Chapter Four #2
Technically, I knew snakes couldn’t feel love or affection, but she always seemed so pleased to see me when I came home from work that I had to believe she felt something.
“Fuck,” Milo hissed under his breath. “She’s gorgeous. And that tank… is that all hers?”
“Yes, they’re solitary snakes.”
“It’s incredible.”
“Thank you, I’m quite proud of it.”
“You should be. It’s awesome!”
I smiled, his praise doing something to my insides that I wasn’t going to look closely at. “Let me see if she wants to come out. Then, um, would you like a cup of tea?”
“Sounds great! Can you… will you bring her with you?”
“If she wants to come.”
“Does she usually?”
“Mostly. Unless she’s tired or shedding or not feeling like company.”
He snorted. “Totally get that.”
“But yes, she does like spending time outside with me. Although she isn’t particularly fond of some of my TV choices.”
“Yeah? What doesn’t she like?”
“Well, I, er, I like documentaries about true crime. And shipwrecks. But sometimes when I put them on she’ll knock my glasses off my face, or try and drape herself across the TV.” It sounded silly to say out loud, and I waited for Milo to laugh at me. But when he did laugh, it didn’t sound mocking.
“That’s fucking amazing! Wait, does that mean she has a preference? What does she like you watching?”
“She likes old movies,” I said, a tiny smile on my lips. “We watched Some Like It Hot recently. She seemed to enjoy that.”
“As she should, it’s a banger!”
I swallowed down the swell of emotion threatening to rise inside me and took a steadying breath as I crossed the room, opening the top of the vivarium and waiting to see if she wanted to come out.
Lizzie crawled eagerly towards me, peeking out the opening and climbing straight up my arm as soon as I offered it. Her favourite place to sit was either across my shoulders and neck or curled in a ball on my head. Like a rather large, heavy hat.
“Hello, beautiful,” I said as she settled across my shoulders, her nose nudging my ear and the side of my face before she looked around the room.
It was easy to see when she spotted Milo, because she lifted her head like a periscope.
I walked slowly over to him, watching as a delighted smile lit up his face.
“Milo, this is Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzie, this is Milo. He’s come to meet you. ”
“Lovely to meet you, Miss Bennet,” Milo said, offering her a tiny wave. “Fuck, Rupert, she’s gorgeous! Those pictures don’t even do her justice.”
“She is. I might be biased, but I do think she’s the prettiest snake in the world.”
“Nope, she absolutely is. I’ll swear on it.”
My fingers gently stroked her under the chin as I smiled proudly. “Shall I make some tea? Then once she’s woken up a bit you can hold her. If you’d like?”
“I’d love that.”
“Cool, okay. This way then.”
It felt incredibly strange to have Milo in my kitchen while I made tea, asking me more questions about Lizzie while she did her best impression of a scarf. I wasn’t sure if this was a dream or a pinch-me moment, but at least it didn’t feel like a nightmare.
Five months ago, I would have described spending any time with Milo as torture and asked if I was being punished. But now… I couldn’t even say what had changed only that something clearly had.
I wasn’t going to hold my breath. Milo had been irritating me for longer than he hadn’t, and I expected him to return to his annoying ways before too long. This was a temporary reprieve, nothing more.
We carried our tea through to the sitting room, and Milo seemed to marvel over the view from the windows, which allowed him to see across the bay—from the castle on one side, to the Heather Sands hotel on the other.
I didn’t know where he lived, but from what he’d said, it was a ground-floor flat down a side street. Nothing particularly exciting.
I wanted to know where it was though.
Just because.
Once he’d drained his tea, I said, “Would you still like to hold Lizzie?”
“If you don’t mind?” he asked. He’d been very bad at hiding his desperation, but I wasn’t going to hold it against him.
It only made me like him more. I wondered if I should tell him that only a few other people had ever held her, but I decided against it.
Milo discovering how friendless I was would only ruin the moment.
“Of course not. Sit down and I’ll pass her to you.
No sudden movements, stay calm, and any problems then please say.
She can sense if you’re frightened or nervous, and that will worry her.
She might climb across you, in which case you don’t need to do anything, but if you need to lift her, make sure you support her body with both hands.
And don’t pick her up by the head or tail, obviously. ”
“Not worried at all. Looking forward to being her climbing frame.”
“Okay then.”
He sat on the other end of the sofa and I shuffled closer, trying to keep my eyes fixed on his face. Not the rest of his body. He wasn’t here for me to ogle him.
Milo stretched out his hands across his thighs and I gently lifted Lizzie off my shoulders, placing her carefully across his palms. “Wow,” he said softly. “She’s bigger than I thought.”
“She’s just over four feet and two kilograms. The girls are virtually always bigger than the boys.”
Lizzie looked up at him curiously, then slowly began to climb up his arms. Milo had taken his fleece off and I could see just how muscular his upper arms were. If I were Lizzie, I’d want to climb up them too.
He was looking at her with pure awe and excitement as she slithered across his chest. She lifted her head and then began to crawl up the side of his head. Milo giggled as he realised what she was doing. “Oh… oh, she’s… sorry, my lady, my head might be a bit prickly. I shaved it last week.”
“She likes heads,” I said, putting my hand over my mouth to cover my laugh. “I bet yours is nice and warm. No hair to hold in the heat.”
“Ah, I see. So, you’re just stealing my body heat? Is that right, madam?” Milo asked with a laugh as Lizzie curled herself into her customary ball, looking incredibly satisfied with her new perch. He shot me a grin. “What do you think of my new hat? Very fetching, right?”
“Stunning. You should be in Vogue.”
“I knew it!”
Without thinking, I pulled my phone out of my trouser pocket and snapped a quick photo. Because even if Milo and I fell out again I wanted to remember this one moment of peace between us.
“Hey, will you send me that?” Milo asked.
“Sure. I’ll need your number though.”
“Give me your phone.”
Reluctantly I handed it over and when he gave it back, I realised he’d added himself to my contacts as Sexy Milo =D and sent himself a message from my WhatsApp that said Hello from Lizzie’s hot snake dad.
“Hot snake dad?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “What else was I supposed to put?”
A million things.
Ten million things.
But… I didn’t want him to use any of them.
Lizzie’s hot snake dad.
It was so Milo. Irritating and ridiculous. And, annoyingly, I really liked it.