Page 128 of A Fae in Finance
I gripped the counter, reminding myself that I loved her dearly, as she asked people for their tea preferences.
“What is tea?” Gaheris asked, and I pressed my forehead to an upper cabinet.
“Leaf water,” Sahir said, before my mom could answer. “We would appreciate three peppermint tisanes, if you have them,” he added.
My mom came back in and started putting tea bags into mugs. “He’s hotandbossy,” she reported, still at full volume. My soul slithered down to my feet.
Nobody spoke in the living room.
The kettle clicked off, and I started pouring cups of tea. My mom took two cups out into the living room. “Here we are,” she said. “Miri’s knight, will you go help Miri with the rest of them?”
I set the empty kettle back on its stand and stared into the darkening depths of a teacup. Sahir slid up behind me, so quiet that I only noticed his presence when his arm appeared beside mine. He bent to whisper conspiratorially in my ear, caging me in against the counter. “Does your mother speak truly? Do you think I am…hot?” he whispered, so softly I could barely hear him.
“I hope a bird nests in you,” I muttered, and he burst out laughing.
“Here’s the tea,” I said, gesturing. He gathered all four cups of tea by unraveling his left hand until the vines of his fingers and palm lay flat in the approximation of a wide tray.
I didn’t really want to hear what my mom would say about that, but I followed him back out.
My mom had given Gaheris the first cup of tea and taken the other.
“Nifty,” my dad grunted, taking a cup of tea off Sahir’s hand-tray. Lene took the second, and Sahir brought the last two to our couch. I sat down as close to the edge as I could, and then he plopped in the middle, pressing his thigh firmly against mine.
Another immeasurable silence descended. My stomach joined my soul in the bottoms of my feet. My brain remained unfortunately alert.
Before anyone could muster up the courage to speak, we heard my grandma coming down the hallway from her bedroom. She shuffled to a stop next to the TV and stared at all of us, sitting in a tableau in her living room.
“Who are you?” she asked the general populace. Grandma had lost much of her sight several years before, and much of her memory as well.
“I’m Gaheris,” Gaheris said cheerfully. Grandma stared at him, clearly attempting to process that his head was on fire.
“Grandma,” I said, standing and putting the teacup down on the table. “It’s me, Miri. I brought some friends.” I crossed the room and put my arms around her.
“Miri?” she repeated, then buried her face in my shoulder. “Oh, Miri. I missed you.” She put her arms around me and pulled me in close, an enveloping familiar vetiver-scented warmth that eased the knot in my throat.
“Here, why don’t you sit down, and you can have my tea?” I offered, bringing her to the couch. When Sahir didn’t move in either direction, I put her on his other side and handed her my mug.
I sat down next to Sahir and pulled my knees as far into the arm of the couch as I could.
Grandma looked over at Sahir and then reached out and touched his face. “Who are you?” she asked.
“I am Sahir,” he said gallantly. “It is lovely to meet you, mother of Miriam’s mother.”
Had Sahir…learned manners?
“You’re very handsome,” Grandma said, rubbing his cheek with absolutely no shame. Apparently, in addition to faerie blood, tact in the face of attractive men had been passed down through my mother’s side of the family.
“I appreciate the compliment. You are beautiful as well, like your daughter and granddaughter.” I could hear my dad snort.
I tried once more to spontaneously combust but hadn’t developed the ability in the past ten minutes.
My mom cleared her throat. “This is a lovely surprise, but how are you here?”
I cleared my throat, too. “Well…” I reviewed the events of the last forty-eight hours and tried to construct a summary that downplayed how much danger I’d faced.
“She escaped,” my dad said, without clearing his throat first.
“That doesn’t explainhow,” my mom said, and her jaw set. My dad and I looked at each other; she was gearing up for aninterrogation.
