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When Cassadines Fall ~ The Detour
Presents Part B
Since they live on the property, Ned and Alexis are the first to arrive. Then Alan and Monica. Lila and Edward make their way downstairs. Jason and Li arrive with Michael. That has Edward narrowing his eyes because normally Carly and AJ would have taken Michael back by now. But then he checks out Jason’s date. This Li Chow girl is keeping a close eye on Michael making sure that the little boy minds his manners. And Jason is keeping a close eye on her.
“Edward.” Lila warns in a low voice.
“What?!” Edward grumbles. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Yet. Go away, darling, so that Jason will come over and introduce his date to me.”
“Fine.” Edward situates Lila a comfortable distance from the fire place and stalks over to harass Ned. He’d get his shot at making a favorable impression on Jason’s date later. Once he found out where AJ and Carly are.
Across the room, Ned warns Alexis. “Incoming.”
“What?” Alexis looks around but it is already too late, Edward has them in his sights.
“Where’s AJ?” He demands and doesn’t bother being quiet about it.
“It’s not my day to watch him.” Ned retorts cheerfully and he offers up a mocking toast toward his grandfather.
“Late for his own sister’s birthday party. He better be here before Emily arrives or there will be hell to pay.” Edward grumbles again. “His wife is probably up to something.”
Ned is feeling pretty good about AJ’s firm position in the family dog house until that last comment. “What do you mean by that– she’s up to something?”
“They normally have Michael by now. Jason bringing the boy to the party. They are definitely up to something.” Edward sees Reginald in the foyer and stalks after him.
Just as soon as Edward left Lila’s side Jason makes his way over to his Grandmother with Li and Michael. “Hi Nana” Michael gives his grandmother a kiss on the cheek and tolerates her patting him on the head.
“Grandmother, this is Li Chow.”“I am honored to meet you, Mrs Quartermaine.” Li says with a nod.
“And I you, Ms Chow.” Lila looks at Jason and with a slight rebuke in her tone. “I haven’t heard anything about you.”
Jason winces. “Grandmother....”
“EMMIE!” Michael announces at the top of his lungs. He goes running over to the birthday girl and gives her a hug around the knees.
“Hey Michael.” Em gives him a boost up even though he is too big to carry and gives him a smooch. “Where’s your mama?”
Michael shrugs. “I’m with Daddy and Li.” He points over to Jason and Li.
Emily smiles in their direction but it soon overwhelmed with the well wishers coming over to wish her a Happy Birthday. She keeps a hold of Michael allowing him to be a distraction from the attention. Monica in particular gets to spend so little time with Michael that it stops any probing questions. Once the immediate rush is over Emily goes over to Lila who has already been greeted by Johnny. He had abandoned her to the family first thing thru the door.
Edward catches up to Jason while he is pouring himself a glass of water. “So that’s Michael’s Li.”
“Michael’s Li?” Jason knows there are going to be shoes dropping. The old man has a glint in his eye that meant trouble for someone.
“He talks about her when he’s at the ELQ daycare. Makes sense since he’s going to your penthouse when he leaves there. Didn’t put it together that she was one of those... missionaries until recently.” Edward has a bit of a sneer in his voice when he says the last. It’s expected afterall since his god is supposed to be money. “Smart.”
“Oh?”
“Having the FBI take care of the immigration redtape.” Edward nods. “I’m sure you found someone more competent than those morons that couldn’t find their butts with two hands and a map let alone Emily.”
Jason winces and grunts.
“Practical. Well thought out.” Edward nods again. “Really not your problem. You’ve gone above and beyond for that family.” If you’d been caught in China with that girl’s mother in the cargo hold.... Edward shudders to think of all the concessions that ELQ- ASIA would have had to give up to the communists in order to get Jason out of one of their hell hole prisons. The bribes would have been huge.
“What’s your point, Old Man?”
“I’m just appreciating the fact that you didn’t drag the Quartermaines into this girl’s fight by doing something so foolish as to marry her so that she and her family could get green cards. That kind of thing only happens in movies or on television.” Edward dismisses the possibility.
“I don’t watch television.” Jason walks away from the old man and goes over to greet his sister, the birthday girl.
