Page 84 of Puck Drop
“He told me that you set him up with a girl who had a boyfriend.”
She rolls her eyes at that. “I didn’t know she had one. I don’t even think they were together. And,” she puts a finger up, “if she had a boyfriend, what was she doing saying yes to a date with my boy?”
“Yes,” I nod in agreement. “That’s not right.”
“I knew that girl since she’d been in diapers,” she continues as if I never said anything. She crosses her arms and huffs. “But I will say that she and her boyfriend do make a very cute couple.”
We remain in silence for a while, done talking about Sebastian’s love life anymore. The machines make their noises at a steady pace, and we are content just sitting in silence for a while.
“It’s nice not to have any visitors today,” Aunt Kathy says. “I’m happy they all care to visit, but it’s exhausting to try and entertain guests for hours on end.”
She’s talking about all of our former teammates from the Sliders who popped in since they were allowed to visit. I was happy that I got to see everyone, with the exception of those who were in the crash with Sebastian. They are either in the hospital themselves or home on bedrest.
“He told me the girl moved in with you.”
She speaks in the corner of her mouth, like she’s worried that her nephew would hear her and be upset that I know he’s been spilling my entire life to his aunt.
“She…” I clear my throat a few times. “Yes, Elizabeth moved in with me. He helped me with it,” I point toward the bed.
“Oh, I heard all about it,” she rolls her eyes. “The furniture was heavy, the moving truck was clunky, the ride from her place to yours was terrible.”
I laugh at the reminder. “Yeah, he complained a lot.”
The laughter dies on my lips when I remember how worried he was that we would get into a crash. I am getting choked up at the memories from that day. I have no idea if he was actually worried about it or if he was just trying to be funny, but given what happened to him mere weeks later, it’s like he foreshadowed what was to come.
“I like her name,” Aunt Kathy interrupts my inner thoughts. “Does she go by Betty or something like that?”
“Uh, no,” I chuckle, then take a moment to press my thumb and forefinger against my eyes in an attempt to wipe the tears that I don’t want her to see. “She just goes by Elizabeth.”
Aunt Kathy crosses her arms over her ample chest as she mulls things over.
“Hmm, I would expect something shorter. Betty is the always obvious one,” she shrugs. “But she’d sound like she was eighty-two.” She snaps her head to look at me. “How old is she anyway?”
“Not eighty-two,” I snort in laughter but get serious when she gives me a look. “Twenty-five,” I clarify. “Elizabeth is twenty-five years old. Or she will be when her birthday rolls around soon.”
“Okay,” she bobs her heard up and down. “Does she like Liz?” she asks. “Or Lizzie?”
I swallow hard, a sudden lump in the back of my throat blocking my airwaves.
“I call her Lizzie sometimes,” I croak out.
Aunt Kathy gives me a nod of approval. “I like Lizzie, too. Betty is old, Liz is fancy, and Elizabeth is too much of a mouthful.”
Unsure of how to respond to that, I remain quiet and wait for her to fire her next oddball question.
“And she paints?”
I nod to confirm. Apparently, Sebastian really gave her the rundown about everything that had something to do with Elizabeth.
“Then why would she have a job to tell people how to eat?” she asks.
Shrugging, I try to come up with a good explanation. “She needed money to pay her bills. Art doesn’t sell when you’re just starting out.”
“But she got fired from it?” I nod again. “Why? Did someone get poisoned while eating what she told them to?”
My eyes bug out of my head. “Nobody died,” I assure her. “And nobody got poisoned.”
What I tell her only seems to spur her on. She is nosy, and she’s not scared to show it.
