Page 32 of Just Say (Hell) No

“Got a job.”

“Still. Having the baby and giving it up? Not the usual path. Was that Mum’s idea? If it was, why is Ella here?”

“No. The opposite. Jakinda’s a bit dramatic, I guess you’d say.Anda crier.That’swhy Ella’s here. For some calm, maybe. I don’t know why she decided on this, but she did, and she seems sure.” He took a sip of his tea and said, “It’s not what you may be thinking. This morning, when it sounded like she was saying I was responsible…”

She sighed. “I know you’re not. It’s obvious.”

“Well, cheers. But it sounded bad, and I know it, and after all—here I am buying her bedroom furniture. Why is it obvious?”

A long silence while she stirred three packets of sugar into her tea and he tried not to wince. “I see people in color,” she finally said.

He blinked. “What?”

“What I said. It’s called synesthesia. Where you stimulate one pathway in your mind or your senses, and it stimulates another. Mostly, it’s seeing letters or numbers in color. Or musical notes.”

“This is a thing?” he asked cautiously. “Sounds…”

“Like your mum’s Tarot cards,” she finished. “Like the kind of rubbish you’d expect from somebody who fancies herself an artist. But I was doing it well before I could read, so whatever you’re thinking, it isn’t true. But what you’re thinking? That’s why I don’t tell people.”

She sounded more than defensive, but then, he could imagine why. “Since you were a kid?” he asked.

A long pause, and some of the tension left her. At least, she stopped ripping her empty sugar packet into pieces and dropped them on the tray. “Yes. I didn’t know everybody didn’t do it. Then one day when I was five or six, I asked Mum why her boyfriend was brown.”

“Ah. Bet that went over well.”

“Got a long lecture about pride in being Maori. And I said, ‘But Mummy, he doesn’t match you, because you’re blue.’ She was confused, as you’d imagine, but eventually, I managed to explain.”

“What did she say?”

“Took me to the doctor to see if I had a brain tumor.” She laughed. “I didn’t. But that’s why I knew about you.”

“Huh.” He considered that. “What about the boyfriend? Your mum’s?”

“Ah, well. Cleaned out her bank account and buggered off. So there you are. He was brown after all.”

“And you knew I wasn’t lying because I’m…”

“Red. You’ve always been red.”

“Always?”

“Oh. I mean, both times. All the times.”

“Red doesn’t sound so good, either.”

“It’s not what you think. Your color is what you are all the time. It’s not a mood ring. If you were angry all the time, hostile—you’d be muddy green. Black. Something else. Red’s just passionate. Physical.” She looked up at him from under her dark lashes. “Strong. Et cetera. And too direct to be a liar.”

He’d have been quite happy to keep talking about his strong, passionate nature, but Ella would be coming back any moment. “Right,” he said instead. “I’m seeing that this situation I’ve got is going to be more complicated than I realized. Especially as I’m here this week, then off to Aussie for two weeks, and it goes on like that. Rugby, eh. Meanwhile, you’re living in a garage and worrying about paying your rent.”

Those green eyes were staring into his. It would be hard to lie to those eyes. She was right about that. “I am.”

“And painting horrible pictures of dogs.”

“If that was meant to soften me up,” she said, “it didn’t work.”

“Right. Sorry. What are you paying for the garage?”

He could swear he could see her heart pounding. He could definitely see her breasts rising and falling. It seemed the King of Swords was making his move. She said, “Two hundred a week.”