“I know.” Edward says softly. Just then Lila glances over at her husband. He gives her a little wink and then moves on to terrorize Johnny. These young bucks don’t know what’s good for them.
After AJ turns off the engine of the car, Carly turns the rear view mirror toward her and checks her hair and makeup. All the lights are on at the Mansion and from the look of the circular drive they are the last ones to arrive. “Great. We’re the last ones here. I’m really going to have to work on ways of cutting the time down on these redecorating projects. The whole thing took entirely too long. It should have been a quick in and out.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Ha!” Carly snorts and then half turns the mirror back to center. AJ takes over and makes the proper adjustments since it’s his car they are driving in now. “Your mother will probably be screeching at the top of her lungs about us being late because I was sexing you up in the backseat of the car.”
“What a great idea.” AJ grins.
Carly puts a well manicured finger in the middle of AJ’s chest and stops him from leaning in her direction. “Don’t even start, Bub. You aren’t going to get me all hot and bothered and then put me in the same room as your mother. It might put me off sex for months... no, years. It’s called negative reinforcement. I read an article about it. Long term exposure to mothers-in-law result in no sex. Hell! ANY exposure could be hazardous to your sex life.”
“And this was all in an article?” AJ comes around and holds the door for Carly and offers her his hand to assist her from the car. Most days she doesn’t need it but low slung cars and pregnant women make for an unstable combination. Probably need to either switch back to the limo or take Carly’s SUV.
“I’m sure I could find it for you.” Carly lies smoothly as keeps hold of AJ’s hand. Might as well really get Monica jacked up.
Monica watches the front door like a cat on a mouse hole. She fumes as she glances down at her watch. Just like Carly. Always having to be the center of attention. Arriving late to Emily’s party.
“Don’t Mom.”
“What?”
“Don’t start in on AJ and Carly as soon as they walk thru the door.”
“They’re late.”
“And I’m sure they had a good reason. Maybe something with Lucas.” Emily winces. “Probably something to do with me, or a birthday present for me. I wish I had my birthday cake in front of me now so I could wish for a nice polite, quiet, civilized birthday celebration.” Emily puts a lot of emphasis on the last.
Monica exhales. “Fine. But I don’t think it’s polite or civil to be late like this.”
“Mother.”
“Fine. Fine. Happy Birthday, Baby.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Emily gives her a hug. Then she gives a little hint that will hopefully get Monica away from monitoring the door. “I think Dad is showing Michael the toy train.” In honor of the possibility of Michael being over at the house, Grandfather had Reggie set up the toy train that was normally only brought out at Christmas time. Now instead of running around the Christmas tree it is circling a mountain of presents.
“I should check on them and make sure your father isn’t loading him up with sweets before dinner.” Monica moves off.
“Smoothly done.” Johnny whispers in Emily’s ear. He does a quick shoulder massage to check for any knots.
“I’m fine.” Emily pats his hand. “Disaster averted....” ... For now. But she’s taken up that sentry position watching the door for the final guests to arrive.
Reggie must have been watching the door to because he is at the front door before AJ can open it. “You’re late.”
“Go to hell.” Carly replies as she shrugs out of her coat and hands it to Lila’s right hand guy along with the present that would go on the table with all the others.
“And we’ll be leaving early too. So you might want to make sure that the car doesn’t get blocked.” AJ hands his coat over too. “It’ll be one of our presents to Em.”
Emily overhears and laughs drawing AJ and Carly’s attention to her. “Most families would considering that insulting but I do appreciate the thought.” She gives them both a hug.
“You do have plans for a real party right?”
Johnny is the one that answer. “Meeting Emily’s friends at a club downtown after the family dinner thing.” Johnny looks over at Reggie.
“I’ll tell the Cook that its time to get things rolling.” Reggie nods. “Soup in five.”
True to his word, Reggie is soon announcing that it is time for everyone to be seated for dinner. The numbers are off as far as having a balanced table. Lila would probably say that the extra space could be used for Tracy if she decided to come up from the City for Emily’s birthday. Polite fudging as that would be a cold day in hell. Course it was rather handy to have a space between AJ and Ned in the hopes of having a nice civilized dinner. Edward is at the head of the table and in honor of her birthday, Emily at the foot. Carly and Lila are seated on either side of Edward. Maybe between the two of them they could keep the old goat in line and stop him from popping off. Alan and Johnny are down on either side of Emily. On Carly’s side of the table, Michael is between her and Li with Jason on the other side of Li. Alexis is next to Alan. On Lila’s side of the table AJ is sitting next to her to put as much distance between Carly and her most common rumbling partners– Ned and Monica who are on the other side of the open space.
