“Yes,” Thomas agreed. “I prefer their company over people.”
“Are they all in the same tank?”
“No. Virgil and Gordon are, but the rest have their own tanks. They’re a couple.”
“You have gay snakes?”
“Yes. The zoo they used to live at wanted to separate them, so I bought them so they could live out their lives together. They’re Burmese Pythons.” Thomas tilted his head towards the closest tank. It took Scott a minute to see them; they were so well camouflaged in the foliage, but there were two snakes, tangled together to look like one. Scott could only tell there were two because of their black tongues sticking out to taste the air.
“Lucy…” Thomas pointed at a tank with yellow and black stickers all around it. “She’s highly venomous. She’ll stop your heart in ten minutes.”
Scott widened his eyes. “Then why the hell have you got her?”
Thomas leaned back in his chair. “She’s beautiful.”
“I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
“No. She’s beautiful. Full stop.” Thomas looked down at Scott. “I told you not to go through the door on the right. Have you ever heard the expression ‘curiosity killed the cat’?”
“Yes, I have,” Scott said, lifting his chin. “But doyouknow where that expression came from?”
Thomas opened his mouth to reply but snapped it shut again. He frowned. His snake eyes burned a hole in Scott’s head, but Scott didn’t look away.
“I do,” Thomas said.
“Then tell me.”
Thomas shook his head. “I don’t want to.”
“Bullshit. You don’t know.”
“I do.”
Scott smiled and slid his phone from his pocket. Thomas bristled as Scott typed in the saying.
“You cheated,” Thomas hissed.
“How am I cheating? I didn’t know.” Scott locked his phone. “And now I do.”
“Well?”
“I don’t need to tell you, you know apparently.”
“You’re insufferable.” Thomas huffed.
“And yet, you’re suffering through me.” Scott used the arm of the chair to heave himself up onto his knees. “Now, are you giving me a tour of the mansion or not?”
“I never said I would.”
Scott winked. “I’m a curious cat, remember?”
Thomas looked away with a sneer.
“And you can start with your friends…”
Thomas turned back to Scott. It was hard to know whether he was lifting his eyebrow or not, considering he’d shaved them to keep the tattoo on his face seamless, but Scott imagined it would’ve been raised in an expression likeseriously?
“Yes, I’m serious,” Scott said. “They scare the hell out of me, but you love them, so show me…”
