My spine snapped straight. "I"m not a lunatic."
He shook his head and returned, "This is an argument I don"t think we should have when I"m hungry and need food...or maybe ever."
I decided we shouldn"t have it, maybe ever, because I was also hungry.
But further, I was pleased Noc was not going to get more than irked about what Josette and I had done, making me feel like I"d gotten away with something that day, twice. Therefore I felt it best to quietly enjoy my success and move on.
"Thoughts on dinner?" Noc prompted.
"Pizza!" Josette cried from the living room.
Noc grinned in that direction and then he transferred that to me.
"Good for you?" he asked.
He didn"t have to ask.
It was pizza.
I still answered. "Most definitely."
He jerked his chin up to me, expression no longer irked, just sweet.
No.
Just Noc.
"Get on your phone, Frannie. You can"t slice a tomato, but you can learn how to order a pizza."
I instantly exited my stool to get my purse to find my phone, for it would be no hardship to learn how to order a pizza.
None at all.
Chapter Twenty.
I"m In Franka "I"m thinking about beauty school," Jo declared in Noc"s bathroom where I was leaned forward across his basin and putting on my lip gloss while she twitched and flipped strands of my hair that hung around my face, tucking pins more securely in the large chignon that rested at the side of my neck.
I shifted my eyes to hers in the mirror.
"Sorry?"
"Beauty school. I wish to go to one. After Noc teaches me how to drive, that is."
I straightened, slid the wand into the gloss and turned fully to her.
She dropped her hands.
"Sorry?" I repeated.
"You know, for something to do," she stated confusingly. "I"ve always enjoyed doing your hair, best part of what I do. You have lovely hair." She grinned. "But it"s even more fun here with curling irons and straighteners and smoothing elixirs and-"
"Jo," I cut her off.
"What?" she asked.
"Explain fully what you"re talking about," I ordered.
"I need employment," she declared.
I felt my head give a slight jerk with my surprise. "Whyever do you need that?"
It was then I saw Josette"s head jerk.
"Whyever do I need that?" she parroted.
"That was my query," I confirmed, and at her look of bemus.e.m.e.nt, I explained, "You can imagine my confusion since you"re already in my employ."
"There are showers here," she said.
"There are," I agreed.
And there were. Delightful rainfalls in the bathroom that were made more delightful when Noc led me to his and we both bathed together.
"And you enjoy doing your own face paint, I mean...erm, makeup."
"I do indeed."
"And they have washing machines for clothes. And irons that get hot by plugging them into the wall. You don"t have to suspend them over fires."
I knew nothing of this, really, in this world or my other.
Noc had shown us how this was done, of course, in his pursuit of introducing us to as many things as he could before he had to go to work (something that would happen that Monday, two days away, something that I was not looking forward to because it would take him from me).
He was rather diligent in this endeavor in the hopes we"d be able to get along by ourselves when we"d be on our own.
But obviously, considering the subject matter, I paid scant attention.
"This isn"t explaining, Jo," I informed her.
"Frannie," she leaned a hip against Noc"s basin, "we"re staying here, aren"t we? In this world."
"Yes, unless you don"t wish to remain," I replied hesitantly.
"I do wish to remain." Another grin. "I like it here. But eventually you"ll have the things you do with Valentine. And you"ll be with Noc. And I"ll be-"
"With me," I finished for her.
She scooted an inch toward me and her expression turned gentle.
"Frannie, what I"m trying to say is, nearly everything is much easier here. It takes no time at all to do the things I do for you. I can"t sit around all day playing on my phone, watching the television and waiting for Glover to text when I can care for your clothes once a week and have that done in but hours, and I can arrange your hair in no time."
She had a point.
"And people have employment here, jobs," she continued. "Even wealthy people on the television have employment."
"You have a job," I reminded her.
"I do, but the only people I know are you and Noc, Circe, a little bit, and Valentine, and I don"t know her very well either. If I go to beauty school, I"ll make friends. If I get a job, I"ll meet people."
She had a point about that too.
"So," she forged on, "once I learn to drive and can get around on my own, I"ll go to beauty school and arrange hair as my employment. I"ll continue to take care of you, of course," she hastened to add. "But then, once I start making this-world money, I"ll be able to get my own place to live and-"
She"d been making excellent points.
However, this last one alarmed me enough for my voice to rise as I interrupted her with, "Your own what?"
"My own place to live."
I raised my brows. "And why would you need that?"
She opened her mouth to speak but got naught out when we heard, "Everything okay in here?"
I turned to see Noc at the doorway to his bathroom. He was wearing another suit. He looked decidedly handsome.
I would tell him that later.
I would also react later to the way his gaze became fixed on the lovely, feminine, flowy and elegant, but somewhat revealing (due to its slash from whimsical ruffled neckline to beltline) red dress that I wore.
Now, there were other things to attend to.
"Josette wishes to go to beauty school in order to obtain employment arranging hair for other people, doing this to make a living with the objective of eventually finding her own home," I declared like I was saying, "Josette wishes to go on a violent rampage, murdering scores of people in the name of Meer, our G.o.d of war."
It appeared to take physical effort for Noc to tear his eyes away from my dress. They moved briefly to Josette before coming to me.
"Baby, take a deep breath and think for five seconds about what you"re saying," he urged quietly, going on, "And while you do that, think of how many people in your world get to pick the jobs they wanna have, getting paid well enough to do them that they"re able to afford places to call their own."
I didn"t need five seconds to think on this. I had no idea how many of such people lived in my world who were able to do that. I didn"t even care.
I just knew if Josette wanted that, I wanted that for her.
And she was saying she wanted that.
I drew in a breath and I did it turning to her.
"You do this knowing, when you leave me, if aught happens you don"t like, for instance you begin to feel lonely, you always have a home with me," I declared.
Her upper lip started quivering.
"Do not weep," I warned, feeling my own nose stinging.
The words were trembling when she returned, "I won"t."
Noc interrupted our moment. "Right, before you two ruin your makeup, meaning you"ll have to wipe it all off and put it on again, can we get the h.e.l.l outta here and get this f.u.c.ked-up dinner done?"
I turned again to him as Josette said, "I"m ready. I just need to go grab my bag."
She squeezed out of the s.p.a.ce while I took in Noc"s expression.
Tonight was our dinner with Dax Lahn and the director of the organization he supported.
A dinner I"d arranged that Circe would attend.
She was attending, however she didn"t know Dax would be there.
I knew Noc was not antic.i.p.ating this evening with glee.
Now, studying him, I saw he was actually dreading it.
I moved to him, lifting a hand and laying it on his chest, swaying close.
"You don"t need to go," I told him softly.
"We"ve had this discussion," he replied.
"We have, but Josette and I can easily take a taxi-"
He shook his head, his jaw getting hard. "You"re not gonna be sitting at a table with this Savage guy without me sitting right beside you."
My Noctorno.
So protective.
"I don"t know him," he carried on. "That means I don"t trust him. And that means you or Jo or Circe are not gonna be sitting at a table with him unless I"m there. And since you all are gonna be there, I"m gonna be there."
Oh, my Noctorno.
So protective of all of those who had a place in his heart.
I smiled up at him.