The dinner is excellent but flies by. Nobody is really interested in the dinner. There is a little conversation but it’s mostly isolated to people sitting next to each other or across from each other. And everybody is very careful to not throw any topics of conversation onto the table that might cause a blow up. There is plenty to get thru yet... cake and the opening of the presents. Plenty of time for the drama later. Lila’s careful seating chart serves it’s purpose.
After the dishes are cleared and it’s time for the cake to be presented there is an almost collective holding of breath wondering what Cookie came up with. The cake has been under top secret security from the time Cookie had arrived with Rita to put it together. When they had left, Sally had been put in charge with threats of severe bodily injury if anyone saw the cake before the dessert was presented. Reggie dims the lights a bit so the candles on the cake show up better. That is the clue for everyone to start singing: Thanksgiving, Christmas Fourth of July, whatever. The Quartermaines might be a cutthroat family all the other days of the year but they are total saps for holidays. To give plenty of time for the song, Sally rolls the tray with the cake on it around the table to that everyone can get a good look and just as the song is finishing up does she arrive right by Emily.
Em stands up and moves over to the cake using one hand to gather her hair back so that it doesn’t end up in the creamy white frosting or alight from the purple candles that look just like pixie sticks that are ablaze on the top. Em looks over at Johnny. “What did she do?”
“I’m not telling.” Johnny grins. “Make a wish, Em.”
Emily looks around at her family making sure to make eye contact with each one and then closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Opening her eyes she blows out all the candles but has to take a quick extra puff to get the last one. The family gives a quick round of applause and Michael even adds a little cheer. As soon as she is done, Sally moves in to help her with removing the candles and Reggie brings up the dessert plates. Emily carefully cuts the first piece. “Oh wow.”
It’s three tiers tall. Each tier is a different shade of brown... a different flavor of chocolate. Each of the fillings is a different shade as well. Em can’t resist and takes a quick fingerful of frosting. What had looked like a white buttercream frosting is actually a white chocolate frosting. Johnny looks at Em. “She did it didn’t she– a total death by chocolate cake?”
Emily savors the guilty bite before answering. “Oh yeah. This is good.”
“I’ll just have a sliver, darling.” Lila declares. “I’m sure it’s too rich for me.”
“No such thing as too rich.” Edward declares greedily eyeing the chocolate cake. “Where’s the ice cream?”
If it would have been any other kind of cake anything other than a total death by chocolate cake with a layer of fudgey devil’s food cake, a layer of milk chocolate cake, a layer of german chocolate cake. The first layer of filling between the devil’s food and the milk chocolate is a rich mocha frosting and between the milk chocolate and the german chocolate is a butter pecan frosting and then the whole thing frosted in a creamy rich white chocolate frosting... yep normally you could open presents while everyone else was having cake.
But not tonight. And not this cake. Emily makes sure there is not a crumb left on her plate before she starts opening the first present. It’s like Christmas the way they are heaped up but most of them are from friends or business associates of her family. Kind of buttering up kind of presents. Reggie knows it too and while the presents are heaped up to make a big presentation... the actual family presents are set aside to be opened. The rest could be done at her leisure after all the presents had been cataloged for the thank you cards.
“Start with Lila’s in case she gets tired.” Reggie murmurs to Em as he hands her a small gaily wrapped package.
Emily nods and unwraps the package. Inside is a velvet jewelry box. She flips it open to reveal a pin that is rich with precious and semi precious stones. “Grandmother, it’s beautiful.”
“Your grandfather gave that to me and I knew it would be perfect for you when you need a little sparkle to brighten your day.”
Emily walks over to her grandmother and gives her a hug. “I love it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Darling.”
“Give her one of mine next.” Edward demands.
“One of yours?” Alan looks at his father. “How many did you get Emily?”
