Page 3 of All In

“I’m not saying anything.”

“You’re saying everything with your face.”

She sits on the edge of my bed, moving a spool of copper thread out of the way first. She’s wearing one of her floaty skirts and has her red curls pinned up loosely, a few escaping around her temples the way they always do. She looks effortlessly beautiful and completely as home in her own skin.

I have spent my entire life watching my sister exist in the world with this particular ease that I have never quite managed to replicate. I have long since made peace with the fact that we are simply different kinds of people.

She floats.

I organize things.

“You know most people pack actual clothes when they go on a trip,” she says, eyeing all the costume pieces in my suitcase. Surely you don’t have to dress like an elven princess the entire time you’re there.”

“Well, no. But the rest of the time I’ll be in my hotel room, which only requires my pajamas.”

“You have one pair of regular pants in this suitcase. I can see them from here. They’re under the emergency craft kit.”

I shrug. “I’ll buy clothes if I need them.”

“You won’t. You’ll be in costume for seventy-two straight hours and subsisting on convention center coffee, protein bars, and adrenaline.”

She’s not wrong about that either.

“So how exactly do hook-ups work at one of these? Unless I missed it, you don’t have any sexy lingerie or anything in your suitcase. Aren’t you meeting up with that guy you met last year?”

I instinctively make a grumble of disgust.

Clover’s gaze sharpens. “What does that noise mean?”

“You remember my costume from last year?”

She nods. “Of course, Harley Quinn. You looked fantastic.”

“I think he was a little too into Harley. And maybe not so much into Juniper, if you know what I mean.”

Her gaze narrows even more, and her words come out as a make-my-day kind of growl. “I’m not sure that I do know what you mean.”

“Last year, I was Harley. He was dressed as the Joker. It was all very flirty and fun. But strictly PG-13, because I’m not one to jump into things. For the past year, whenever we’ve texted, he’s hinted at taking things to the next level.”

“Ooookay. Consenting adults and all that.”

“Exactly. Except …”

“Oh, I don’t know that I like where this is going.”

“Then he was disappointed when I described my Arwin costume. He said it didn’t sound very sexy.”

Clover mumbles something under her breath that I’m pretty sure is fucker.

I nod in agreement. “Then he said he was okay with me dressing like a elven princess in public as long as I would still be his dirty little bitch in private.”

Clover shoots to her feet. “He did not!”

“He did.”

“And you didn’t tell me this before now?”

“Well, that was just last night and this is the first time I’ve seen you since then, so…”