“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Heather scolded. “Mr King has invited you to have dinner with him this evening.”
Hmm. Intriguing.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re his house guest, I’d imagine. Be ready for six o’clock,” she said before she turned on her heel and walked back up the path.
By six, I was long done with Achilles’ walk and I deigned to put on some smarter clothes for dinner this time. I sat down at the long table and pondered what sort of conversation to make.
“Has work been busy?” I meant the word ‘work’ as lightly as possible. Not because I didn’t think that Nikolai worked hard, I’m sure he did, but it couldn’t exactly be classified as ‘shop assistant’.
“Anastasia,” he chastised, causing me to turn with a thorough what the fuck expression. It was only a question. “Why are you asking?”
“Oh please. I don’t care about any of that. It was my way of asking where your brothers have been, I guess.”
He made a ‘hmming’ noise as he lifted his newspaper to continue reading. I put down my fork as I tried again to gain his attention. “Nikolai?”
No response came. I sat staring at him from across the table in absolute bewilderment. What the actual fuck? “Hey. I’m talking to you.”
Again, no verbal response came just a turning of his page. What a strange, strange man. “Well, fine. I mean, since you’re not listening to me...I don’t particularly like Heather, the toast that you made me is too brown for my liking and I shower naked.”
I continued on as I started eating around the evil toast sitting on the very edge of my plate. What could possibly draw his attention? I wracked my brain. A sudden thought came to me.
What would draw the attention of any man?
Aside from flashing him right here, there was another possibility. Something I could definitely play on, his emotions. I already knew first-hand just how temperamental he could get.
“I hate your brother. Your other brother though, he’s hot. I definitely wouldn’t kick him out of bed. And you know, he’s tall…strong build, I’m sure that’s not the only reason I wouldn’t kick him out of bed. Do you know if he’s seeing anyone? Wouldn’t that be like a really cute fairytale ending to this whole mess?”
No movement, no feigning of interest.
Bored, I rested my head in the palm of my hand and slouched in my chair. Clearly my plan wasn’t working but I admit, I did like hearing the sound of my own voice. My words seemed to bounce off the walls and ricochet back to me, like a conversation in a way. A very sad, pathetic way, but at the minute I didn’t have much of a choice.
“Of course, after we were married we’d have a buttload of sex...and kill your brother, that’s a given. I wonder how I’d do it. They say that the way someone is murdered says a lot about the murderer. I don’t know how I’d want to come across, this would be something that could potentially be remembered about me until my demise. Which would inevitably come at the hands of your brother.”
“I think I’d want to strangle him, that way he couldn’t talk and ruin the moment. Because that would really piss me off. It’d almost be like watching a movie with someone, and them talking through your favorite scene. That is one of my absolute peeves. My aunt used to do that every time, I swear I could’ve smothered her with a pillow.”
“And where would I be?” The sound of Nikolai’s voice startled me into a small yelp. I perked up to look at him and to my surprise, his newspaper was folded off to the side. I wondered how long he’d actually been paying attention. “While you’re off fucking and fucking over my brothers.”
Ah. A while, I guessed.
“Hey.” I smiled wide, glad to finally have his attention. I had been veering from his brothers into dangerous territory, my family. That was somewhere I hadn’t intended to venture.
“You were saying something?” he asked sharply.
“Yeah. Where are your brothers today?”
“Zedd and Drex are out of town.” He looked at me, his gaze piercing.
“And Finch?”
His smirk turned into a wide grin - a rarity for Nikolai from what I’d witnessed - and a bitter bark of laughter. “Probably out digging his grave. There’s been rumor of a crazy lady planning his murder.”
I cackled out a laugh. “That’s very wise of him.”
“Why do you want to know where Zedd and Drex are? Besides asking for their hand in marriage.” The change in his demeanor was briskly noticeable. No longer was he playing.
I shrugged. “It’s just been quiet. Drex said he’d be by to pick up a book I just finished.”
Nikolai nodded once and returned to his dinner without giving me an answer. I guessed that was that particular line of conversation over…
It’s okay, soon enough the walls would start talking back to me. It would be the final straw weaved into my crazy hat but at least I wouldn’t be bored. And who knew, maybe Nikolai, by some stroke of luck, would become a normal interacting human being. For now, I was just enjoying the opportunity to mess with him whenever I could.
I waited not so patiently for Anastasia to come down for breakfast. Usually, she was up earlier than this, I didn’t understand what was holding her up today. When she finally walked through, I stood and dumped my coffee cup in the sink.
“Good morning,” I said, aiming for something like brightness in tone.
“Mmm.” Anastasia, on the other hand, barely grunted at me.
Hmm. I paused. I didn’t need to be told that she was in a mood, her tone conveyed that more than enough for me to get the message.
My exit long forgotten, I leant against the sink and watched as she pulled out her cereal. “Is something wrong?”
“Nope.” She collected the milk from the fridge and a bowl before pouring out her portion.
I sighed at her obvious denial but I took the hint to drop the subject. I hoped I hadn’t done anything to upset her but I doubt she would’ve said anything. Actually, no. Anastasia definitely would have said something if I’d ticked her off. I supposed I could relax, it clearly wasn’t me.
“Okay, then. I’m going out to the shops today, would you like to come with me?”
Oh god.
I saw what I did there.
I waited for the feminist blowback with a grimace. I didn’t want her to think that I was inviting her to go shopping because I thought it would cheer her up. I didn’t think that. The whole reason I was waiting for Anastasia to come downstairs was to see if she wanted to spend the day with me.
But the argument I feared never came.
“Sure.” She shrugged almost as if to say she had nothing better to do.
How very flattering.
I supposed it was a good thing that I wasn’t a sensitive person. Her lack of enthusiasm could be seen as offensive.
I smirked and took it like a champ. But I was immediately suspicious. It wasn’t like Anastasia to not take the bait for what could’ve easily been a full-blown argument. Maybe she’d open up to me today, tell me what was bugging her so badly.
“You’ve got an hour.” She nodded as she slurped down her coffee, rather loudly. I decided to leave it at that.