44. Bay
FORTY-FOUR
bay
“You don’t even know what a platypus is,” Levi argues, molding clay between his thick fingers and squinting so hard at what he’s doing that he might pop an eye vessel.
“Yes, I do,” Mae retorts, dabbing her paintbrush in more blue paint. “They live in France.”
“No, they don’t,” Ellie replies as I continue braiding her hair. “They live in Australia.”
“No, they don’t,” Levi scoffs. “How can this thing live with all the weird shit over there?”
“Didn’t you read Mae’s report?” Ellie points out. “It’s in there. And everyone knows they live there.”
“I thought they lived in Asia,” I state, fishing for more of her hair. “But what the hell do I know?”
“Obviously not where platypuses live,” my sister mutters before I give a playful little tug to her hair for the smart-ass comment. “Ow.”
“Don’t be a baby,” I tease with a smile. “And if you keep it up, I’m going to stop, and you can figure out how to do your own hair.”
“How are you this old and not know?”
I perk an eyebrow. “What do you mean this old ?”
“Old.”
This little asshole.
Levi laughs before getting frustrated at whatever he was attempting to do and balls the clay in his hands to start over.
For the fourth time.
Mae has a project in her science class, and they have to make a diagram of their favorite animal. Where she got a platypus from is beyond me.
“This clay is a piece of shit,” my best friend says under his breath. “Let’s go to the store, Mae, and see if we can buy a figurine or something for this dumb-ass?—”
“Nooooooo,” she objects instantly. “I want you to make it.”
“I can’t,” he exhorts. “I’m not an artist, Mae.”
“Just do it.” Levi sends her a withering look, but gets nowhere. My little sister flat-out ignores him and continues to paint her platypus’s environment out of a box. “I want noodles for dinner.”
“Alright,” I tell her. “Let me finish up Ellie’s hair?—”
“I want Cairo’s noodles.”
My whole face skews in response to that because he’s starting to become a household name around here.
And I’m not Chef Ramsey.
I have no clue what the hell Cairo did, but the night he made dinner, my sisters haven’t stopped talking about it since.
Especially Mae and her bougie ass.
It’s like she’s too good to eat normal shit now. I don’t know what kind of meals they had when they stayed with the Blacks, but Mae’s palate has changed significantly.
And Cairo was a reminder of that.
“Girl, I have no idea how he made that.”
Mae flicks her blue eyes to me, clearly not impressed with my answer. “Can you find out?”
Can’t.
Cairo is on his romantic date with Vivian like the bitch deserves anything in this world that’s remotely good. It’s funny how you can be a raging cunt and still get nice things.
“You can text Luisa,” Levi suggests, reminding me of the way he eye-fucked her the day she dropped off the kittens. “I’m sure she could get you the recipe because that girl does not know how to cook.”
I immediately want to ask him how he knows that. I also never brought up how he also knew Carina, her older sister.
If I had, I would’ve looked suspicious, and I had my own things to work through when it came to Levi ever seriously dating down the road.
No one would be good enough for him. And I’m tired of dealing with females.
Thanks, Nessa.
“We don’t have the ingredients,” I deadpan, returning my focus to Ellie’s hair. “Besides, I have to make it.”
“Mae and I need to go to the store anyway?—”
“Noooo,” Mae whines. “We’re not buying a platypus.”
“We’re just gonna look,” Levi counters. “You do want it to look like one, right?”
Mae scowls, but continues to paint.
“I’ll text her real quick and ask,” I mumble. “But if it’s too hard, I’m not doing it.”
“Yay!” Mae says excitedly. “And I want garlic bread.”
Ellie cranes her head to look over at me. “Can we have some of those cookies, too?”
Mother of all hell.
“What do I look like?” I gripe out with narrowed eyes. “This isn’t Italy over here.”
Levi laughs again, and I pluck up my hair comb and chuck it at him. He allows it to hit him with ease and shakes his head. “C’mon, Astor. Learn something new.”
“How about you learn how to make a platypus out of clay, and we’ll both learn something new today.”
“Yeah, fuck that.” Levi tosses the ball of clay onto the table. “I’m done.”
“Levi,” Mae chides. “You can’t be.”
“We need to go get groceries if you want Cairo’s noodles,” he pushes back. “And I’ll try again when we get back.”
Looks like I’m burning dinner tonight.
Fishing my cell out of my jeans, I shoot off a text to Luisa to see if she could give me a short version of the ingredients and what the hell I need to do.
She replies instantly.
LUISA: Hey girl!
LUISA: Shit, I have no idea. I don’t cook.
“Damn it,” I mutter, flicking my eyes over to Levi. “She doesn’t know.”
“Not surprising,” he replies, taking out his own phone. “We’re doing pizza.”
“Oh!” Ellie shoots out. “Can you get it from that Italian place in Wharf Bay?”
Levi quirks a brow at her as if she’s lost her entire mind, but he doesn’t say anything. He just glances back down at his phone and begins searching for something.
The Italian pizza place.
Whatever the hell that is.
LUISA: I have a bone to pick with you.
I lift my own brow because this will be fun. I can only imagine what the hell she has to come at me with.
BAY: Oh yeah? And what would that be?
LUISA: You let Cairo go out with Vivian Muncy? Girl, hell no.
BAY: I’m not his keeper.
LUISA: No, you’re the girl he has a crush on tho.
BAY: Nooooooo.
BAY: You’re incorrect.
LUISA: Yesssss.
LUISA: I know my brother.
BAY: Babe, that’s not what’s going on here.
LUISA: Really? Because my vision is really good. And I see the way you two look at each other.
BAY: With hate in our eyes?
LUISA: LOL.
LUISA: I see we’re in denial.
BAY: I think you want your brother to be with anyone else but Vivian.
LUISA: Not just anyone. However, if you’d like to save him, here’s where he’s staying.
She sends me the address and name of the hotel, and I stare at it like a ticking time bomb ready to go off.
LUISA: I’m sure he’d appreciate it.
BAY: You might have to do that yourself. I’ve got dinner to cook.
LUISA: It’s alright. He’ll be there all night with her.
I can see what she’s doing from a mile away.
She’s trying to make me jealous, sticking the idea of what they could be doing just to rile me up.
It’s working.
Apparently, Cairo will go to great lengths just to keep Vivian within the palm of his hand. And I wonder if that’s why he won’t touch me or do anything more than stroke his cock to the sound of my voice.
BAY: You’re adorable, Luisa. But nice try.
LUISA: I prefer diabolical.
At least she knows .
However, I don’t like it. I don’t like Cairo being holed up in a hotel room with Vivian Muncy, but it’s not my business.
It really isn’t.
It isn’t my place either.
But I hate that bitch more than words can describe. And one day, I’ll get her back for the things she’s tried and done.
And what she’s already gotten away with.
I’m not the only one she’s fucked over, apparently. Questions of what she’s done to Ozzy still linger in my head, as well, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get those answers.
Cairo won’t tell me.
And grabbing tidbits of information out of Ozzy is like finding the recipe for whatever bullshit Cairo made the other night.
But Vivian…that bitch is easy.
And I’m petty enough to give her a dose of what happens when she fucks with me.