Kai shrugged again, shoving a piece of bread in his mouth without toasting it. “It is what it is, you know? It sucked, but it’s not like I could do anything about it,” he said around his mouthful.
“Kai, you can go to a lawyer.”
Kai burst out laughing as the toast popped up. He dropped the four pieces onto a plate, shaking out his fingers from the heat. He dragged the plate to where the butter dish sat beside the stove and began carefully spreading too much butter across the entire surface.
“You know any lawyers who work for Monopoly money? Shit,” he drawled out the word, “I don’t even have Monopoly money!” Kai continued to chuckle, shaking his head. “This ready?” He pointed to the pan where melted cheese had oozed all across the surface of the omelette.
“Yeah, c’mere.”
Kai uncovered the lid, and Nolan handed him the spatula, showing him how to fold it in half. Mostly. The omelette slid off a little prematurely, but the underside was perfect.
“Slice it in half and plate it up.”
Kai carried both of their plates to the table, and Nolan followed with their cups and the fruit tray.
“What’s that?” Kai nodded towards a mason jar on the table. Nolan grinned.
“Pepper sauce. Do you like spice?”
“Hell yeah, I do!” He reached for the jar, and Nolan handed him a spoon.
“Start with a little. This is homemade by my mother. It’s hot as fuck.” Nolan watched as Kai dipped a bite of egg into the sauce and popped it in his mouth sucking in a breath dramatically as the heat hit his tongue. Nolan laughed, his shoulders shaking, as Kai scrunched his face.
“Damn, that’s hot! That’s amazing!” His eyes lit up, and he scooped more onto his plate before diving in.
“Take it easy. It’s hot going inandout.” Nolan helped himself to some as well but was more than content to watch Kai. He ate with energy just like yesterday, but today there were no tears. Given that he didn’t know how to cook, and how lean he was, it was easy to guess that he probably didn’t eat nearly enough or very healthily.
He was starting to put together a picture of Kai’s life. What had happened to him after his uncle had thrown him out? He’d said that he had Liam, but Liam looked to be around Kai’s age. Kai had been alone when Nolan had found him in line for the club bathroom, clearly too drunk and falling asleep, and Liam had been nowhere to be seen. That didn’t seem like a very good friend.
And then there was this uncle. Knowing that he was out there, that he had stolen something significant from Kai and left him exposed to who even knows what, made Nolan want to find him, beat the man and take back what was rightfully Kai’s.
“I could help you, you know. Get your grandmother’s house back.”
Kai paused but didn’t look up. “Nah. Like I said, it is what it is. It was a long time ago.”
Nolan knew he should let it go, but the injustice of it burned too strong. “I can talk to a friend of mine. He can at least let you know what your options are.”
“Your friend’s a lawyer?”
“Yeah. It’ll just be a casual conversation.” He scooped some of his own omelette into his mouth, savouring the bacon and cheese with perfectly cooked egg.
“I dunno. Maybe. Can I think about it?”
“Yeah. We’ll talk about it some more later.”
“What about you? What’s your family like?”
Nolan wasn’t sure if Kai was trying to change the subject, but he’d let it go for now.
“Huge. Chris and I have five other siblings, and three of them are married with kids of their own. My mom has seven other siblings all scattered around the city, two sets of grandparents, six million cousins.”
“That’s huge!” Kai’s eyes were round as he stared.
“Parties are pretty wild.”
The corner of Kai’s mouth quirked, but he still looked kind of awed. Nolan took advantage of his momentary distraction to dump some fruit on his plate. “Eat up.”
“Do you like it?” Kai asked, shovelling berries into his face. “What’s this green thing?”
