Page 34 of Aleko
“Let me guess: Alekos Ash is dangerous, you shouldn’t be with him?”
“Considering that you are, in fact, dangerous, and you were just telling me not to associate with him, you don’t really have a leg to stand on. Also, despite being a dumbass, Carlos actually does have his heart in the right place.”
“Maybe, but I’m pretty sure he’s using his dick to do his current thinking,” said Alex, which was the pot calling the kettle black, but he could do his best to pretend his human brain was in charge.
“You know what?”
Alex wasn’t sure what Eliandra was going to tell him, but he had the feeling that it was going to be what was commonly referred to as a piece of her mind. Then his phone rang.
“Hold the argument,” he said, picking up the phone. “Lawyers.”
He listened to the lawyer drone on about Sergio’s businesses and watched Eliandra. At first, she looked pissed, but after the first few minutes, she rubbed her neck, and her eyes dropped down to the table. Eliandra was fierce and smart, but she was tired. What did she need? Not more arguing. Not more things to fight against. Except that so far, the only thing she’d willingly taken from him was dinner, and that was only because she’d wanted to rub it in Carlos’s face.
He hung up, and she looked at him.
“Are you available for arguments now?” she asked sarcastically.
He looked at his watch. “No. It’s after six, and that means I’m closed for arguments until eight tomorrow.”
She looked torn between annoyance and amusement.
“You can’t just stop mid-argument.”
“Why not? I’m not going anywhere. You can argue with me again tomorrow.”
She bit her lip, then shrugged. Her face clearly said she wasn’t planning on being around tomorrow. “All right, then what do you talk about after six?” she asked with a fake smile.
“Ethiopian food, sports, and whether the sea is boiling hot.”
“And whether pigs have wings?” she asked, reluctantly amused.
“Exactly.”
“I’m not a walrus,” she said. “Or an oyster.”
“That would be stretching the metaphor considerably,” he said. “I just liked the poem.”
“It was one of my favorites as a child,” said Eliandra. “I thought it captured the grown-up world perfectly.” It was the first personal thing about herself that she’d told him.
“What do you mean?” he asked with a smile. She looked a little surprised that he’d asked.
“Two men, the walrus and the carpenter go out into a nonsensical world and speak an even greater deal of nonsense. Then they convince some child-like oysters to follow them. Then they consume the oysters and go home again, complaining and fighting over who got more while stealing as many as possible. It seemed like a very concise description of what happens in real life.”
“Only in the poem, the cruelty is funny because they do it in rhyme?” he suggested. He’d never thought about the poem that way, but she was right.
“Yes,” said Eliandra. “But I refuse to be an oyster.”
“Good for you,” he said. “I do not wish you to be an oyster.”
“But you seem like a carpenter.”
“Ah,” said Alex, nodding, suddenly seeing the problem. He’d been an ass, and therefore he was being categorized as an ass. Served him right, he supposed. He would have to work his way out of the penalty box. Also, it would appear that stopping Eliandra from arguing was not as easy as simply declaring peace.
“Ah?” Eliandra’s eyebrows raised.
“I’m not a carpenter,” he replied. “I am a wolf. Fairly big, occasionally bad, with very sharp teeth that devour woodcutters and carpenters.”
She laughed unwillingly, but the smile was still there. Alex relaxed in his seat. This was going better. At least she wasn’t running away from him.
