10

“What are you doing?!!!” he burst out in fright and stepped away from her.

Mishi, surprised and partly amused, watched his racing heartbeat settle as he reassured himself that the crazy woman wasn’t trying anything more.

“Sorry,” she giggled, “I just wanted to check if you were alive, because it didn’t look like it. And I figured we shouldn’t have our first kiss down there in front of all those people. It might end up like this. You are aware that you have to kiss me there, right?”

“Well… yes,” Tay calmed down, still rattled, “just… I wasn’t expecting it now. Don’t do that again. I thought you’d at least… warn me or something. You have terrible ideas…”

He took the vest from the chair and continued getting dressed as if nothing had happened.

“Well, now you’ve done it,” Mishi said apologetically. “So I’ll warn you that in about thirty-seven minutes, you’ll have another one waiting for you in front of the altar. Try to handle it a little better than this. And also try not to hold me like your sister. Yesterday, when we left the restaurant, that wasn’t exactly ideal.”

“No one was looking at us. I doubt the cloakroom lady cared,” he defended himself. “But if you want to talk about things like that, I’d rather not remind you what you tried to open an oyster with yesterday.”

“Fine,” Mishi ended the bickering. “Are you ready?”

She gently smoothed Tay’s jacket and, smiling, wiped a bit of lipstick off his lip.

“I’d say yes,” he looked at the door with resignation.

“So, what was my grandmother’s name?” she tested him.

“Miladeth,” he frowned. “I’ll never forget that. Because of her, I had to buy you that horrible dump. Are you sure you don’t want to rethink it?”

“No, it’s a beautiful house. Just wait until you see the land around it.”

“The appraiser told me it’ll collapse on your head in a few years, it’s all dust and mold. Can you imagine how we’re going to look living there?”

“You told me I could pick any house I wanted. I have the Taris word,” she winked at him. “And it’s not that old, it looks lovely from the outside. Inside is already being cleared out, it won’t embarrass us. It’s only for a year, and then I’ll live there alone. You’ll survive that, won’t you?”

“I just hope at least today I won’t have to sleep on some rotted-out couch,” he grumbled, already somewhat resigned.

“You have such ideas… I furnished your study in a modern style; they delivered your bed this morning.”

“Fine,” he let it go. “So, do you have any more pointless questions, or can we finally go to our execution?”

“One more,” she stopped him and closed her eyes, “what color are my eyes?”

The room fell silent except for Tay’s helpless exhale.

“You’re unbelievable—you look at me every day!”

Tay frowned and waved off such nonsense: “If anyone asks, I’ll just say you have the most beautiful eyes in the world. That should work, right?”

Mishi grimaced, annoyed. She was still getting used to his sense of romance. For today, she gave up on Taris altogether. “I guess so.”

She slowly slipped her white dress around the furniture toward the door.

“I’ll go catch Mario. Ten minutes downstairs,” she said, preparing to leave.

But as soon as she opened the door, she thought of something: “So what are we actually going to do about the wedding night? Are we playing chess again, or are we finally going for it?”