“Yep.”
“That means you’re good with wood and power tools.Right?”
“Kieran,” Micah shouted. “I told you to behave.” A moment later, he was back, a bottle in each hand and passing one to me.
I chuckled and shook my head with a smile. “There’s always going to be one.”
Micah picked up the remote and turned the show on. Just as he started to sit in the overstuffed armchair next to the couch, Kieran hopped up.
“You sit here. I know how that chair hurts your… back. Right? Your back hurts when you sit there, doesn’t it?” His eyes were wide as he looked at Micah, eyebrows raised.
Micah sighed and sat on the couch, shaking his head. “Something like that.”
The show started and I watched quietly, listening to Micah and Kieran comment about the different aspects of design that had been employed.
“That’s certainly achoice,” Micah muttered as the camera panned over the wallpaper that the interior designer had selected.
“I don’t hate it,” Kieran countered.
They turned to me. “Be the tiebreaker,” Micah said. “What do you think?”
I frowned, my brow dipping low as I stared at the TV screen trying to formulate an intelligent opinion. “I don’t… I mean, it’s fine, I guess.”
“What does that mean?” Kieran prodded.
“It’s just… the colors are a lot.” The wallpaper was orange and pink wavy lines with red in the middle, which I guess was in style at some point but to me it just looked like, well…
“It’s vagina wallpaper,” Micah pointed out. “The pattern is clearly meant to look like vaginas.”
“That’s not a thing. People do not have vagina wallpaper,” Kieran argued.
With a laugh, Micah shot back. “Okay, Georgia O’Keeffe.”
Kieran sighed and flopped back against his chair, looking defeated.
“It’s very sixties,” Micah continued. “This whole design is supposed to be contemporary, not mid-century modern.”
“Fine, but I like it,” Kieran said eventually.
Micah laughed. “Ofcourseyou do.”
“What’sthatsupposed to mean?” Kieran asked indignantly.
Micah shrugged and put on an innocent look. “Don’t ask me.”
“You’re the one who said it.”
Micah smirked at him. “All I meant was, you seem to have an awfully long streak of hooking up with women these days.”
Kieran shook his head and sipped his beer, glowering at Micah before turning to me. “You couldn’t just say you liked it, could you?”
“You wanted me to lie?” I asked.
Kieran shrugged and sipped his beer again. After a moment of silence, he put his mostly empty bottle down. “You know what? I’m going to bed. You two deserve each other.” He sniffed and stood.
“Aw, Kier,” Micah said in a placating tone. “Don’t be like that. If you’re going to bed, at least take your bottle to the trash first.”
Kieran flipped Micah off and grabbed his bottle from the table. “You’re lucky I love you.” He fixed me with his gaze. “You, on the other hand, are on thin ice.” Without another word, he took his bottle to the kitchen. There was a clatter as he tossed it in the trash and then his footsteps retreated down the hallway.
