Page 58 of Just Say (Hell) No
“You make food like this,” she told him twenty ravenous minutes later, when they were gnawing on bones, “and then you eat it on a chrome stool off round white plates set on your marble breakfast bar in your white kitchen. Pure negative space. It’s like…” She waved a denuded chop in the air. “Hanging a Van Gogh in a museum.”
“Which is what people do,” Marko said. “And we aren’t eating in the kitchen, thanks to you. Cheers for comparing my cooking to a Van Gogh, though.”
“Yes,” Nyree said, “but they both deserve a more interesting setting.”
“Mm,” he said, his iron-dark eyes lit up by something much more like humor than animal lust. “So you know—I’ve been waiting for this moment since the first night. If there’d been a betting pool, I would’ve lost. Surprising restraint.”
“What?” Ella said. “Nyreesaidyour stew was awesome. I remember.”
“The white dishes,” Marko said. “Life’s too short for brownandwhite, apparently.”
“Well,” Nyree said, “color’s good, that’s all. Or at least contrast. People are afraid of it. They think they won’t know how to match. You don’thaveto match. That’s the point. Do you mind if I put a regular table in here while you’re gone?”
“Let me guess,” he said. “TradeMe.”
“Possibly,” she said. “So much cheaper. You could give me the money for the Android World one you’d buy, though, if you’d rather. I can get the TradeMe tableandset up my narcotics business, and you’ll never know the difference. Paying retail for furniture is mad.”
“If Ella’s going to be pregnant with twins,” he said, “I reckon you’d better find us a table and some chairs. Otherwise, she’s going to sit on the floor at some point and not be able to get up again. If I’m not here to haul her to her feet, you could be calling the ambos.”
“Ha, ha,” Ella said, gnawing at her own chop. “You’re supposed to be being supportive, Marko. Except that it’s true. Caro and I were looking at some websites about twin pregnancy, and your belly gets freakingenormous.I’ll be like St. Heliers School’s very own cautionary tale. And I mean nextmonth.Maybe I could go around with them when they’re showing how condoms work. They could give me a couple of free extra-extra-large uniform blouses for doing it. Ha. Joke.”
“How’s that been, then?” Marko asked. “School?” Nyree had to admire how casually he brought it up, seeing that Ella hadn’t said a word about it before now.
Ella shrugged. “Oh, you know. A bit embarrassing. I’ve had two Year 13 girls joining me for lunch every day like they’re protecting me from being ostracized or something.Obviouslysent by the head, since one of them’s Head Girl, which isn’t humiliating much at all. There I was the first day, minding my own business and doing my Maths homework, when they sat down and started to chat like it was their job. They keepdoingit, too. I’m like, I’ll just focus on these quadratic equations, OK? Then there’s the P.E. teacher checking in like she’s envisioning me fainting dramatically during netball. That’s not embarrassing, either.”
“Ugh,” Nyree said. “When I was in school, I just wanted nobody to notice me.”
“Exactly,”Ella said, sitting up straighter. “At my school before, I knew everybody for yonks, since kindy, mostly, and I was justme.And here I’m like…new.Andpregnant.Like…” She threw both hands in the air and made a noise like a bomb exploding.
Nyree was laughing. “I shouldn’t. I know it’s awful. But I started a new school myself when I was fourteen. I wasn’t pregnant, but I’d probably have thought that would be better, that at least I’d beinteresting.I either wanted to be interesting, or anonymous. Depending on the day.”
“Really?” Ella said. “But you’re pretty.”
“Ha,” Nyree said. “Not so much. Especially when everybody seemed to be blonde and tall and I was Maori and short and—well, yeh, pretty chubby. Unibrow. Hair. Spectacles. Braces. Et cetera.” Ella made a face, and Nyree was laughing some more. “Oh, it was terrible. I’ll show you photos sometime. I saw that filmCarrieand thought, that’s going to be me. That’ll be my documentary. I’m going to get asked to the dance by the cute boy as a cruel prank and have pig blood dropped on me in front of the whole school, then drown in a pit of shame. OverEmoters Anonymous, eh.”
Ella said, “You’re joking. Really? Pig blood?”
“You never saw it? We’re going to have to find it and watch it. It’s awesome. At the end… but I’m not going to tell you. Best girl revenge film ever, though, that’s all.”
“Mean Girls,”Ella said.
“Better thanMean Girls.I promise.” Nyree looked at Marko’s face and had to laugh some more. “We’ll do it while you’re gone, Marko, no worries. But Ipromise,Ella, when it’s over, you’ll be able to say, ‘As long as there’s no pig blood, I can do this.’ Or, alternatively, you’ll imagine the ending.Immenselysatisfying. If all else fails, Marko can pop by and give them the stare that melts steel.”
“I could,” Marko said. “And I would. Say the word.”
Tuesday morning on the way to the airport, and Marko was telling Nyree, who was wearing a clingy tie-dyed T-shirt that he was having trouble not staring at, “You’re being surprisingly restrained. I’m not even gripping my armrest. You’re not fooling me, though. You’ll drop me at that curb, and it’ll be Formula One all the way home.”
“They have speed cameras on this stretch of motorway,” she said. “If you’d done that background check like you should have, you’d know how I know that. You’d know that I’ve never had an accident, too. You could’ve enjoyed being horrified and then being reassured. Like riding the roller coaster, eh.”
“What d’you think I am, an accountant? Could be I have enough excitement in my life. Or could be that I don’t, but this isn’t the kind I need.”
“Fortunate, then,” she said sweetly, “that I’m being so careful with your new car. Though you could hardly blame me. Why do you think they named it like they did? It’s not a Ford Stay-In-Your-Lane, it’s a FordEscape.And if you didn’t want me to test it, maybe you shouldn’t have got the one with the turbocharged V-6. Just asking for trouble, weren’t you.”
He should be frowning at her. He couldn’t quite manage it. If only she weren’t so bloodycute.And if only her body didn’t always seem to be reeling him in. Which was pointless, seeing as she didn’t want him. And seeing as she wasn’t his type anyway.
He could like her. He didn’t have to think of her when he was alone at night. For now, he could keep it light. Flirtation-free. “I’ve gathered that, no worries. I’m only leaving it with you because I value yours and Ella’s safety. Five-star crash rating on this thing. It could also be because otherwise, you’ll be putting that TradeMe table on the roof of your Beetle. And the chairs hanging out the windows.”
“I told you. No accidents. And how do you know I don’t have a mate with a trailer?”
