Club Angel's Kiss

“Happy, happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day. Love is in the air, love is in the air!” The note she hit with the last word made my eye twitch. “Roses and gifts and diamonds the size of your face!”

I watched hesitantly as Rave flitted across the club, tossing foam hearts and red rose petals all over the small tables and the floor of the club. She was way too excited to be working on Valentine’s Day.

Instead of staying in with our mates, we had to throw a party for all the retched holiday for all the lovers in Chicago, transform the club into something ripped straight from a romance movie or bodice ripper novel.

I followed behind her, arranging white stick candles on the middle of the tables, straightening them into circles among the small hectic decorations.

Frankly, I thought it looked like a cupid wannabe threw up all over the place, but Rave really seemed to enjoy her insane decorating. Her mood, conveying the love needed for the holiday, would have been infectious had I not been so pissed.

“So, the point of all this is?”

I glanced over my shoulder. Kat and Jane sat on the bar, doing nothing to help us prepare for the busy night ahead. Kip lay in Jane’s arms, sleeping peacefully.

“We’re giving lovers then night of their dreams,” I murmured, grabbing a candle from the box underneath my arm. The soft wax bent into an arch in my steel grip. “Ah, fucking hell.” I tossed it back and grabbed another one. Gently, this time.

Rave stopped her singing and dancing and turned around painfully slowly to look at me, a handful of foam hearts suspended in midair.

“Who crushed your heart, honey? You’ve been ticked all day,” she said.

“Did everyone’s mate remember to wish them a happy Valentine’s Day?” I asked. I dropped the box to the floor with a loud thud.

Kat nodded, as well as Rave and Jane. I threw my hands in the air.

“Well, mine didn’t, and still hasn’t.” I rolled my eyes. “He wasn’t even in the house when I was getting ready to come here. I’m just a little…mad. He’s remembered every year for fourteen years! Why forget now?”

“Maybe he didn’t forget,” Kat offered, hopping off the bar. “Maybe he’s waiting until it’s time for the boys to come to the club.”

Rave nodded, apparently liking the sound of Kat’s explanation. “Yeah,” she agreed, throwing the handful of foam hearts in different directions. “Aren’t they all getting last minute presents right now? I know Jimmy and Brian are.”

I bit my lip.

I hoped they were right. I really did. I didn’t want to get mad at Zacky for something as small as forgetting a holiday I barely liked. It seemed pointless, but my heart still clenched at the thought of how we celebrated it in previous years.

He showered me in love every February. From the moment we got dressed to head to the club, he was there, saying beautiful things, kissing me, making me feel special and loved and like I was the only girl in existence.

I loved it.

So, where the hell was it now?!

I groaned, running my hand through my hair.

The thought of Zacky taking off from the house without saying goodbye and just to go out and get a present for me. He knew presents meant nothing to me; I only wanted him near me on such a special day, to kiss him whenever I wanted to and the like.

Ugh.

I almost wanted to strangle myself with one of the pink or red streamers that hung around every possible surface. But it would probably just break, making my suicide attempt pretty foiled on all aspects.

“It’s fine,” Jane said, coming to stand at my side. She patted my shoulder. “Okay, Mom?”

I nodded, sighing. “Okay, okay. I’ll forget about it.”

But I didn’t. Not even when a steady stream of couples began piling into the club hours later, sitting themselves down at the tables and ordering drinks. Even when I started handing out cupcakes and cookies and various other little foods for the VIP guests.

Even when Jett and Lavender came trudging into the club looking exhausted and dove behind the bar to start making drinks instead of having to serve the guests, which everyone thought was fine to let me do, even though it was obvious my day was doing shitty.

I put on a fake smile, though, for the guests. They all appeared very happy in their relationships and this night was obviously special, so I didn’t want to bring them down.

Although it would have been pretty funny to tell the woman at the third table that her man was fucking her babysitter, or that the cute teenaged boy with the normal teenaged girl at the seventh table kept flirting with Lavender.

I laughed, setting two wine glasses down on a table where a woman with vibrant blue hair sat with her husband.

“How is your night going?” I asked pleasantly, filling their glasses with white wine. It shimmered beneath the pink and red lights hanging above.

“Fine, thank you,” the girl said, smiling. “Everything looks amazing in the club. You guys did a great job.”

“Yes, you did,” the man responded. He stared up at me, his eyes hanging unnecessarily long on the dip in my shirt. “Everything looks…great.”

I scoffed and spun around on my heel. Men! What was with them? Why were they so stupid?

And, I still hadn’t forgotten when Brian, Jimmy, Adam, Zacky, and Daniel came strutting in through the double doors. Each had an abundance of brightly wrapped gifts and bags, including Zack.

I sighed. “Hi,” I muttered as Zacky rushed over to me. “Where were you this morning? You haven’t even wished me a happy Valentine’s Day.”

Zacky sat a small red box on the bar. “This is why I left this morning.”

I grabbed the box and wrenched it open.

Inside sat a ring with a black diamond in the center. Amazingly, I remembered seeing it before, in a dream from my human years.

This was an exact replica of it! Of the ring that I still saw pictures of sometimes while daydreaming.

I squealed. “Zack, baby, it’s beautiful!” I yanked it from its holder and slipped it on my left ring finger. “But…why did you buy this for me?”

“Because I wanted today to be special, and I wanted you to have a symbol of our love.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You mean you wanted everyone to know that I’m taken and they can’t have me.”

“Exactly.”