Page 23 of Twisted Little Thing

CHAPTER IX

Nicky

Much to my surprise, I fall asleep within just a few moments of resting my tired head on the pillow. I am woken up by Yuka's characteristic door slamming when she returns from her brunch date. I really like her, but consideration and thoughtfulness toward her roommate are truly not her strong suits.

Though she is a tiny person, she manages to trample through the place like an elephant, making enough noise for three people, slamming doors and constantly causing things to fall off the shelves.

The good thing about her noisiness is that I always know where she is. It is easy to trace her steps through the apartment just by listening. She first heads for her room, probably to change clothes, which is always the first thing she does when she comes home. She has a certain pair of bright yellow sweatpants that she always wears at home – and only at home. I have never seen her lounging around in anything else, usually accompanied by a headband in a similar color to keep her thick, wild hair out of her face.

I stretch out in bed for a few more moments until I hear her rummaging around in the kitchen. If she is making tea, I want to be part of that.

And I really need to get this whole Evan thing off my chest.

"Hello sleepy head," Yuka greets me when I stroll into the kitchen. Sure enough, she is wearing her yellow sweatpants and matching headband. And she is making tea.

"Here to sponge some tea?" she asks, as she continues pouring hot water into our red and shabby pot with tea leaves in it.

"Absolutely," I reply. "Please."

I sit down at the table and glance at the magazine that is still lying there next to our sugar bowl and some fruit that Yuka brought home with her.

She places the teapot next to it and then returns to the cupboard to fetch two mugs for us, while I ponder how to tell her about Evan. For now, unrelated chit chat seems to be the easier option, though.

"How was brunch?" I ask as she sits down in the chair opposite to me.

She shrugs. "Meh. Nothing special. The place we went to sucks. Way too expensive for the crappy food and coffee and poor service."

She casts me a naughty smile. "I'd much rather hear about your date last night. You promised!"

"I did...," I say, suddenly feeling under a lot of pressure.

Yuka raises her eyebrows and stares at me expectantly.

I cannot come up with a clever way to phrase it, so I decide to not beat around the bush and just give her the facts straight up.

I grab the magazine in front of me and start browsing through it.

"Um, hello?" she complains. "I don't think you’ll find your hot little adventure in there."

"I wouldn’t say that," I say cryptically.

I open the magazine to the page with the article about Evan and turn the magazine around to present it to her. "There he is."

Yuka's eyes widen and her jaw literally drops as she stares down at the article. She looks back up at me, frowning with disbelief.

"Shut up!" she exclaims. "You spent the night with Evan Beckhart? No way!"

"You know him?" I ask. I am surprised at the way she says his name, as if he really was some kind of famous person. On the other hand, this is her magazine and she has probably read most of the articles a lot more closely than I have.

"D'uh, yeah! Of course I know who he is," she says, rolling her eyes. "Have you read the article? There were quite a few similar articles a couple of years ago, when he was dating Sheila Buffay. That's where I know him from, at least. I assume, if you were following all those Silicon Valley entrepreneur activities more closely, you'd know this."

She pauses and looks down at the picture of Evan again.

"But, of course, that's boring. Lame business people," she adds. "But I'd probably be more into it if they all looked like him. He's hot!"

"Yeah...," I whisper. "Obviously, I agree."

"Are you sure?" Yuka asks. "Are you really sure that's him?"

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