to grow by several centimeters, but didn’t say anything.

“Not my table,” she said to both of them, punctuating it with another sip of her drink. As if a gangster called her a hot woman every day. “I’m only here on the owner’s sufferance. And I think that’s his chair, so you’ll have to ask him.” She smiled at Dragon boy and tilted her head to the right, as brainless as any anime sex sim. “You might want to move away from the table, because the growling beast next to you is the owner.”

Dragon boy looked at Bannister and sniffed an I could take him sort of sniff.

Bannister looked at the Dragon and raised an eyebrow that clearly stated only in your dreams, manchild.

Trav took a third drink of ice and chocolate, immediately realizing that it had been a mistake. “Rust.” She pressed the heel of her free hand to her eye socket. “That really hurts.”

“It’s called brain freeze. You have to go slow with ice cream.” Bannister said, taking the drink from her and setting it on the table. “It’ll stop hurting in a few seconds.”

“Okay.” She added pressure to the other eye socket and eventually, the pain subsided. When she opened her eyes, both men were still standing there. “I don’t think I’m up to any company tonight…what did you say your name was?”

“Call me Taro.” He had to clear his throat because his voice tried to break on the last syllable.

Bannister was obviously biting his lip.

“It’s nice to meet you, Taro.” She offered her hand and the younger man shook it. “Maybe next week, if you come in again?”

Bannister’s eyebrows moved down a millimeter, but he still said nothing.

“I am honored, bezin.” Taro bowed and went back to his fellow Dragons with a swagger.

“That’s not his real name. Taro is a Japanese fairy tale about a kid who has the strength of a dragon and has to use it to help others.”

She picked up her drink and tried to calculate if it was safe to take another sip. “Interesting choice for a tong enforcer, don’t you think?”

“I think he doesn’t know the story, just the title of the fairy tale.”

“Yet he didn’t back down while he was standing next to your intimidating self.” She risked another mouthful. “It’s almost too bad Blue Dragon is the best he can do, since he isn’t completely without brains – he’s got a scaled coat and he’s barely out of puberty – and he has enough courage to stand up to you, even though talking to me scared him.”

Bannister dropped into the other chair and scrubbed fingers through his hair. “He should go into the strike force.”

“Because that worked out so well for you?”

“It got me out of the round-eye section of Hong Kong.

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