Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio

little brat.
    Burke finally realized why everyone was staring at him. He’d bellowed her name with all the rising frustration in him. Unfortunately for her, there was more on the way.
    “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn around, CB.”
    Her head shook violently.
    “Goddamn it, don’t make me come over there!”
    “Go away!”
    It was her all right. She sounded like she had a cold or something. There was some snickering from the crowd of men, all of which made Burke tone it down a degree. No point dragging the whole town into it, even if it was a bit late. He stomped over to her stool and tugged on her shoulder to spin her stool around. It didn’t do much good. CB had her face buried in a towel full of ice.
    “What the hell happened to you?” He tried to pull on the pack, but she was determined to keep it there. Aside from decking her, there was no way to loosen her grip. He turned to Ben on the corner stool.
    The old man shook his head at him, his rheumy, drooping eyes filled with disdain. “Boy, you have all the sensitivity of a bull moose.”
    From the top of his spiky white hair, past his sun-darkened leathery skin and sloping shoulders to his gnarled, arthritic hands, Ben Friedly was about as sensitive as the Boogie Man. “Coming from you, that could be a compliment.”
    “Could be, but it ain’t. She was fine not ten minutes ago, but…she…uh, got some red things on her face.”
    “Red things?”
    “Yeah, red things. Welts or something. May said she was prob’ly allergic to the foundation, but don’t ask me. I ain’t never seen her get sick from the foundation in this place before.” Ben shrugged and reached for a bowl of pretzels. “Before that, those guys were over here knocking each other out trying to get her to dance with them. But when those blister things started showing up…Well, outsiders never did have any class.” Ben patted CB’s knee paternally. “May went to get something for her, but she’s been gone forever.”
    Burke had an unsettling feeling in his stomach. It felt like guilt, but he wasn’t in a rush to name it. Instead, he tapped on the icepack. “Cassie? Honey, let me see. Maybe I can help.”
    “No, you can’t. You know less about make-up than me.”
    “Paint’s paint, Cassie.”
    She said something very CB.
    Burke smiled. If she could call him names, she couldn’t be that bad. “Come on, let me take a look.”
    “You say one mean thing to me, Burke Halifax, and I swear you’ll never have children.”
    “Yeah, yeah, put down the towel.” He waited for another few seconds until she dropped her hands. “Ugh!”
    The ice popped back up and she was calling him worse names than usual. There was a roar of laughter from the men in the crowd at the other side of the bar.
    “Cassie, I’m sorry, hon, you…surprised me is all.” More like scared the crap out of me, but why bring up semantics? “You have to give a guy some warning.”
    “It’s that bad?”
    Burke scratched the back of his head. Truth be told, it was. Dozens of oozing, blistery welts dotted her face from forehead to chin. Even her eyelids and her lips. With all the smeared colors, she looked like lumpy ice cream in the sun.
    “Let me look again.” He didn’t want to look, though. In fact, he’d feel better never to see that again, but she was embarrassed and way the hell over her head. He was her best bet until May Belle came back. Come on, May… “I promise not to say anything if it doesn’t help.”
    CB shrugged and lowered the ice, slowly this time. The welts were still there and a good number more than he realized. As she dragged the towel down, she took the worst of the make-up with it, leaving color smears, yes, but at least her features were still where they were supposed to be.
    Burke breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, this isn’t bad. What we need is a way to get it off. Who put this crap on you anyway?”
    “May Belle.”
    Which meant it was piled on like street