“No, actually,” Zahra spoke up, “with the way you put it, it just sounded like you have one for curing fever and one for causing it…”
“You’re also a fucking idiot, Zahra; you just know how to package it.” Dog groaned. “Anyway, it’s one of my father’s secret recipes; his grandfather passed it down to him. It was created when my great-grans Olga was on the brink of death from fever, and he made a soup and brought her back to life, fever gone. Then he made people from the church buy it for an outrageous amount of money. My great-grans died two weeks later.”
I didn’t hear anything else after that. The silence stretched into seconds, entering a minute before…
“I really hope Marino didn’t hear that,” Upper said.
“Me too,” Milk seconded.
I squeezed Zahra’s hand in mine, and she squeezed back before saying, “Nah, he didn’t; he’s passed out.”
“I found ice and a small towel.” Elia’s voice entered the room again.
“Permission to use the kitchen, Devil?”
“Why the fuck do you need my permission?” His voice wascloser now, and right after he spoke, I heard a squeeze of water, and something cold and soothing was on my forehead.
“Uh, you’re the brother?”
“Dog, will the soup help?” Zahra spoke up, stroking my forearm through the hoodie sleeve.
“Guaranteed, tested, and five percent trusted, but he’s young, so… I don’t think he’ll die in two weeks.”
“What?” Elia snapped.
“You have Elio’s permission,” Zahra cut in.
There was a slight snorting sound. “Girlfriendspeaks forboyfriend, I see.”
“It’s not like he can speak for himself; get to the fucking kitchen and stop fucking around.” Elia groaned.
“Or maybe I could just leave and fuck my way around this cruise because someone can’t seem to appreciate when a friend is doing something for their sudden brother who he doesn’t like, but has to help, because he doesn’t want him to die like my great-grans Olga, bless her soul,” Dog muttered.
There was a second of silence before Elia cleared his throat.
“Please. Dog. Help. Me.”
“Maybe a little less strained, something forthcoming, from the heart—”
“Dog, for the love of God,” Zahra gritted out.
“Fine, just because Zahra mentioned God, and I love God, so, yeah, I’ll help,” he said, and I could hear the smugness. “Milk, you want to be useful?”
“Yeah, coming.”
“What about ingredients?” Upper asked.
“I’m sure it’s all there. I checked the catalog for the platinum suite, and the stocked ingredients I saw will do the trick.”
“Good.”
Footsteps were retreating.
“Oh my God, there are cats!” That came from Milk. “Awww, he has cats?”
“Shit,” Zahra cursed.
Elia sighed with a small laugh. “Wanna get off the floor?”
