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“Hi, Tim. Yeah, it’s going great.” She moved back over to the coffee pot. “Do you want some coffee?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Tim, do you want to look at Greid’s baby pictures?” Kiti asked, shooting me a wide smirk that I returned with a scowl.
He chuckled. “Best not get distracted, got to start work.”
I was giving him a raise. He looked entirely unfazed as he set his cleaning supplies down and went into the laundry room to grab the rest. The guy was unflappable, and perpetually cheerful in a way that creeped me out a little. But just for tearing Beryl away from the baby photos, he was getting a hefty raise.
If he could somehow get my sister and mother out of the house with minimal damage to my pride, I’d double it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Greid
Once Beryl had left for work and Tim had finished for the day, I started the painful process of trying to get my mother and sister out of the house. I’d never been very good at it.
“So,” Mom said briskly, as soon as it was just the three of us. “Beryl.”
Kiti turned to me with an overexaggerated look of interest. “Yeah. Beryl.”
I glared at her and shifted in my slouched position on the floor under the window, my back against the radiator. We’d moved into the living room after Mom had complained that she was too old to stand up for so long—she wasn’t—and the two of them were lounging back on the couch.
“She seems very nice,” Mom commented when I said nothing.
“She is,” I muttered.
“Are you… involved, kushka?” Mom coughed delicately into her fist. “Because not to be crass, but I birthed you, Greid. I know you are a… fully formed biological male. I can’t imagine that’s particularly pleasant for a human.”
My ears fluttered wildly. “It’s not like that. We’re not involved. We’re friends.”
“Friends who live together,” Kiti said slyly.
I scowled at her. “Lots of friends live together. There’s literally a human show about it.”
“Don’t most of them end up fucking at some point though?”
“Kiti,” Mom admonished, but fixed me with an intent look. “So you’re not… romantically involved? Because you know I get a sense for these things, kushka, and it seemed like—”
“No,” I cut her off, my voice rough as my stomach squeezed into a little knot. “We’re not romantically involved.”
“He wishes they were though,” Kiti said to Mom. “Look at him. Like a sad little puppy.”
I glared at her. “Shut your face, asswipe.”
“Sex isn’t everything, kushka,” Mom said kindly, but I still cringed at hearing that word come out of my mother’s mouth. “I should know. I’ve gone long enough without it.”
“Ew,” Kiti and I said at the same time.
“I’m just saying.” Mom huffed. “If you and Beryl want to be together, you shouldn’t let that stop you. Or if you do want to be together in that… sense, there are ways around it. There’s a wonderful shop online I can show you that has all kinds of—”
“Mom, please.” I slid down fully onto the floor, the back of my head bumping over the radiator. “Please stop talking.”
“Fine,” she said snippily, lifting her coffee cup to her mouth. “Forgive me for wanting to make sure my baby is happy and fulfilled. I know that unpleasantness with Agma left you… out of sorts, and I’m just saying, Beryl seems like a lovely woman.”
“She does,” Kiti agreed, then smirked at me. “She’s pretty. Too pretty for you, buttface.”
I scowled at her before pulling my hood over my head. “Yeah, she’s… I know she is. But we’re not—It’s just—Look, next time you visit, can you maybe not show her all my embarrassing baby photos, please?”