“Nevermind.” Edward waves Alan off. “One of the flat ones.”
It’s about the size of another jewelry box... one that would hold a necklace but Emily has a solid clue that is not what it is. “What have you done, Grandfather?”
“Something long over due.” And just cause he doesn’t want Emily pitching a fit in front of the family. “And something we have talked about, young lady.”
Emily rips open the wrap to expose the white box within... small flat... about the size of a business envelope but thicker. Taking a deep breath she opens it up and isn’t surprised to see a thick bundle of blue backed paper tucked in with the tissue paper. She opens up the papers and examines them to find the topic. Sure enough it was something that had been discussed between her and Edward ever since she’d managed to steal Deception out from under Katherine Bell– voting stock in ELQ. Emily comes around the table and drops the legal papers next to Alexis and then goes over to Edward. She gives him a kiss on the cheek. “We’re going to fight tooth and nail. Just you watch.”
“I look forward to it.” Edward pats her hand.
“You say so now and I’m going to remind you of that later.”
AJ eyes Edward carefully. By adding another player to the ELQ table he is adding another vote that could shift the balance of power. But he has to believe that Emily would do what was best for the company.
The next present is from Monica. The one that she’d added Alan’s name to the card... just in case. Emily opens up the box and immediately flips her shoes off and grabs the pair out of the box. She slides them on her feet and exclaims. “Oh yeah. That’s wonderful.” She holds one foot out to examine the fine Italian leather pump. “These are great.” Inside the box is a matching handbag.
“Open the bag, honey.” Monica suggests.
“Oh Wow.” Emily examines the contents of the bag and then hands them to Johnny so he can see them too. Two round trip tickets to Italy... open ended. “Thank You. Thank you both.” Emily looks at Alan.
“I wanted you to be able to go when you wanted during the summer.” Monica explains giving her husband a dirty look.
It goes on as the opened presents start to pile up. There is a beautiful dress from Alexis and Ned. Alexis makes sure that it isn’t mentioned that the dress is a Gary Winslow original. That would bring the party to a boil for sure with Edward reaching for his shot gun and his nitro tablets. But she’d gotten the dress for Em’s birthday before the Vogue cover had come out. Carly tells Emily that she’d see her present later but that it wouldn’t have fit in the car. The present from Jason, Li and Michael (at least that is what the card says) is a custom painted gas tank for her Harley. Jason would be taking that back with him to install it since the Harley is being stored over at his shop. Things get kind of dicey on the next present from Edward when the set of legal papers show the transfer of the modeling agency to Emily’s ownership. Emily is about to let her Grandfather have it for interfering when Johnny interjects a quick quip.
“Guess this means you can fire that agent the next time he calls you Babe.”
Ned gets into the spirit of things even though it’s saving his Grandfather’s hide. “Does this mean you’re going to get Deception a special rate for any models you use from your agency?”
Johnny whispers in her ear. “Knowing you, you’ll probably charge Deception full price and then cut your commission in half. The models will be fighting to take The Deception gigs. Win- win.”
Emily looks at Johnny. “I love that idea.” Nodding in Edward’s direction. “Thank you, Grandfather.”
Edward breathes a little easier knowing that he has dodge a bullet there. The rest of the family presents being opened goes without incident and sure enough the collection of poetry he’d given her is the present that gets the best hug of thanks. Emily would appreciate the other presents later.
Johnny is the one that ends up breaking up the party even though it’s going fairly well, excellent by Quartermaine standards. “Miz Lila, Em and I are supposed to be meeting her friends at a club downtown to go dancing. I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut out pretty soon.”
“Oh that does sound lovely. Don’t worry about the presents, darlings. Reggie will bring them over to the apartment tomorrow.”
“Thank you for the party everyone.” Emily says to the room at large before heading out with Johnny.
“You had to take credit for my present!” Monica complains to Alan. “I was the one that thought of the tickets to Italy.”
“You probably thought that Em would take you along.” Carly snarks. “Think again on that one.”
“And you! I can’t believe you! Trying to make today all about you! Arriving late and drawing attention to yourself.”
“I’ll get your coat, Carly.” AJ stands up. “Great party, Grandmother.”
“Thank you, Darling.”
