Chapter 20 #3
Eris fished out a noodle to taste it. “More like seven.” She turned the head of the mushroom timer to set it on three minutes, then collected half a spoonful of the simmering tomato sauce and lifted it up to Denny’s mouth. “How’s this? Blow, Denny, it’s scorching!”
Denny obeyed. When the steam stopped rising from the spoon, she tasted the sauce: it was better than any she had ever made.
“Oh my god! What did you put in it?”
“Pinch of sugar. Saw an Italian nonna do it on TikTok.”
Denny giggled. “What’s your girlfriend always doing on TikTok? Learning cooking hacks and how to dissolve a body without leaving traces.”
“I can also recognise over one-hundred species of sharks.”
“Sharks are important. In case the body dissolution doesn’t work out.”
“Sharks don’t like—”
“—the taste of human meat.” Denny puffed up proudly. “See? I pay attention. Sometimes.”
“Pigs, on the other hand, are extremely efficient if you want to get rid of a corpse.”
Luke cleared his throat. “Girls? You are a joy to watch, but can we not discuss body dismemberment over dinner?”
* * *
“Eris is going to work for me,” Denny announced as they ate. She wasn’t sure her parents had heard her at all, busy as they were muttering to each other how good the pasta was.
Her mum set the fork down to take a sip of wine. “With Rocco always out for the deliveries, getting some help is a wise decision.”
“She started helping me out as an occasional favour…”
“She kept falling asleep on the bookkeeping,” Eris interjected, prompting synced chuckles from Heather and Luke.
“... so I thought we might as well make it official, since she was looking for a job.”
Heather smiled at her daughter, warm and loving. They looked identical when they smiled. “You know what you need and what your shop needs. Whatever makes you happy, makes us happy.”
Eris felt it, somewhere under her sternum. A snap, something cracking. Vertigo clouded her sight.
‘Whatever makes you happy.’
Love really was that simple.
Luke hummed in agreement. “Denny and numbers have never been a good match. She nearly dropped out of university because she kept failing Maths.”
“Thanks, Dad. She knows.”
Eris swallowed the tightness in her throat. “This is more a matter of method and organisation,” she pointed out, “and neither is her forte.”
Heather’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Just like her father.”
“See, Dad? It’s your fault: I’m genetically programmed for anarchy.”
“ADHD is hereditary,” Eris muttered. “Just saying.”
Luke gave a pleased nod. “If Eris starts working with you, you also won’t be all alone when Rocco is out. There are all sorts of lunatics out there these days.”
The notification ping of Denny’s work phone floated to the kitchen from somewhere in the flat.
Denny stood up to check.
“Plugged in by the entrance door,” said Eris. Denny gave her a thankful pinch on the cheek.
As she had feared, it was Blake again.
+44 771 441 2674
I’m running out of patience
You obviously have no interest in talking this out
She returned to the kitchen with a churning stomach. They couldn’t drag on this any further: if Blake snapped, the consequences would be unpredictable.
“Speaking of lunatics…” She set the phone down in the middle of the table where everyone could see the chat on the cracked screen. The words ‘fucking cunt’ clearly formed on Eris’ lips right before she said out loud: “She just won’t give up, will she?”
Heather scowled. “Blake?”
“Yeah.”
Denny surveyed her parents: she had hoped she would never see that tension on their faces again.
Blake had never scared her half as much as she scared them, but, now that it was Eris’ fate at stake, Denny got their distress.
She wished she could suck out of their memory the awful year her relationship with Blake had put them through.
“Let me talk to her. Maybe it won’t fix the problem, but it’ll buy us some time.”
“Buy you some time for what?”
Eris was picking hard at her fingernails. It didn’t stop even when Denny put her hand on top of hers.
“We don’t have to do this now.”
“Yes, we do.” Eris’ jaw worked. She kept pulling at her shirt from all angles like it burned. Her eyes rose from her plate, slow with a self-consciousness Denny couldn’t bear to see. “Blake put her hands on me and I… reacted a bit too harshly.”
Heather scoffed. “Surely a little incident can’t be—”
“My criminal record isn’t clean.”
“Oh.”
Denny’s grip of Eris’ hand tightened. This wasn’t a conversation they could have avoided forever. She may not condone some of the things Eris had done to survive, but she was in no position to judge any of that, nor were her parents.
“She grew up in a rough environment,” she explained. “She had to look after herself.”
Luke’s eyebrows knit. “What about your family?”
“My father was a drug dealer, My mother didn’t give a shit about us. My brother ran away as soon as he was old enough.” Eris’ eyes dropped to the table again, veiled by a misty sheen. Her hand was curled into a tight fist. “Haven’t heard from him since.”
Denny saw her parents darken with the same sorrow that plagued her every time Eris mentioned her family. Her mum wasn’t an emotional person. Denny had only seen that kind of grief in her eyes twice: when Grandpa Ned had passed away and when they’d had to put their dog down.
The real shock, however, was the emotion in her dad’s eyes, a doleful sympathy that his wife and daughter would never be able to comprehend.
“You’ve always gotten by on your own.” Luke’s timbre was deeper than usual.
Eris swallowed. “I’m not cut out for company. Or wasn’t, I guess.” There was a subtle contraction in her throat as she glanced towards Denny and then back at Luke and Heather. “I’d never hurt Denny.”
“No one’s thinking you would, sweetie,” Heather reassured her. It didn’ìt help much. The tension threaded across Eris’ entire body radiated a deep discomfort that Denny couldn’t place.
“If anything, she’s hyperprotective.”
“We’ve noticed.” Luke sent a benevolent glance Eris’ way. “To be fair, from where I’m sitting that’s the opposite of a problem.”
“Not when you’re on thin ice with the law and your girlfriend’s crazy ex is threatening to press charges.
” Denny sighed. Half of her pasta was still on the plate.
She had lost her appetite. She summed up the situation and what Blake had proposed and wasn’t happy to see the concern in her parents’ reaction.
“Seeing her alone is not a good idea, Chickpea.”
Slouched back in her chair, Eris gave Denny a pointed look that screamed: ‘See?!’
“What if I pretended to go alone but brought someone to watch my back?”
“Who?” objected Heather. “She’s met everyone in your closest circle.”
“Everyone I trust, for sure,” Denny grumbled.
Blake likely expected a move like that and she was too clever to be fooled: she’d clock any of Denny’s friends right away.
Pissing her off would be a fatal misstep.
It took someone unsuspectable but reliable.
Maybe they could ask Joe if he could recommend someone from the gym…
“Hold on.” Eris’ eyes darted to Denny’s phone. “I have someone.”
* * *
Drink, Friday night?
+44 771 441 2674
I knew you’d come to your senses
I just want to get this over with
+44 771 441 2674
We’ll see about that
Send time and location, I’ll meet you there
Unless you want me to come and pick you up
+44 771 441 2674
You just can’t take a joke, can you?
See you soon, darling