He raised an eyebrow at her and hesitated before he carefully pronounced, “Way.”
“But you laugh when people sing that ‘Englishman in L.A.’ silliness at you!”
“It’s meant in fun.” He leaned back again.
“So what are you?”
“I am Dutch.”
“How did I not know this about you after three years of working with you?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t advertise it.”
“Dutch. That’s, like, Holland, right?”
“The Kingdom of the Netherlands is composed of far more than Holland and includes several Caribbean islands, but yes.”
“The Netherlands.Sounds like something out of Minecraft. So where were you born?”
“Amsterdam.”
“Oh,”she chortled.“Amsterdam.You hear all those things about how decadentAmsterdamis. That explains a lot.”
“It’s not that bad. Less crime than Los Angeles. Less decadent than Denver or Las Vegas, probably.”
“So you speak Dutch?”
“Yes.” He blinked at her, obviously amused at her naiveté.
Fine. Whatever.“Is it called Dutch or Netherlanderese or what?”
His dark green eyes laughed at her. “Dutch.”
“So what does ‘Friso’ mean in Dutch?”
“John William Friso was the first monarch of the Netherlands. Most current European kings and queens are descended from him.”
“So you’re named after a king? My dad says that I was named after a literary character, Roxane inCyrano de Bergerac.”
“Ah,” Cash said. “The one where the ugly man falls in love with a beautiful woman and writes letters to her for another man, one who is handsome but stupid, and he charms her with his wit and words into the other man’s bed, and then he dies. So romantic.”
“It’s too bad that the Netherlands doesn’t have a king anymore. There should be more kings.” Rox stared at the wavy patterns the sun screens shadowed on the walls. Hey, it was better than working.
“We have a king.” Cash shrugged. “The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy.”
Rox looked up at him,veryinterested. “So you have a king? A real king?”
“Well, that’s open for debate, whether or not he’s arealking.”
“You aren’t one of those anti-monarchists like they have in England, are you? Ilikeroyalty. They’re like celebrities who didn’t have to do anything stupid or crass to get famous, like ‘accidentally’ make a sex tape.”
Cash laughed. “Oh, there are always sex tapes.”
“No way.”
“Way. You seem to be channeling your inner surfer today.”
“Tell me about theking,”Rox begged, her eyes feeling too wide on her face.
