Page 69 of Just Say (Hell) No
“Mate,” Marko said. “I wasn’t the one hiding.”
Everybody was still standing around with no look of leaving, so Marko gave an inward sigh and said, “Come in. Cup of tea.”
“Tom and I brought stuff for sandwiches,” Ella said. “And I’m starved.”
“Thought you went for ice cream,” Marko said. “Three scoops.”
“We did,” Ella said. “And now I’m starved again.”
“Fine,” Marko said. “Groceries. Sandwiches. And a cup of tea.” He told Kane, “If you’re going to report back on where Nyree’s living, I reckon you’d better see it.” He detoured to the bags of groceries in the boot of Kors’s car, then led the others inside.
“Her mum worries,” Kane said from behind him. Which may have been an apology.
“Got it,” Marko said.
Cat had apparently been waiting for him, because the second he was through the door, she was leaping down and trotting after him into the kitchen. Once he put the bags down, he picked her up. Otherwise, she was going to get stepped on, with six rugby-sized feet tramping around.
Kane said, “You have a kitten,” and Marko wondered when he’d mastered the art of stating the blindingly obvious.
“Yeh,” he said. “I have a kitten, your sister’s living with me, and I’m going to kick your arse on Saturday night.”
“You hope,” Kane said.
“No. I know.” Then he got a little distracted. “Wait. What happened in here?” To say his dining room didn’t look the same…
Nyree hadn’t painted the walls this time. That was because the walls were glass. She’d put down some kind of thick mats on the floor, though, and as for the rest of it… he was surprised, that’s all. It was nothing like he’d expected.
Ella saw what he was looking at and said, “Didn’t you notice it when you came in? Nyree fixed it. Isn’t it awesome?”
“Ah… no,” Marko said. “I didn’t come in here.”
“Oh.” Ella was hauling ham and cheese out of the grocery bags and starting to slap together sandwiches. Kors was helping her. Of course he was. “It’s meant to be Japanese,” she told Marko. “She found the mats on TradeMe, and she said we should go with that look, because of the garden and all. I said it was too plain, and she said no, it was serene, and it would be beautiful as a story at night, and you’d like it better than if she painted flowers on the table or painted all the chairs different colors or whatever. She got that rice paper shade for the light, which you have to admit looks better than before. The table and chairs were ugly as, some kind of fake wood, but she painted them all that shiny black and got the cushions that are like mats so they’d go, and so they’d be more comfortable. It’s all bamboo, the cushions and floor mats and all. And the thing in the middle is pussy willows.”
“The thing in the middle” was more elegant than that. An absolutely simple black wooden vase held long, slender branches bearing fuzzy catkins, all of it standing on a bamboo mat in the center of the glossy black table. Softness against hardness, pale against dark. The same way Nyree felt and looked underneath him. Elemental. Satisfying. Right.
He heard the sound of feet coming down the stairs, and Ella hissed at him, “Say something nice. She tried to make it so you’d like it. She tried really hard.”
He heard her, but then Nyree came into the kitchen wearing a turquoise dress that may have been intended to be less suggestive than the red one, but didn’t quite manage it. It had long sleeves and for once, no lacing-up anywhere, so there was that. But it was made of lace and ended barely halfway down her thighs, she’d slung a black leather belt around her hips, and all of it showed off her curves in fairly spectacular fashion. She was wearing little black high-heeled boots with it, too. Black leather, and the white of her skin showing through lace.Oh,yeh.
He wasn’t going to be the only one staring. He knew what he was doing with the rest of his day off, too. Going to a dog wedding.
She was carrying an awkward rectangular parcel wrapped in brown paper, which she set against the wall. “Pookie,” she announced. “Framed.”
Ella said, “Awesome. Can you help Tom finish the sandwiches? I need to take a shower and get dressed.” She cut an enormous sandwich in half and put it on a plate. “And eat.”
Marko said, “If you’re meant to be impressing people today, Nyree, convincing them that they want a dog portrait, would a few rugby boys help? Unless it’s a formal affair, and too late to crash it.” Sounded casual. Non-jealous, too. Bonus.
Kors said, “You’re joking. And we’re still in our warmups.” Except for Kane, who was wearing shorts, a hoodie, and jandals, and needed a haircut. At least Marko was a step above that.
Ella paused halfway out the door. “You never do things like that, Marko.”
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” he said. “Ring her up, Nyree, and see if she’d like us. Jandals and all.”
Nyree did. She went into the other room to do it, then came back and said, “She said yes, of course. In fact, she said, ‘I’m going to ring the mums right now. And send Harold out to buy more champagne and nibbles. They aren’t going to believe it. They’re all going to come now, not just send their kids. This is going to be awesome. And Marko Sendoa? Oh, yum. My very best bad-boy fantasy.’ And so forth. I won’t tell you. Fairly sick-making, and we aren’t even there yet. But wear a T-shirt and give her an extra thrill, will you, Marko? That’ll help. She’ll probably feel your bicep, though. You may be sorry you volunteered.”
“No,” he said, and picked up a sandwich. “I won’t. I look at it this way. Chances of my having to adopt a kitten to impress a girl? Slim to none.”
She had Pookie’s picture in the boot of the Beetle. She had Marko, too. Not in the boot. In the passenger seat. In a T-shirt that showed off his larger-than-life-sized, sculptor-ready arms and chest, as per request.
