If everything else went wrong, at least River loved his new job. And today, he loved his friends more than usual, which was a tall order.

He looked up from studying the cash register behind the counter only to spot Dixie, whose nickname had become Delta after an embarrassingly well-known incident with an Air Force officer in the dark room, and Anna, who was the sweet young Andy. Neither of them were in drag, and they were heading straight for the store.

As they came in, he ducked out from behind the register to welcome them. “Hey, guys. What’s up? I mean, how can I help you?”

“We heard about the new job and wanted to support you,” Andy told him, grinning.

“And,” Delta added, “maybe try the new eyeshadow range…”

“Ohhh my God,” River gasped. “You haven’t yet? It’s incredible! It layers really well, and you can blend it for—oh my God, let me show you.”

He was happy as anything to let them swatch the new shades on their skin, and when he got them into his makeup chair one at a time, showed them two of his favorite new looks with it.

Far from what a small part of him had feared, the sight of three guys clustered around the makeup counter didn’t scare off the other customers. Instead, many of the women shopping as well as his own coworkers didn’t bat an eye, and others were curious or amused.

Yeah, that was it. This job was officially cool.

“So we heard that a certain Zephyr showed up at your door,” Andy teased. He was leaning on the counter while River worked on Delta, trying to persuade him to buy the full set since he knew Delta had the money for it and could seriously use some pro-grade stuff.

“Ugh, you bunch of gossips,” River giggled. “Yeah.”

“And?” Delta asked, peeking through one lid. River flicked his shoulder and he closed it again.

“And,” River sighed, “he wanted to give me self-defense lessons, I’m sure they told you that, too.”

“And they said you pretty much shoved him out the door again.” When River cast him a startled glance, Andy pretended to zip his lips.

River couldn’t blame them. Of course his relationship woes—if it could even be called that—were the talk of the scene. He so rarely had anything even resembling a relationship. Which was half the problem here, really, and the reason this hurt so much.

He distracted himself by standing back. “Mmhmm. So he showed up at the bar and apologized and explained he wasn’t ready for a relationship and left, so, you know. Whatever.” He stood back and waved a hand at Delta. “And?”

Andy whistled lowly. “I can’t believe that blended together so well. How?” Being pretty new to the scene, Andy was still learning a lot from River, and he’d been watching the whole time. “Was that really because of the… makeup? Or is it the artist?”

“Little of this, little of that,” River teased. “But you’ll notice a lot better blending with the good stuff. It’s not all brand name, though. I’m happy with everything from this brand—”

“Of course,” Delta teased.

“Of course,” River echoed, winking, “but other brands have some good lines and other really bad ones. They’ll put out some limited-edition stuff that flakes right off your skin, or gets in your eyes, or doesn’t blend with even their own stuff, let alone other people’s.”

“Oh,” Andy murmured, then glanced at Delta. “So you’re thinking of the full palette?” He glanced at the price tag on the display nearby and winced.

“You can start with a few base colors of the permanent line,” River assured him. “Get four or six staple colors you use a lot. A few of these new ones are so flashy you’d only use them rarely.”

“Or as your everyday grocery shopping shade, in your case,” Delta teased, and River pretended to push his cheek away until he pushed him off the makeup stool. “Don’t maul your customers! I’m going for the palette.”

“You are?” River gasped teasingly as he plucked one off the display. “You’ll love it.”

“I already planned to buy it. I just wanted to see your spiel. You’re very good at it,” Delta winked.

River rolled his eyes at his friend. “Jerk. Away with you.”

“No, but… back to Zeph,” Andy pressed as he wiped the eyeshadow off with cleanser.

“What about him?”

“You gotta take those lessons. Maybe even try for more, because… I know I don’t know you that well yet,” Andy quickly added, “but you guys were great together, you know? You seemed really sweet on each other. But at the very least, he wants you to be safe.”

“And if you don’t get in touch, we will,” Delta added, snatching the palette from him and flicking his chest. “So shape up.”

River blinked at Delta now. “What?”

“Even if you don’t want to learn it, we do,” Andy told him as he picked out shades of eyeshadow to buy. “We’ve been talking about it. I mean, like, Glam’s done some boxing… some of us did martial arts as kids or whatever… but it wouldn’t hurt any of us to learn more.”

River took them both up to the register so one of his coworkers could ring them in and credit him with the sale. “Maybe. Thanks for dropping by, guys.”

“Thanks for the tips. I can’t wait to play with this,” Delta told him with a grin.

After they left, River turned more thoughtful, even as he moved from customer to customer and offered help.

Kyle and RB, despite giving Zeph the cold shoulder the other day, hadn’t really commented on his decision to turn down the lessons. That made him suspect that they agreed with Delta and Andy.

And as much as he hated to admit it, River would be outmatched in a fair fight without the advantage of being in his doorway, and easily outmatched in an unfair fight. The creepy asshole had already shown that fair wasn’t the way he played.

Maybe they were right, and he needed to learn to accept help. He’d done so for ten days in Vegas and, in the process, he’d stumbled on one of the best things he’d almost had.

It hurt to think about never being that close to Zeph again, but maybe this was Zeph’s way of testing the waters between them, too. He seemed to want it as much as he didn’t.

And River needed help. Just once in a while, he could let Zeph, of all people, help him.