AJ goes out to the foyer to get Carly’s coat and Michael’s as well. He shakes his head in Emily’s direction. The door to the dining room isn’t even closed and she can hear the raised voices. “I think you timed things about perfectly.”
“There were a few close calls with the presents.” Johnny helps Em on with her coat.
“But they’re getting better.”
“See and that’s why everyone loves ya, Em. You’re an optimist.” AJ goes back into the dining room and this time closes the door.
Later that night, Maddy grabs her purse at the sound of a soft ring tone. Even in the noisy club her ear is tuned for the ring of her phone. She’s always on duty and her phone is always with her. You never knew when someone is going to have a shopping emergency. It’s Stefan’s cell according to the caller ID. Maddy frowns and looking at Nikolas across the table grabs the phone before it can ring again. “Mr C?” She holds her hand over her other ear to make sure that she can hear him clearly.
“Nikolas isn’t answering his phone.”
“He’s with me. We’re winding down Emily’s birthday celebration. The birthday girl has already left with her guy....” for a private party. But that is more information than Mr C would need.
“Ah.”
“So... you back from your mysterious trip that Nikolas has been covering for you?” Nik realizes who is on the other end of the phone and holds out a hand. “Niknik wants to talk to you.” Maddy hands the phone over.
“Uncle?”
“I have Madeliene’s present and will be at your house in...” Stefan does a quick consult with an unknown voice on his side of the conversation. “...Twenty minutes. It would be best if it were just you and Madeliene due to the late hour and the unsettling affects of a transatlantic flight.”
“Right.” Nikolas hangs up the phone and hands it back to Maddy. “Stefan wants to see us in 20 minutes at our place.”
Lucky hears that and grimaces. “Have fun.” He nuzzles in next to Elizabeth.
Nikolas, knowing his brother’s contrary nature, doesn’t mention that Stefan didn’t want his brother at the meeting. That is a sure way of making sure that Lucky would be there. “We’ll see you in the morning then.”
“Not too early.” Lucky says cheerfully as he does a little finger wave sending his brother and Maddy off to meet Vlad.
Liz gives him a quick smooch after Maddy and Nik leave. “You know that was just mean.”
“Yeah.” Lucky grins. “But better them than us.”
Johnny tucks Emily in close to him as he reaches around her to unlock the door to his apartment above the restaurant. He nuzzles Emily’s neck. For them, the Quartermaines had been on their best behavior. Cassadine had his hands full with Maddy so things managed to be civil when they’d all met up at the club afterwards to go dancing.
“Um... Johnny?”
“Yeah?” Johnny is paying more attention to Emily’s shoulder and neck than anything else.
“I think I know why Carly and AJ were late for the party. You remember that present to be named later?”
Johnny looks up and sees what the open door reveals for the first time. “Sonofabitch.”
Emily winces at the shocked exclamation. “How ticked are you?”
“Ticked doesn’t describe it.” Johnny escorts Emily into the apartment so that he can see the whole transformation. Before tonight his apartment had been pretty beige– neutral. The apartment until Em had stayed there after breaking her ankle and now had always been a place to crash not something he’d been particularly invested in. Beige would not describe the place now. “Shocked. Amazed. Awed. Freaked. Ticked maybe a little because there is supposed to be topnotch security on this place.”
“Rita.”
“Ah yes, Rita.” Johnny realizes something else. “An hour, Em.”
“What?”
“Figure from the time we left here until Carly and AJ arrived at the mansion... about an hour to do all this?” Then something else occurs to him. “She better not have laid a finger on my kitchen!” He practically races across the apartment flipping on lights as he goes.
“This is my birthday present, Johnny. I think you can pretty well believe your kitchen is just as it was.” Emily says wryly. She knows Carly so she knows this is just the beginning and there is more to come. Em flips the lights on in the bedroom. “Oh wow.” All the furniture is the same because they were good pieces to start but now there is color: different lamps, different bedding.... Em checks under the bedding. ...Different bed. She hears Johnny come into the bedroom. “No way AJ and Carly could have done this in just an hour. No way.”
“Probably had plenty of help.” Johnny realizes something that had been bothering him when they’d been out with Em’s friends. They’d all been passing secret looks all night. “I think your friends were in on this one too.”
