Chapter 15
The weeks started to feel like a marathon as they counted down to their audition.
Between practicing, faire days, and the extra lessons Sunnie was giving her, Chicot felt like her head was constantly spinning.
Her and Elijah also reworked their blocking, which might have given them away to Lyza, Elvis, and Monty.
However, the three of them didn’t say anything about it as they watched Elijah and Chicot practice during their usual time at the gym.
They swapped their bit with the tack for simply having Chicot not tie off the balloon, reducing the failure rate of the trick.
Plus, it was almost more humorous when Chicot simply let the balloon go and it flew around as it lost air.
Chicot took apart her mask, refining the mechanism that allowed her to blow up the balloons, making it easier for her to get it out of the way so she could also use a slide whistle during the show.
The first time they did this in practice, Monty and Lyza laughed so hard that they were both crying.
Elijah took this as encouragement to push it further, making the jokes sharper, having Chicot pantomime more, and even toying with the idea of Chicot stealing Elijah’s lute at one point.
Chicot nixed that idea, since she couldn’t play it at all with gloves on.
They renamed their act for Pennsylvania, going from The Jester and The Bard, Forever at Odds to Court Jester Chicot’s House Rules.
This had been born from new lines they had added to the introduction where Elijah implied he was a new court bard learning the rules from a jester who didn’t speak.
Elijah also said it was snappier and more marketable, and Chicot simply went along with it.
He knew better than her on this sort of thing anyway.
When she wasn’t working with Elijah, Chicot was either at the faire or with Monty.
She thought it would be difficult not to tell Monty about the audition.
But to Chicot’s surprise, Monty made it easy.
She did it by finding times to set Chicot ablaze whenever she could.
Monty had gotten good at targeting the small things that sent Chicot into a feverish series of daydreams about Monty’s hands or tongue or teeth.
The worst part was that she backed it up with moments when they were alone, taking Chicot apart whenever they found the time.
Chicot welcomed the distraction. When she wasn’t practicing or working, she was thinking about the audition, and her mind found infinite ways she could mess up the whole show.
If she lingered on this too long, she started to panic, and Monty was an incredibly good at getting Chicot out of her head.
Monty seemed to pick up on this, checking in on Chicot when she could without necessarily asking what was going on.
Other times, Monty simply provided a diversion.
Like when Monty squeezed Chicot’s thigh just right while they were on their meal break before she left to go back to advertising The Pirates Three.
Chicot was at least able to linger on the way Monty was going to press Chicot into the mattress later instead of her audition stress.
They were managing to mostly fly under Lyza and Elvis’s radar, even as they got bolder about finding places to tuck away and make out.
On off days, they’d go into the town center together for coffee and it often devolved into them finding a secluded spot to park Monty’s car so they could be alone.
That was the only time it was hard not to mention the audition, because Chicot wanted so badly to see how excited Monty got when she found out she might get to be at Pennsylvania with her.
The only thing that stopped Chicot was the fear that Monty wouldn’t be excited about it, and if that was the case, Chicot would be better off finding out after their audition. For now, she needed to focus.
“Hey.” Monty ran her fingers through Chicot’s hair and then grabbed her chin, tipping it up to get her to look at her. It made Chicot shiver. They were in the back of Monty’s car, the sun slowly fading behind them as they chatted about books they’d read.
“Yeah?” Chicot tilted her head forward, kissing Monty’s fingers since they were there.
“Do you know if you’ll be getting a phone before the end of the season here at Albion?” Monty asked. Chicot froze, her fingers ghosting over the fabric of the back seat, trying to find something to hold onto.
“Um, I’m not really sure,” Chicot said. “Why?”
Monty shrugged. “I was just thinking about it.”
Chicot raised an eyebrow at her, but Monty smiled, tipping Chicot’s chin up again and kissing her, all thoughts leaving Chicot’s head.
When Monty pulled away, she grinned at Chicot, her fingers trailing over Chicot’s jawbone, something she did quite often.
It was small, subtle, the tilt of her fingers until they reached Chicot’s ear, but it was comforting.
Like Monty wrapping Chicot in a blanket or putting an arm around her.
“Brewhilda really fumbled the ball.” Chicot’s brain hadn’t caught up with her mouth, her words spilling out without a real thought behind them. Monty’s eyebrow arched at her, one corner of her mouth tilting up.
