But inside the disappointed Mishi, everything was raging. Anxiety stirred in her at the strictness he had adopted, lecturing her like a foolish child.
With the surge of emotions, she asked, “So what do you think I should do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe stay here, if you want. You have the garden you wanted so much. You painstakingly redid this whole awful house. So stay here and… do something.”
“Do something?!” Mishi snapped bitterly. “Is that the best you could come up with?! Did it take you long? You can lecture me on what I shouldn’t do, but you can’t give me a single good alternative? Is Tay Taris missing from your head today?!”
“Probably,” Tay shot back, staring stubbornly at the cushion.
The silence that followed only made Mishi angrier. She had half a mind to smack Tay with that cushion, if only because it was currently the better object for his gaze.
“I don’t have a proposal, but I know someone who would,” Tay lifted his eyes again, even more serious and hard than when he’d been lecturing. “Mario hinted at the ball that he wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Mario,” Mishi cut in as he inhaled.
“Yes. He asked me whether I would mind—”
“He ASKED you whether you would mind?!”
“Yes. Have you thought about it?” he sounded as if she weren’t getting angry at all.
“You can’t be serious…” she stared.
“You get along. You’ve always talked so intimately here. I’m not blind—I can see how gladly he comes to see you. And how gladly you welcome him.”
“Intimately. Sure!” she snapped acidly. “That wouldn’t be strange at all. Not one bit! I’ll just hop the fence and move into the next house. And at the palace I’ll say I mixed up the office doors by two numbers to the right for a year.”
“Forget the palace,” Tay stood his ground. “What do they care. It’s your life. You know it’s not like that. There’s nothing between us, never was. You just helped me. If you like him, don’t waste your time here.”
Mishi stared at him, astonished by what he had just said. She looked dumbfounded at her glass and back at him, to see if he was delirious. In the end she let out a bitter laugh at how absurd the whole moment felt.
“You must be dreaming!” she said in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind?!”
She had to take a drink, and even though Tay wanted to say something more, she didn’t let him:
“No… no… no! Stop this! I don’t know what Mario put in your head, but I’m not going to discuss him with you here! You two are worse than those idiots at school who decided behind my back who would date me first. Do you take me for some incapable idiot, giving me permission to run after him?! I’m with you because I want to be, aren’t I?! If I thought I’d picked the wrong door, why would I be sitting here talking with you all evening?! But you know what?! If it seems normal to you to pass me along like a baton, then you two can kindly pass around someone else. I don’t have the stomach for this crap!”
She fell silent for a moment, her cheeks burning as she shook her head in agitation.
“You’re seriously mistaken about me if you think I’d ever discuss what I do with Mario with you. That’s none of your business. I can speak for myself, and I’ll settle things with Mario on my own, don’t worry. He’ll hear exactly what I think about his asking. Don’t drag him into this now. Right now we’re dealing with what the two of us agreed on a year ago—so keep your word and give me back my job!”