Chapter 1

(Angel)

Gossip and Wig Boxes

"Alright, honey, check the tags and make sure the wigs match the styles you want ‘cause we will not be having a repeat of the pick-a-peppa show," Angel declared as he did a mental count of the boxes to make certain none had gotten left under a chair or beside a mannequin.

"You just had to go there, didn't you," Cha Cha Bella grumbled as she adjusted her everyday wig, "Always with the pick-a-peppa disaster. You are never going to let that go, are you?"

"Oh, I will, if you ever top it, which I hope you won't," Angel replied. "And I don't always mention the Pick-a-Peppa Debacle . Sometimes I mention Karaoke-gate , or The Great Drag Cruise Fiasco ."

Groaning, Bella scrubbed a hand over her face and raised one perfectly arched eyebrow at him. Where most drag performers stripped off their personalities at the end of the night, Bella simply drifted from exaggerated and flamboyant, to comfortably unique. As one of only three out and proud trans-women currently performing in drag shows throughout the city, she had already garnered a mini following after last year's performance as The Queen of Ice and Sparkles.

"Is it really necessary to give every disaster a name like they're fuckin' hurricanes?"

"If I did that, they'd only have a first name, not a title," Angel pointed out, "and yes, I really must title them for the sake of my memoirs and any opportunity that arises to share my wildly captivating tales of your misadventures."

"Wildly embellished is more like it," Bella grumped as she crossed the room to check the labels on the wig boxes. "You know, I think I'm going to go with your suggestion about braiding the lime and lavender ombre wig and having you do the cherry-pie beehive with the blond."

"Thank you!" Angel cheered, doing a little shuffle dance as he made the adjustments in the notepad app on his phone, "Thin red streaks and woven in cherries will really pop against the blond. I gotta be honest, I was terrified of you going through with the beehive in the lavender and lime. Not having it turn out too Bride of Frankenstein was more pressure than I needed in my life right now."

When Bella started sputtering, Angel glanced up from his notes to see a look that was part outrage, part what the fuck , and part oh my fuckin' god why didn't I think of that . Angel just grinned and made a second note, this one about modifications to the classic conical hairstyle and its prominent skunk stripe. For almost a minute, the only sound in the room was Bella putting the lids back on the wig boxes and snaping the latches in place. Angel marked them off the checklist while Bella loaded them on the collapsible utility cart with her makeup cases and hanging wardrobe bags.

Best find ever!

Though technically, it had been considered two finds before Billy had gotten ahold of them and welded the collapsable hanging bar they'd picked up at a thrift store to the collapsable cart they'd salvaged from behind the market to give them a mini version of a bellman's carts that easily fit into the trunk of Bella's sporty yellow Volkswagen Golf. Angel turned away to take one last look around Bella's area, aware that they were the last ones left in the backstage area tonight.

Oh well. He spotted at least three abandoned things their owners were going to be scrambling to replace once they discovered that they'd left them behind somewhere.

First, Bella huffed, then Angel heard the tink, tink, tink of her nail tips tapping against the metal.

"Okay, fine, you have just given me my theme for the Halloween show," Bella grudgingly admitted, though he could tell how pleased she was by the smile she couldn't completely smother.

"I know, and you're welcome."

"How do you always do that?"

"I don't, we do it together."

"Meh, that's bullshit but thank you for saying it. I don't know where I'd be as a performer if you hadn't come into my life," Bella said as she draped an arm over his shoulders. "Thank you for sticking with me, even when things got rough."

With her out of her platform shoes and wig, they were damn near the same height, with Angel having a half inch edge as he stared at their reflections in the mirror.

"I believe you've got that backward," Angel pointed out as he turned into her embrace. "You were the one who fell into my life, remember? Though it was more like my chair when you came bursting into the shop like your ass was on fire. All these years and you've still never told me what your backup plan was if my client had showed up for her appointment."

"I didn't have one."

Angel felt himself poof up a bit as he pulled back to cock his head and shoot her a side-eye. "Oh, so you just figured I wouldn't be booked in the first place so you could just show up whenever and I'd be able to a work miracle for you?"

With one hand on a cocked hip, he attempted to stare her down, not that she was bothered by it any. She waved him off as easily as shooing a fly while raising an eyebrow at him.

"Now to be fair, you did work more than one miracle that day, so keep the story straight and don't go downplaying the credit you richly deserve. Not only did you take care of my hair and get Kurt over to help with my makeup, but you found me the best pair of thigh high boots I've ever owned and got my car door open after I accidentally locked the keys inside."

"Just call me a full-service stylist," Angel said with a little shrug.

"You were truly my guardian angel that day, but I knew you would be," Bella admitted. "I'd seen you backstage at Bare Minimums the week before, helping Ajay get ready for his set, and decided then and there that you'd be the perfect stylist for me. I was just lucky to land myself a best friend in the process."

