Berries and Greed

Her mouth pursed, but she quickly schooled her expression. “Well. It must be then. Best wishes to you both.” She gave me a tight smile. “Tell Greid I said hello.”

Unable to stop myself, I gave her a saccharine smile back. “I don’t know who you are.”

That made her nostrils flare, and I allowed myself a mental victory punch into the air.

“Agma.” She chuckled. “I’ve probably come up. I’m sure he has some of my silly little sculptures still in his house.”

He did, but he’d told me it was only because he liked them, not because she’d made them. I wasn’t going to let her know that.

“I haven’t noticed any sculptures, but yeah. He’s mentioned you.”

A hint of smugness shone in her sultry yellow eyes before she smoothed her face out again. “Well anyway, sorry again for intruding. I just thought, what a small world, huh?”

“Yeah,” I managed. “Small world.”

Which she’d already known when she told all her friends private things about Greid. Knowing how shy he was. Knowing about his social anxiety. Knowing how she’d made him feel when he’d told her things he wanted and she’d made him feel like crap for them.

My anger was boiling over. I glanced back to see that Mani had disappeared down to the other end of the bar and was chatting to Gavin. Kayr was restocking one of the fridges down that end too. There were no other customers waiting near us.

“Can I say something?” I put the card machine down on the bar and stepped closer. “Agma?”

She blinked, taking another sip of wine before setting her glass neatly on the coaster. “Sure.”

I gripped the edge of the bar and leaned in. “What you did was really fucking terrible.”

Her head reared back, offence colouring her elegant features. “Excuse me?”

“Telling personal information about Greid to your friends was a really shitty thing to do.”

I was shocked to see her ears twitch, guilt filling her eyes as they darted around. “Look—”

“I don’t know if you thought he’d never find out, or if you were hoping he would. Either way, it doesn’t matter.” I glanced back to make sure Mani still wasn’t anywhere near us. “It was cruel. And nasty. You had no right.”

Trying to regain my composure, I straightened and smoothed down the front of my apron. “So yeah, that was what Greid told me about you. You haven’t come up otherwise. Thankfully.”

I turned to leave, knowing I needed to go calm down, but Agma’s throaty voice stopped me.

“Wait.”

Against my better judgement, I turned to face her again, making sure my expression was a blank mask.

She looked like she couldn’t decide whether to be angry or ashamed, her mouth pinched and eyes tight. “Look, I made a mistake. I got drunk with my friends after Greid and I split up, and… I told them some things I shouldn’t have. Okay? We’ve all done it. We’ve all bitched about our exes.”

“Getting drunk isn’t an excuse.”

Her ears fluttered, nostrils flaring again. “Well sorry I’m not little-miss-perfect human.”

“What?” I stared at her incredulously. “I don’t—”

“Clearly you can accept Greid and his… kinks. It doesn’t make me a bad person because I couldn’t.”

I took a breath. “I never said you were a bad person for not—”

“He told me things he wanted that I didn’t understand and wasn’t into. Okay?” Her tone was getting increasingly defensive, and her long fingers were gripping the stem of her wine glass tightly.

“Didn’t anyone ever teach you manners?” I snapped. “Stop interrupting me. It’s rude.”

She reared back in outrage, mouth opening and closing wordlessly a few times, before she narrowed her eyes at me. “Must I remind you that I am in fact a customer here?”

I was well aware that this was an extremely bad idea, one that could technically result in me losing my job for arguing with a customer who hadn’t actually done anything to me, but my temper had flared and was burning too hot for me to take a second and calm down.

I could hear the threat in her words. I saw the way her yellow eyes looked over my shoulder in the direction of Mani at the other end of the bar. She was definitely going to complain about me to the manager.

But then I pictured Greid’s shy, uncertain expression the first few times we’d slept together. I pictured him standing in the cult’s compound all that time ago, looking flustered and wildly out of his element. At the time, I’d been furious at the thought of a demiurgus going there to take advantage of all those adoring humans, but now I knew the truth. He’d been lonely because of what the snooty woman in front of me had done. She’d made him feel like crap, then ostracised him from their mutual acquaintances and ensured that her shy, socially anxious ex would be too embarrassed to show his face in those circles again.

My face grew hot with anger, some fiercely protective instinct flaring in my chest, making it squeeze tighter and tighter until it felt like I’d have to shout to let it out.