Page 22 of Geoffrey the Very Strange
Geoffrey had included this in his contingencies, but still struggled to blurt out, "Could I wait, Mrs. Pickle? Please?"
After a bit of a thinking snuffle, she pointed to his hat. "Beetles stay in the garden. You may wait there." She pointed to the garden bench. "Or there." Then to the bench in her front hall.
"Yes'm," Geoffrey murmured. It would have less of an ambush feeling if he waited outside, wouldn't it? Less intrusive? "I'll wait out here."
With a few extra snuffles, Mrs. Pickle shut the door, taking the warm lamplight from inside the house with her. Geoffrey's loneliness spiked, but only until his anxious thoughts returned. He wasn't alone in the garden, of course. The crickets and katydids talked over each other. A frog called from somewhere in the vegetable patch. Occasional sleepybukscame from the chicken coop. So similar to Grandma's garden. Maybe, Geoffrey thought, Mrs. Pickle was a hedgehogfolk garden witch. He'd never considered that before.
The night was warm enough, and Geoffrey sat on the bench with his hat beside him, watching the half moon and the spring breeze play with shadows among the leaves. A waiting peace settled over him. He could do this.
His firm resolve shattered when multiple voices drifted down the street. As they approached, the voices resolved to four—Aspic, yes, but nearly all of Mrs. Pickles other lodgers as well, chatting and laughing together.
Gods. He's with friends. They're all going to see me waiting here like some pitiful supplicant. No, no, no…
Geoffrey nearly fled into the night. The only thing stopping him was that all of the people with Aspic,includingAspic, had night-adapted eyes, and Geoffrey fleeing the scene would bemorenotable than Geoffrey sitting like an enchanted statue on the garden bench.
He picked up his hat. Set it back down. Straightened his coat. Finally, he stood so it wouldn't seem as if he'd been lurking in the shadows. Which he had been, of course, but…Gods.
The group stopped in a bunch when they spotted him.
"Hello, Geoffrey," Aspic offered in a cautious tone.
The tallest one, the tengu, Ishi, shooed the others in front of him. Timms looked back several times, but the shooing was successful, and Ishi shut the door behind the three of them, leaving Aspic alone on the garden path with Geoffrey. Geoffrey cleared his throat, but Aspic spoke first.
"I have something to say to you." There was something both determined and sad in his tone that made Geoffrey's heart ache. "I'm not an experiment. I'm not an object to satisfy anyone's curiosity, even though people have sometimes treated me that way. Things are different here, and I'm never going back to living like that."
Geoffrey's first attempt at speech sounded more like a sob. He held up a hand for patience, and Aspic stayed where he was, granting him time.Small words. Slowly. You can do this. "I know. Aspic, I know. I'm so sorry. What I said…" He breathed in. Out. "I'm sorry I said it was just curios.Crap. Curiosity."
"Wasn't it, then?" Aspic's voice softened, and now the danger was that if he offered any sympathy, any pity, Geoffrey would burst into tears.
"I was. Curious." Geoffrey patted the air with both hands when Aspic backed a step. "But not because… It wasyou. All you. I didn'twantto think about kerning you.Kissingyou. But I had been. Thinking about you. A lot. I…"
Aspic moved closer again, his head tipped to one side. "You?"
"I think you're beatific." Geoffrey shook his head in frustration. "Beautiful. Interesting. Patient. Kind."
"Then why did you say what you said?"
"Panache.Panic. Simple, sheer panic. I thought you were… you were…"
"You thought I was rejecting your offer." Aspic reached out and took Geoffrey's hand with such care it made him tremble. "So you rejected me first."
"Yes." Geoffrey's voice sank to a hoarse whisper. Shame flooded him at still being so transparent, so naïve. "I'm so sorry."
"I'm not going to say it's all right, because it hurt. I felt stupid that I'd expected differently from you, and it clawed up all sorts of pain from other places." Aspic took a step closer and caught Geoffrey's other hand. "But now at least I understand what happened. And I accept your apology."
Geoffrey held on tight as if he might fall or disintegrate otherwise. "You do? Why?"
"I bet you drove your grandmother to conniptions asking that when you were small." Aspic smiled, finally, like sun breaking through storm clouds. "I've been thinking about you, too. A lot. I also think you're interesting. And handsome. And gods help me, I want you, even though I tried to tell myself I didn't. I was comfortable enough with you sitting on the floor of your cave to tell my life's story, and believe me,thathasn't happened before."
"It hasn't?" Geoffrey gazed up into bright yellow eyes. "Aspic. No one's everattractedto me."
"Oh. Well. Now you're saying I'm no one."
Geoffrey sputtered and finally stammered out, "I didn't… I wasn't…"
"Teasing, Geoffrey. Sorry." Aspic sighed. "We're not to the teasing point yet. Would you like to come upstairs?"
Panic slammed back into Geoffrey, and he felt himself pulling away.
