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the baby wipes. Now I
knew why Darrel always made sure we had plenty.
    I grabbed a few out. “Here,” I reached up and gently
wiped off the light sheen that glowed on the skin of her face and neck, “how’s
that?”
    Blue took my hand and kissed the palm. “Very nice,
thank you.” She smiled.
    “It certainly was.” I smiled in return because I
didn’t just mean the wipes. “Thank you .” I took my hand back, and in
moments both of them were lemony fresh again. I gave the board a quick glance
to make sure all was good in the world, and Blue began to ease toward the door.
    “Hey, where you going?” I asked her, slightly
confused. Hadn’t she originally said she wanted to talk?
    “I guess…I should, um, let you work, right?” Despite
the smiles all around, hers didn’t seem all the way right, and her eyes
questioned me.
    Oh no, this was going to become drama very soon if I
wasn’t careful. “Hang out a sec?” I requested. “It’s okay,” I reassured her. I
decided to scan the room—I wanted to catch the waitress’s eye—and when I
finally did, I waved her over. She deftly picked her way through the crowd to
the request window.
    “Hey, Andra,” I greeted, “I need a plain cran and
orange juice and”—I looked over my shoulder—“what are you drinking?” I asked
Blue. She had to at least be thirsty, right? Besides, she was a guest in my
booth.
    “Corona.” She smiled at me, and this time her smile
looked genuine or, at the very least, relieved.
    “A Corona,” and I glanced back over my shoulder with a
grin, “with lime,” I finished.
    “I’ll be right back with that.” Andra smiled up and
batted her heavily lashed eyes at me. “Anything else? Are you sure you’re, um,”
she raised her eyebrows, “satisfied?”
    Huh, what do you know. I’d always suspected Andra
might have been flirting with me, and now I knew for sure. Cool.
    “Hey, I’m just getting started,” I grinned back with a
quirk of my lips, “but thanks—I’m totally fine.”
    “So we hear,” she shot back, now smiling widely. She
turned to go, then stopped. “I like your mix tonight. You’ve really got the,
um, mood,” I watched her mouth as she ran her tongue along her teeth, “going.”
She favored me with a smoky look, then slid back into the writhing throng.
    “Thanks,” I called to her retreating form.
    I glanced at my meters and returned to Blue, who had
made herself comfortable along the back bench.
    “Listen, I’ve got about forty-five seconds to set my
next mix. Just hang back here a minute, go through the discs, see if there’s
some tunes you’d like to hear, and I’ll see if I can fit them in, okay?” I
asked her with a smile. I didn’t want her to think that I’d fucked her and
wanted to forget her, but I really did have to pay some attention to my job. I
was supposed to be working, after all.
    I focused on the board and replaced my headphones.
Andra was right, I mused, swaying to the beat; it was a good groove. I checked
the next tune and adjusted my fades and timers for the next insert. I hadn’t
spoken to the room for a bit, so it was time to be a little more
interactive—with the whole room, I mean.
    I reached for the microphone. Fuck. Where was my mike?
Finally I saw the wire trailing across the board, where it had been tossed over
the dividing screen. I grinned to myself. Well, hell, if it had gotten wrecked,
at least it had been for a good cause, I figured.
    Slowly reeling it back, I placed it carefully down
where I needed it, checked my volumes again, and listened for my entrance.
Okay, there it was. I eased the fade in, the end of one song flowing into the
beginning of the next. I’d already brought the mood down as far as I wanted it
to go. The one that was about to end had started the climb back up, and this
next one would cement that move.
    I reached for the microphone and keyed it. “Fellow
freaks and frenzied followers,” I brought the mix up slightly and the volume
down