“Because you’re going to steal her spot at every ren faire east of the Mississippi?” Monty asked. Chicot’s cheeks burnt. She hadn’t realized people had been talking about that comment.
“N-No,” Chicot said. “I meant with you. Sorry, that was probably weird.”
Monty blinked at her, face slowly growing rosy as she stared at Chicot.
Then she laughed, her hand covering her mouth as she bent into Chicot’s space, her hair brushing Chicot’s chin as she snaked an arm around Chicot’s middle.
Chicot laughed with her, meeting the kiss that followed as she let Monty press her back into the seat of her car.
“I hope you really do take every single one of Tegan’s spots,” Monty whispered. “You and Elijah work so much harder, and you deserve it so much more.”
Chicot blinked. “Who is Tegan?”
Monty blinked at Chicot. “That’s Brewhilda’s real name.”
“Oh!” Chicot laughed. “Fuck. I mean, I barely recognized her out of costume, so you can’t expect me to know that.”
Monty tilted her head to the side, her mouth opening and closing as she got one of those narrow-eyed looks that Chicot had become so used to. Her fingers ran absently over Chicot’s arm.
“She doesn’t wear a mask or anything though.” Monty’s voice lilted up at the end like she was asking a question, but she’d definitely only made a statement. “Just heavy makeup.”
Chicot let out an awkward chuckle. It was probably better if Monty knew about this anyway.
“It’s a little embarrassing, but I’m not very good with faces.
I usually recognize people by their hair or how they dress.
Save for people I’ve spent a lot of time with.
I’m getting there with you and Lyza and Elvis …
but if I saw you in a crowd or far away … ”
Monty considered that for a moment, her eyes distant.
“Is that why you always seem to look at my clothes first?” Monty asked. Chicot rubbed the back of her head and nodded.
“Yeah,” Chicot admitted. “But also, you dress cute and you almost always have that lil plush bunny charm from your car keys hanging out of your pocket. It makes it easier.”
“Well.” Monty’s speech was slow, like she was thinking as she spoke. “Then I’ll make sure you can see it. If I’m approaching you from far away.”
Chicot’s thoughts scattered, racing as she smiled wide at Monty.
Besides Elijah, no one had ever been so quick to make this easy for Chicot.
They usually expected her to get better on her own, to stop being confused that they were yelling at her from across the playground or football field.
But Monty wanted to help her. She wanted to make sure Chicot could always pick her out of a crowd.
That made Chicot’s belly flip, a shiver running from the very pit of her stomach all the way up to the top of her head as she processed that Monty wanted Chicot to be able to always see her.
“Is that okay?” Monty asked, drawing Chicot out of her thoughts.
She hadn’t realized how long she’d been quiet, her grin now splitting her face as she leaned up to pull Monty into another kiss, the two of them devolving into the heat, the windows of the car fogging as Chicot found herself enveloped in Monty’s warmth and soft skin.
“It’s more than okay,” Chicot told her, licking her lips and thinking of the bonfire. “You know, we never did get to finish that night cap.”
Monty’s brow raised, her arms bracketing Chicot in on either side. “I wasn’t sure if I should mention that Elvis and Lyza are going to be staying in Milwaukee tonight …”
“Maybe we should head back then?” Chicot’s eyes raised, lidded as they lingered on Monty’s lips. Her legs shifted, falling farther open for her. “It’ll be dark, so no one else will probably notice us.”
“What, like we’re teens hiding from our parents?” Monty giggled, leaning toward Chicot as she caught her lips in a sweet kiss. Chicot chuckled.
“No, from nosy neighbors,” Chicot quipped. Monty grinned.
“Then let’s give the sun a few more minutes to go down.” Monty kissed Chicot’s collarbone. “And then we’ll leave.”
Chicot grinned, tipping her head back to give Monty more space. They couldn’t really do anything here, so she just had to be patient. It was harder than Chicot expected to keep her hands from sliding somewhere they shouldn’t just yet or trying to get between Monty’s legs right there.
They were both rumpled by the time they moved back into the front, Monty in the driver’s seat as they sped back to the dog park. She had her hand on Chicot’s thigh the whole way, a shiver going through her whenever Monty squeezed.