Page 9 of The Love Scam
“He’s not!”
“Yep. Figured.”
“Oh my God.” He clawed his fingers through his wet hair and shivered in the breeze. “Nothing’s gone right since I woke up.”
“You said that already.” Argh. Hateful child.
“Actually, things were going wrong with you last night, and prob’ly earlier,” her companion pointed out with aggravating cheer. She had shrugged out of her light linen jacket and was now holding it out to him. He looked at it, puzzled
(Is she going to wave it at me? Like a bullfighter? It’s not red! What kind of a bullfighter doesn’t know the red rule?)
so she took it back, stepped forward, and started drying his hair with it with the impersonal efficiency of a hairstylist. “That’s what I gathered from what you were saying, anyway.”
“Ack! Okay, this is decent of you and all, but I’m ruining your jacket, seriously.” And yet, doglike, he refused to move. He might have leaned into the jacket a little. It felt soooo nice to have that revolting water wicked from his hair. “You’re literally using your jacket to soak up the shit and germs in my hair.Thankyou.”
“You say,” she sighed, “the sweetest things.”
“Aw,stai zitto.*That means—”
“No need,” she said drily. “I can guess what it means. C’mon, let’s find a new place to sit down.”
“And I’ll get ice cream,” the child announced. “My treat.”
“Right. We’ll get comfy and get ice cream and I’ll tell you what you forgot.”
“Starting with your name.” It finally occurred to him that she’d come to him when she’d recognized his voice, suffered to let him puke on her, stuck with him while he tried to gather his senses, camebackto him after cleaning her weirdly long feet, and allowed the security guard to kick them both out. And all with a small, pale, black-haired child in tow.
She could have taken off at any time. Most people wouldn’t have gone nearanythingthat came out of the canal, much less came out of the canal spitting and swearing and just generallybeing an enormo pain in the ass. Yeah, her constant amusement as he struggled through the worst day of his life was aggravating, and the kid was weirding him out a little, and he was beginning to suspect karmawas,in fact, a bitch. This woman, though, didn’t seem to be one.
Like it or not, he was clueless
(and wouldn’t big brother love to hear him admit that)
and she, at least, had some answers. And not just about him. The kid—what was the backstory there?
“Yeah, your name,” he replied. “I forgot it. Along with everything else.”
“No you didn’t.” She reached out and tucked her hand into his damp paw. “I never told it to you. And you never asked.”
“I’m occasionally an asshole.”
“No, just…” The child trailed off tactfully. “Um, stressed. And a smidge snappy.”
“Now that Ididknow,” she said, and laughed. He wasn’t quite ready to find any of this amusing, but he managed to find a smile from somewhere.
Five
The night before…
She was in a strange city in a strange country, and the men following wanted to rob her, hurt her. She darted into a dead-end alley, then had to turn to face them. Nowhere to go.
She took the one with the knife first, reaching out as if asking for help, for mercy, got her hand around the back of his neck, and spun to her right as she yanked him forward, using the momentum to smash him face-first into the bricks. His friend was so startled, she had time to hook her foot between his ankles and toss him off-balance, and a kick to the hinge of his jaw
(ow! of all the nights to wear sandals!)
put him down for nap time.
In those few seconds, the first man had begun to stagger away, not at all happy with what was left of his nose, and expressed his displeasure with a series of nasal, blood-choked yelps. She listened and realized he was hollering for help.