"Wait, you never told me about that."

"I know."

"Ummm-hummm, which tells me you're still hiding something," Angel said as they wheeled the cart out to Bella's car. Beneath the streetlight where they'd left it, the yellow shimmered almost as bright as when the sun was out. The only place on the block still open was right across the street, its flashing three-dollar margarita sign as big a lure as the beat of the Tequila song pulsing from inside.

"You can always try and pry it out of me with a couple margaritas if you're so sure about that."

"And exactly who is going to drive The Ghost Crab home if we both get bombed?"

"How about the person who named her The Ghost Crab ?" Bella suggested.

"I don't know if Tiny will go for that considering he's the one I asked to attend the city council meeting tonight since we couldn't."

"In that case, get him down here," Bella insisted, "I want to know what they had to say about the splash pad proposal, and you know I hate to drink alone."

"Like you ever have to twist my arm over margaritas," Angel said as he pulled his phone out and tapped the phone icon beside Tiny's name.

When Tiny answered on the second ring, his speech wasn't the least bit groggy, so at least he hadn't been to bed yet, though Angel knew that didn't mean he'd agree to come out of the house at this time of night, especially if his Shan-Shan was awake and playing.

"What are the odds of you playing designated driver tonight?" Angel asked with the phone on speaker. "It's three-dollar margarita night at Tequila Locos…."

"Oh, come on! How are you gonna ask me that when I've been dying for a drink since leaving that meeting," Tiny pointed out. "If anything, you should be the one driving after putting me through that. Before they could even get to the community improvements proposals, officers had to haul two nutballs out for issuing threats and a twenty-minute debate broke out over what constituted a stench bomb since apparently, there is a law in our wonderful city that makes it illegal to possess them."

"And what did they decide?"

"To table the issue until they could have legal look into whether or not Jackfruit and Durian, which is apparently a fruit too, could be classified as stench bombs without there being any blowback on the city."

"I'd guess not, considering the cultural ramifications. Whoever complained about whatever grocer is carrying them would be better off investing in nose clips or walking down a different street."

"Omg, that could be the next big fashion trend," Bella squeed as she leaned against her car. "Imagine everyone walking around with a colorful nose clip on? Talk about a game changer in stuffy elevators."

"Or anywhere that bratwurst is served," came Tiny's response through the phone Angel had on speaker.

"I can just picture it now," Bella said. "Glitter nose clips, tie-dyed nose clips, neon nose clips, bedazzled nose clips…"

"You know someone will try and print slogans on them too. We'll have politician's faces peering out of nostril holes, you just watch," Angel added.

"Okay, this conversation has officially grown amusing enough that I have snagged Billy, and he will be our designated driver for the evening since he was up and puttering around the same as I was. Ajay and Shanny decided to stay at Leith's tonight, which will probably mean no sleep in addition to tons of sweet treats and movies, so I was already getting bored. We've got a Lyft on the way, so we'll see you in a few."

"Yes!" Bella said, shoving away from her car to do a little strut and shimmy across the street, hips shaking to the beat of Baby Got Back.

"Hurry up or you'll be catching up," Angel said as he skipped across the street behind Bella, Tiny's laughter ringing from his phone before he hung up.

"Mango, strawberry, pineapple, banana…oh helllllll no, back it up, banana, uh-uh, who's batshit idea was that?" Bella said as Angel hopped up on the barstool beside her.

"I did, ma'am."

Bella's hand flew to her chest, her jaw dropping a little as an absolute Adonnis of a man stood up from beneath the bar, jet black hair hanging to his shoulders as he shot her a flirty grin.

"Ahhh….I….ummm," Bella stammered while Angel snickered beside her.

"While she's picking her tongue up off the floor and brushing the heelprints off, I'd like to try one," Angel said, giving the bartender a wink.

There was something familiar about him, but Angel couldn't place where he'd seen him before.

"Make that two," Bella squeaked.

"You sure?" Mr. Sexy Smirk asked. "I hear batshit crazy can be contagious."

Angel lost it then and nearly fell off the barstool he was laughing so hard.

"Don't worry about him, he's already a carrier," Bella said to which Angel flipped her the bird.

Now they were all laughing, and Bella's cheeks were as bright as her fire engine lipstick, even as the beauty behind the bar flicked a pierced tongue at her. "Two banana margaritas coming right up."

The moment he headed for the other side of the bar where the blender was located, Angel leaned in and hissed in Bella's ear. "If you don't get his digits, I'm gonna try for them and I promise I won't share if he gives them to me."

"Oh no you don't, I've already made a fool of myself in front of him, I get first dibs!"

"Fine, but if you strike out, game on."

Bella opened her mouth to say something only to have her phone whirr, then blip several times, cutting her off mid-thought and drawing her attention to the lime green device sticking half out of her purse.

