Page 28 of Just Say (Hell) No
He smiled himself. Reluctantly. “Didn’t sound good, eh.”
“What?” Ella asked.
“It sounded,” Marko told her, “like you were saying that I was responsible for your pregnancy. You may want to be careful with that.”
“Oh. You mean— Oh. Whoa. No. Itoldyou,” she said to Nyree.
“That he’s old,” Nyree said. “And dull. And your cousin. Yes. You did. So tell me when you came.”
“Thursday.”
“This Thursday? The day I photographed you?” Nyree asked Marko. “You got a cat and a cousin on the same day?”
“It’s been quite a week,” he said. “Played a rugby match as well. I’m throwing that out there in desperation. I feel I could be coming off as more of a hard man here.”
“Why?” Ella asked. “She has to know you’re an All Black.Everybodyknows you’re an All Black. That’s why everybody’s been taking photos of you since we sat down. And it’s all good,” she told Nyree, “except that he doesn’t have any furniture. I came with him because we were meant to be going to Sylvia Park after. Can’t go straight away anymore, I guess, because of the car keys.”
“I could take you,” Nyree said. “As long as I drop off the dog at home first. I live quite close to Sylvia Park, and I don’t have to be at work until four. I can spare an hour or two. Shop, then take you home, as long as you don’t live up the North Shore or on the dark side of the moon.”
Ella opened her mouth, but Marko said quickly, “That’d be brilliant.” He finished his last bite of sausage and egg and said, “Whenever you’re ready.”
“Oh,” Ella said, then, to Nyree, “Really? You’d come shopping? That would be so much better than going alone with Marko. He’s hopeless as.”
“Oi,” the man himself objected.
“You are,” Ella insisted. “You know you are.” Sounding a little giddy now that her secret was out there, and who could blame her?
Marko sighed. “Because I pointed outoneduvet cover. As a suggestion.”
“But the one you wanted was brown,” Ella said. “Iknowit’s your money. I know I should be grateful and all that. Iamgrateful. I just said maybe it could not be ugly.”
“Brown’s not ugly,” he said. “It’s neutral. Goes with everything. Doesn’t show the dirt.”
“See?” Ella asked Nyree.
“Well, yeh,” she said. “I do. Life’s too short for brown.” She finished her own coffee, which she may have been nursing a tiny bit, because she also may have been looking at Marko. “Let’s go.”
Nyree didn’t walk any faster than she ran, Marko found. They were meant to be going to her car, but she stopped to look at the notices in the realtors’ window and pointed out a pretty house. When they walked past the ice-cream shop, she asked Ella which flavor was her favorite. When a couple who had to be in their eighties passed them, because, yes, they were walking faster, she said, “I need a big hat like that. Good for sun.” When she stopped to let the dog sniff around the curb, Marko said, “Are we going to get there anytime soon, d’you think, or should I duck into a café for extra supplies?”
Was she fussed? She was not. She smiled at him and said, “Why? Are you in a hurry? We’re at the beach. We’re relaxing.”
“We’re walking to the car.”
“Exactly. Which is a lovely moment on a lovely day. People travel from all over the world to walk along a pavement like this and look at a view like this. You’ve missed it all this time, living in Dunedin, but today, you have it. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Dunedin has beaches.”
She made a sound somewhere between a cough and a snort. “Yeh. And the water’s ten degrees, too. You know what they call the day when you can wear shorts with your thick woolly jumper in Dunedin? Summer.”
“Sounds like you know.”
“Because I do. And look, here we are. We made it, see? Relaxing walk and all. You could’ve jogged instead. It would’ve saved you five minutes. How would you have used them instead of walking with Ella and Shadow and me looking at the sea?”
She had a point. Maybe. She also had a VW Beetle. As he now remembered.
“And I saw you wince,” she told Marko, giving a tug to the little car’s door to open it, because, naturally, it was sticky. “I happen to know that a man taller than you fits in this car, if he squashes up. But if it’s too small for you, feel free to ring for a taxi. Oh, wait. You can’t. Your phone’s in your car.”
“I did not wince,” he said as she shoved his seat forward to get access to the back seat. She started to put the dog into her crate, which involved getting on one knee and climbing in, and if he wasn’t supposed to look at her… well, he failed. She fastened the latch, climbed back out again, and tugged her skirt down and her neckline up, and he watched her do both.
