“Damn, never?” From Luke’s wide eyes, that’s a sin. “You can’t have a kir for your first time. It’s lovely, but you need to try it neat.”

“Well, I’ve had cava, and prosecco.”

Luke looks like he could cry. “You’re breaking my heart, girl.”

He grabs a crystal flute with a delicate design from under the bar and fills it before sliding the drink to me. I set down my half-finished martini to try it.

It occurs to me he gave the girls their drinks in plain glasses.

“Hey, I’ve had Champagne, but not from a fancy expensive brand. I’ve seen this one around, it’s like, twice the price of the one my mom gets. Can I have some, too?”

Lily is also given a pretty glass.

“It’s the best the wyverns keep on hand, chilled,” Keller says. “They have a few nicer bottles in the cellar, but nothing like what we keep in the vesper tower. If you like it, we’ll have to expand your palate someday.”

I dip my lips into my drink. “Oh, fuck.”

“A four-letter word, huh?” Keller smirks. “Somehow, I actually didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”

I pout. “I’m not a prude.”

Except I kind of am. But not out of choice; I’ve just been raised in a way that doesn’t allow for most kids’ usual activities—booze, parties, that kind of thing. My grandmother was very against it. She constantly compared me to my mother, assuring me that I’d end up like her if I didn’t do what I was supposed to do.

Which is stupid. My mother is doing fine for herself.

Sure, she had a kid early, and let her own mother raise the kid, but she has a good job, friends, a social circle. A lot of things I missed out on myself. Like freedom.

That was one of the reasons I applied to so many out-of-state schools. Get to really see the world, out of my grandmother’s judgmental gaze. And here I am, drinking expensive Champagne from a fancy flute.

“I don’t want to ever drink anything else,” I gush.

“Not even your cocktail?” Keller teases.

I amend my statement to, “I only want to drink what Luke serves.”

“Luke better serve some water eventually, then,” Lily teases me.

Watching Luke work on our cocktail is fascinating. It’s so good, I make myself observe him to remember how to make it. But after one porn star martini and half a flute of Champagne, I’m already a little tipsy. I really have to slow down.

“So, Keller,” Lily says. “How come you get priority over everyone waiting around? No one really seems to mind.”

“Seniority,” he replies with a shrug. “And hierarchy, as a general rule. If my cousins were waiting, they would have been served first.”