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?" She muttered, frown lines appearing between her eyebrows as she shook her head and typed off a quick response.

"What?" Angel asked. "What's going on?"

"I'll give you three guesses who just used the spare key in the garden gnome's belly to make himself at home in my spare bedroom."

"Micha Kincade?"

"Oh my god I would die and then beg to be brought back as his guitar strap so I could hug him all the time! You know how obsessed I am with that man."

"Damn, and here I was hoping my banana margaritas would sway you to the batshit side," Mr. Smokin' Hot said as he slid their drinks in front of them.

"There is still plenty of time for that," Bella replied with a flirty grin.

"Well in that case, you might need this." With those words, Twilightlocks slid her his digits in bright, bold sharpie scrawled on the back of a bar napkin, threw her one more wink, then scurried away to tend to his next customer.

"Whewwwww," she whistled, fanning herself with the napkin before carefully folding it and slipping it into her purse, the look on her face morphing from thrilled to wistful. "I'd enjoy me a nibble of Mr. Freshie-pants if it wasn't destined to end in disaster."

"Uhmmm-hum, we'll be fantasizing about him all week."

"You know it, but we both know I won't call."

"Bella…"

"If he'd been interested in you, maybe I'd have given it a shot, but he zoned in on me like I was any other girl here and we both know I'm not."

Angel sighed at that but couldn't argue. As a trans-woman Bella had extra reason to be cautious about accepting dates. It was just a sad state of the reality they lived each day. Mr. Gorgeous Smokey Eyes might be nice and flirty now, but they both knew that could turn on a dime if she revealed her truth to him. Hell, there were still members of the drag community that sought to oust her from their midst now that her feminine attire wasn't just for performing.

Instead of offering hallow platitudes, Angel turned his attention to his drink. It was all he could do not to choke on the first sip, the banana so overwhelming that he damn near snatched the napkin from Bella's purse so he could spit it out and try to scrub the flavor off his tongue. The moment Bella went to lift hers; Angel pinned her hand, gave a small shake of his head, and inclined it towards a table where a trio looked to be leaving.

"Don't," he hissed as he carried the offensive beverage with him over to the table and accidentally-on purpose spilled it down the opposite side as he flopped in his seat. "Ooops."

"That bad?"

"Oh, my god honey, be thankful you have no plans to use those digits. You'd change your mind about him starring in your fantasies the moment it crossed your lips."

Grimacing, she shot a look over to the bar where he was hard at work, then scooched over to the next chair so she could spill hers along the wall too.

Snickering, Angel muttered. "Man, he'd better hope he's better in bed than he is with bananas."

She giggled at that and waved over a waitress in a Betty Boop t-shirt, ordering them a pair of mango margaritas, just as Billy and Tiny arrived a little bit breathless, Tiny holding up three fingers while Billy requested water.

"How many behind am I?" Tiny asked once he'd caught his breath.

"None, we had an unfortunate encounter with some banana margaritas you'll want to avoid if you know what's good for you."

Billy sputtered while Tiny's nose scrunched up. "What made you think that would be a good idea in the first place?"

"See the guy up there with all that pretty black hair?" Bella asked.

Laughing, Tiny just shook his head. "Say no more."

"Okay, so…back to Bare Minimums and why you never told me you'd seen me there the night of Ajay's first show," Angel said, wanting to get that out in the open before Bella changed her mind about revealing whatever she'd been alluding to.

"You see, what had happened was…" Bella began.

"Oh, lord," Billy groaned, downing the water the waitress put in front of him like it was a beer, then stared up at her beseechingly as he asked for a second one.

Angel just cocked an eyebrow at Bella and confiscated her margarita.

"Okay, okay, you did not have to threaten my drink," she said as she reached for it only to have Angel slide it further from her grasp.

"Apparently I do if I want answers."

Huffing, her eyes narrowing, she finally realized that this was one war she wasn't going to win. "Fine. You were supposed to pry it out of me with drinks, not deny me my margarita magnificence. Let me just preface the whole thing by saying that I was desperate and did try to get an appointment the right way. It's not my fault a certain someone was all booked up. So, maybe I talked Joanna into calling Mrs. Sanchez and telling her you needed to reschedule her appointment because you'd come down with the runs."

"Ahhh," Angel choked, smacking a hand to his forehead. "Are you fuckin' kidding me? No wonder she brought me canned pears and boiled potatoes when she saw me next, talking about how they'd bind me up . And here I thought it was one of those clowns at work trying to mess with me."

"Nope."

"That's genius," Tiny said. "And you are officially the most terrifying person I know."

"Hey, watch it now," Angel said, shooting him a scathing look.

"Oh, you're still scary, but Bella is the boss."

"And you best not forget it," Bella said, the four of them dissolving into laughter.