“No.” She dropped the zest in his hand. “You’d find a way to cut off your finger with it.”
“Well, aren’t you bratty.” He scattered the zest into the gin before topping it off with some elderflower tonic water he’d brought back from France, watching the cocktail bubble. “Here, try this for me. If it makes you fall over, it’ll be just about right for me.”
Jay pointed the knife at him. “Take your devil water and get out.”
Rolling his eyes, Nicholas set down the gin bottle. He could feel her eyes following him as he carried the drinks out into the den and set them on the end table. The look was not disapproving.
Humming to himself, he got to his knees and began fiddling with the cables in the entertainment console, rearranging things in the HDMI ports until the screen flickered to life, revealing polygonal 64-bit graphics that looked only a little faded on the big plasma screen.
He was surprised by the wave of nostalgia it brought.
“Is that your old Nintendo?” Jay’s voice sounded from behind him. “I can’t believe it still works.”
“It is and it does. Now sit down, blue jay. You’re going to loosen up and have some fun with me.”
She looked down skeptically before getting to her knees one leg at a time. While lowering herself from that awkward kneel, she handed him one of the bowls. She had pureed the carrotsinto the soup and now the liquid was a beautiful, rich orange color with a glistening sheen.
“This looks good.”
“I think it will be.” She accepted her drink from him and gave it a wary sniff before taking a very small sip. “This tastes like you put the whole distillery in it.”
“Good.” He picked up his controller. “That’s how it should be.”
“I feel like we’re about to get in trouble,” Jay said, laughing self-consciously. “Eating and drinking on the white carpet. Remember how Yelena was always so particular about the carpet? She seemed to think your dad would skin her alive if it ever got stained.”
Nicholas glanced at her, and then casually let some of his curry tip out onto the rug.
“Nick! Oh my god! I put turmeric in that! It’s going to stain!”
She jumped up, and he reached out to catch at her hand, giving it a little tug. “Sit down, blue jay. It’s just a rug.”
“A stained rug.” She looked at him for a long moment before sinking back down beside him. She looked so sweet with her skirt riding over her knees. Now that she’d brought it up, this really did remind him of when they were both in school, whiling away the hours until their parents came home to ignore them in person. “Why did you do that?”
“Because it’s my rug.”
Jay shook her head. “Unbelievable.”
“Cheers,” he said, lifting up his cocktail. “To the carpet.”
She wrinkled her nose as they clinked glasses. “To getting ants.”
He clicked his tongue at her before shooting her ship out of the sky.
“Nick! I wasn’t ready.”
“Your toast was shit.”
“God, you’re so annoying.”
“You love it.”
“And manipulative.” She gave him a challenging look. “Arrogant.Pretentious.”
“Well, that last one is more habit.” He waited for her ship to respawn while he took a thoughtful drink. “You go to all the right schools, meet all the people, and you don’t need to be taught good taste because good taste is all you’re ever exposed to.”
“Nobody made you do any of that.”
“My father did,” he said quietly.
