52. Fifty-Two - Tap and Shove
Fifty-Two - Tap and Shove
Ana
“Your future father-in-law is gone.”
I look at Leaf with a sidelong glance instead of telling her not to call him that. I’d rather pretend there was no connection at all.
I’ve set up a table in the middle of my shop and shuttered all the windows so that we can hide from my mother and play a few hands of Tap and Shove.
If we let her join, she’d insist on playing for money and we’d spend half of the night arguing with her about what was cheating and what wasn’t.
“That makes three family members who object to the three of us... should I take it as a sign?”
“Only a sign that they don’t have a clue.”
Celese lays down her card and leans on her elbow chin in her hand. “Was he a horrible tenant?”
“He was not. He paid in advance and tipped when he was done.” She makes a little face before she says, “and he wasn’t half bad for a man over five centuries old.”
“Ew,” I sort my cards and pretend to gag. “I don’t want to know that.”
“Then you won’t want to know why I had to tell him he would no longer be able to avail himself of our services last night.”
“I do,” Celese says, leaning close.
With a sigh, I lay down my hand. “I do too... even though I’m certain I’ll regret it.”
“He wanted a look-alike. Which you know we don’t do.” She looks at me with an apologetic smile and I don’t know if it’s because she’s just beat me at the game, or because I know the answer to the question Celese asks next.
“Who?”
“Me.” I answer for her.
“Oh!” Celese looks horrified. “That’s so gross. I mean, not that someone would want to sleep with you. You’re a dream, but that a guy would ask for a look-alike of his son’s lover.”
“Thank you for spelling out the obvious,” Leaf says, teasing. “It’s one of the few ways to get cut off. Most of the time they just want to fuck someone they can’t have... but sometimes they want to pay for a punching bag and I would rather not take any more of their coin than have to figure out how to hide their body after I killed them for touching one of mine.”
“You can have my cart to take it to the swamp.” Celese says as she deals out the next hand.
“And I’ll make you something that will eat the bones faster than a bathyon.”
“I knew I could count on you both.”
“Count on you for what?” Mina says, hopping through the doorway with Morganna on her heels.
“Adult things.”
Mina pouts, sitting down as Celese gathers up the cards to reshuffle so she can deal them in. “I hate when you do that.”
“Get older, and we’ll be able to include you.” Leaf says, tapping her on the nose.
Their size difference makes the action look so comical, I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
I hand Celese a second deck and help her reshuffle.
With five of us, a single deck just doesn’t have enough cards.
Mina puts a card down and Morganna immediately shoves, snatching it up before anyone can bother to tap.
I’ve never understood that strategy, but she always shoves the first card and uses it as the marker for what color she’ll choose.
It gives Mina an advantage, and she knows it.
But she glares at our sister as she takes her next card.
We go around the table, tapping and shoving and drawing our cards trying to get the right hand, and Morganna is the one who folds first. But like last time, Leaf was holding a winning hand. They tie and I know it’s because Leaf will never fold if she has wilds, but it is vexing to think you’ve won and have that victory besmirched.
We play several hands, talking about anything other than murder or sex and when Celese yawns, Leaf’s head snaps up, looking at the clock.
“You let us stay too late!” she scolds the elf and I chuckle as I watch her hurry Celese up out of her chair and out the front door.
She barely has time to call out a goodbye to us.
I just laugh as I start to separate out the decks. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were her mother.”
Leaf huffs, but she smiles too. “That girl only knows what time it is when school’s in session.”
“I guess that’s better than only knowing when it isn’t.” Mina stretches and then takes part of the decks and starts to help me.
“I have to run too,” Morganna says grimacing. “Curfew.”
“When did they start that?”
“Two weeks ago.” She slings her bag over her shoulder and hurries out the front too. “Good night!”
I take one of Mina’s sorted piles and hand her mine that matches the other. “Will you stay for a little bit? Help me clean up. I have something I wanted to ask you.”
“Of course.”
“I’d offer to help,” Leaf says, “but I can’t see around the table and I’d hate to knock over all these pretty potions you worked so hard on.”
“Go away,” I tell her with a fluttering hand. “You’ll make it up to us later.”
“Yes, I will.”
She leaves out the back and Mina takes both decks to the counter while I undo the support that turns the table from round to half round and back again.
“When will you stop leaving me out of ‘adult things’?” Mina asks as she helps me move the table back against the wall.
“When you’re an adult.” I spread the cloth over top and put the jug of bottle brush back on it.
“I’m almost eighteen.” She sticks out her lip in a pout.
“And eighteen is not twenty.”
Letting out a heavy sigh she flops her hands against her sides. “Everyone knows that eighteen means you’re an adult.”
“That is so far beyond true. I’ve met forty-year-olds who would not meet my qualifications for adulthood.”
“Ana,” she says, elongating my name into a whine.
“Mina,” I respond, matching the sound. “You just have to give it time.”
“Is this the part where you tell me I’ll understand when I’m your age?”
“I think you’ll understand before that.” Taking her hand, I lead her back to the staircase hidden near the back door and she gives me a curious look, but leads the way up.
“I haven’t been up here in forever,” she says, opening one of the chests and pulling out a blanket. “I remember falling asleep up here while dad taught you how to make potions... waking up when he picked me up to carry me home.”
She laughs and then folds the blanket up again, gingerly returning it to the chest and closing it.
“They’re good memories.”
“I’m glad.” I look around the space again. It’s not much and the roof line certainly wasn’t made for anyone tall, but luckily, our family has always stopped short.
“I’m going to talk to Peter and see if we can build this out into a livable space.”
She goes pale, her smile fading. “You’re moving out?”
“Maybe, but not to here... I won’t leave you alone with her. So, I thought this could be a place for you.” I look around the space again. “You wouldn’t be able to cook anything here, so it would be a temporary option, but for a few years... until you figure out what you want to do and where you want to go.”
Mina lunges at me, hugging me so fiercely that I fall back against the post. “Careful. We need to get walls up before you get too excited.”
“Thank you.” She squeezes me tighter. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! When can we start and how can I help?”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow and we’ll go from there.” We should wait for her eighteenth birthday, but I have a feeling making it safe will take that long, anyway.
It’s only a few months after mine.
“We’re keeping this to ourselves, okay?”
“Oh, mom couldn’t torture this out of me.”