Free Seer by Robin Roseau Page A

“Will you help me use it next week?”
    “I’m out of town next week, but we can get together the following week. I don’t know when yet. I took that client’s work, and it’s going to be a lot over the next two months or so.”
    She nodded. “We could make it a working lunch.”
    “Absolutely not. That is recreation not work.”
    I turned to Elsa. “Elsa had a bad night, only winning one game, and so I have a carefully selected booby prize for you, Elsa. You may open this in the next room and then return, wearing it.”
    She sighed, but she had to know she’d lost tonight. She accepted the gift and disappeared in the direction of my bedroom.
    “What is it?” Dean asked. He always asked. I didn’t even bother to respond to him. I never answered.
    However, I wasn’t surprised when cell phones came out. Everyone prepared their camera app, and I knew there would be Facebook posts by the morning.
    That was when we all heard, in very loud, very clear German, “Scheiße!”
    There was a pause, and then Dolores said, “I already knew that one.” Dean high-fived her again.
    Elsa didn’t make an immediate appearance. I wondered how upset she was. Finally Gabby stepped out into the hallway. “Come on, Elsa. Let us see.”
    “No photographs!” came her voice.
    “Of course not,” Gabby said in a singsong voice. “We promise .” She poked her head back in. “Lots of pictures,” she whispered. “Lots.” She looked at me. “It’s a good one, isn’t it?”
    “I may have gone too far. You would have laughed.”
    “Ooh, even better,” Gabby said.
    I heard Elsa’s voice from somewhat closer. “Gabby, get back in there. You do not get to see any sooner than anyone else.”
    “Of course, my love,” Gabby said sweetly. She rejoined us in the living room. “Hide your phones,” she muttered to us. “She’s going to peek at us, I just know it.”
    And sure enough, Elsa’s head appeared around the corner a few moments later. We couldn’t see the rest of her, just her head. She eyed us all carefully, but everyone had hid her phone. She took a deep breath and stepped fully into the room.
    She was wearing a tight, cropped tee shirt. She had changed into it properly, taking off her other shirt, which actually showed she was being cool about it. It was green, and across the chest it said, “Kiss Me! I’m Irish!”
    There was a pause, and then nearly everyone began laughing. Elsa immediately colored, but she stood there and let us look. And then the phones came out, and she shrieked, but she didn’t run as everyone began taking pictures.
    Gabby waited a moment then stalked closer to her girlfriend. “Irish, hmm?” She pulled Elsa into her arms and gave her what looked like a soul-wrenching kiss. Elsa didn’t care for PDA, and so she looked even more flustered when the kiss was over. A few phones caught the kiss.
    Gabby stepped back. “Well,” she said. “You all see the shirt. Don’t you people follow directions?”
    “Gabriella!” Elsa protested.
    It was Dean who stepped forward first. He grabbed Elsa by the arms and pulled her close, but then he paused. Dean was, deep down, a good guy, and he wouldn’t actually kiss an unwilling woman. And so it was Elsa who put a hand on the back of his neck and accepted the kiss.
    After that, Elsa got passed around. She blushed the entire time, but she got kissed by all her friends, a lthough Frank and Patty’s kisses were upon her cheek, and then Patty’s kiss included a hug.
    I got her second to last. I exchanged a brief, very chaste kiss with her, but Gabby scoffed. “What the hell was that, Sid?”
    Again, it was Elsa who took charge. She pulled me into a better kiss, and she was a really, really good kisser. I’d never kissed her before, and it was a little weird at the same time. Then Elsa stepped away and turned to Dolores.
    “Well, Straight Girl,” said Gabby. “What are you going to do?”
    “Leave her alone, Gabriella,” Elsa said. She only