Page 49 of Rules in Love
“Here it is.” She gently placed a well-loved, tatty-looking book in my lap and smiled proudly as though displaying a photo of her child, “Pride and Prejudice. It’s her most famous work for a reason. It can get a little heavy in spots, and some of the terms will be foreign, but…” She shrugged one shoulder and tilted her head, giving me anehhhface. “You’re a smart-ish guy. I think you can keep up.”
So cheeky. I need to put her over my knee.Okay, stop picturing that.The book was placed on my lap. “Gee, thanks.”
“Just look after that copy. It’s the only one I have with that cover picture, and it’s my favorite.”
“Ohh, what will you do if I wreck it? Chuck a wobbly?”
Scarlett’s face screwed in a puzzled fashion, and that need to kiss her returned.
“What the hell does ‘chuck a wobbly’ mean? And that thing you said in the city, ‘chuck a uey’. What’s that?”
“Oh, I forgot I was talking Aussie. Uhh, a uey is slang for a U-turn. A wobbly is a tantrum. Picture a little kid that didn’t get a lolly he or she wanted, face down on the floor, screaming, arms and legs flailing in the air. That’s chucking a wobbly.”
“Hmm. I like it. I’m stealing that.” She giggled adorably and checked with our front seat companions if they had heard the term. Neither had, of course, and it led to a game—what’s the Aussie word for? Random words were thrown at me at lightning speed, adding to the ridiculous hilariousness of Aussie slang. Even sulky Victoria got involved.
“Builder?”
“Brickie!”
“Electrician?”
“Sparkie!”
“Toilet paper?”
“Oh, toilet paper is the same, but also dunny paper or bog roll!” That one got a laugh and an, “Ew.”
“Doctor?”
“Quack!”
“Wait, a doctor is a quack? Scarlett and Victoria studied me like an oddity. And Jason’s eyes narrowed in the mirror as he watched the road ahead.
“Yeah, that’s right,” I said matter-of-factly.
“So, what sound does a duck make?” asked Victoria.
“Oh, a duck quacks and is still just a duck.”
“Well, that’s confusing. What about chicken? What do you call a chicken, and what sound does it make?”
“A chicken is still a chicken. Or a chook, and it clucks, which I’m pretty sure would be the same everywhere, surely?”
All three nodded, looking disappointed that ducks are still ducks and chickens still cluck. The game continued for at least another twenty minutes. For me, the novelty wore off after the first five, but Scarlett’s laughter and frequent touching of my thigh meant I’d have played for days on end to see her so happy.
Seeming to have giggled herself to exhaustion, Scarlett spent the remaining journey asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. She hadn’t started out that way, but much like her constant state of movement while awake, she rolled around like a ship on rough seas during her sleep. The position she stayed in for the longest, and where she moaned, smacked her lips, and nestled in close, was right where she belonged.
On me.
It felt so right. And I knew.
Since the party, I’d been trying to find the right time to tell Scarlett about Iris. I hoped it would prove how much she meant to me. Even if we weren’t romantically involved like I knew we both wanted.
As Tarrytown rolled into view, I stole one last glance at her pretty little pout and decided I would tell her tonight.
“Scarlett, sweetheart,” I whispered. “We’re here.”
Like many a man before him, Jason was hesitant to stop along the way, so when we rolled into Tarrytown, it was an all-out sprint to the first public bathrooms we could find, located in a touristy kind of cafe gift shop.