“Is this going to drive you crazy?” Em asks hesitantly.
“You drive me crazy.” Johnny counters. Picking her up he drops her on the bed atop the midnight blue comforter. Em shoves it out of the way exposing the silky smooth egyptian cotton sheets beneath. Johnny stalks in the direction of the bed kicking off his shoes as he goes. Kneeling on the bed he slides a hand down the silky hose covering Emily’s legs and eases off the brand new Italian pumps. Soon there is a tangle of hands and laughter as they get in each other’s way trying to get the other’s clothes off. Johnny reaches into the bedside table for his supply of protection. “Sonofabitch.”
“What?”
Like his apartment, his choice of protection had been pretty beige. Johnny holds up a package with a picture of a ribbed candy cane striped condom. He doesn’t say a word.
Emily blushes and then bursts out in laughter. “Maddy. Got to be Maddy. She’s the one that is into candy.” Flipping over onto her stomach Emily reaches into the stash. “Anything in here that looks like a pixie stick?”
“So you going to tell me what the big secret is finally?” Maddy asks. She keeps her eyes on the road. Both of them are sober. The club would let them in to dance but she never risked it where alcohol is concerned. Especially when she is going to be the one driving. She had too much respect for the roads in Port Charles, New York in February. “What you and Mr C have been up to all this time? Why he had to go flying off cancelling our weekly chess game?”
“Oh I’m sure he’ll collect on an extra chess game.” Nik non-answers.
“Candy!”
She’s really such a joy to tease. And he could so rarely keep secrets from her. “You’ll see soon enough.”
“You’re going to pay for this.”
“I look forward to it.” The limo is already at the house and the lights are on. Maddy pulls the van up to the back kitchen door as is her practice. She is already half out the van by the time Nikolas is there to give her a hand out. “I do want you to know that this was not my idea.”
“OH go for deniability now.” Maddy opens up the door. “Hey Mr C, KC.” Maddy greets Stefan and his companion.
“Good evening, Madeliene.” Stefan answers.
“Did you have a good flight?”
“It was eventful.” Stefan answers wryly.
Just then there is a movement under the kitchen table and a big lumbering dog comes out from under it. He sniffs at Nikolas but heads directly to Madeliene and plops his butt on the floor. His tail makes broad sweeps on the floor and he gives a deep rumble from the base of his throat in greeting.
Maddy’s eyes go wide and her mouth moves faster than her brain. She normally does try to avoid swearing in front of her elders. “Holy ****! You got me a PONY?! And you brought it in the HOUSE?!”
“This is Mir. He will be keeping you company now that Cinnamon has returned to his owner.”
“He’s a little sleepy.” KC says wryly “We had to give him another sedative on the flight. He woke up midway and wasn’t thrilled to be in the air.” And oh that was fun. “Mir’ll be more himself in the morning after the drugs are out of his system.”
Maddy reaches down and gives Mir a scratch behind the ear. The dog leans into her hand and closes his eyes giving another rumble. It feels so good that he kind of slides bonelessly to the floor and takes up as much room as the bear skin rug he starts to resemble right in the middle of the kitchen floor. “Mr C, you shouldn’t have. I mean it. I appreciate it and everything but you really shouldn’t have. I can’t have a dog. Cinnamon was just a temporary thing.”
“That’s too bad.” Stefan says sadly. “Very well I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”
“Take care of it?” Maddy asks suspiciously. That had been too easy.
“Having the dog put down.”
“EXCUSE ME?!”
“It’s your dog. It was trained to your scent. It can’t be anyone elses. If you don’t take it it will have to be destroyed.”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Maddy demands. “Just because I can’t have a dog doesn’t mean I want it DEAD!”
Stefan holds a hand out to KC. “I’ll be by tomorrow to pick him up. I do apologize. I should have discussed it with you first.”
“Just wait a damn minute.” But Maddy can’t manage to stop Stefan and his companion before they are out the door. She turns on Nikolas. “He didn’t mean it right? He wouldn’t kill the darn thing just because I can’t have it?!”
Nikolas half shrugs and shakes his head. “Maddy... It wasn’t my idea.” He repeats again. “But I did know what he was doing... after the fact. Whenever you’ve gone to the island to use the exercise equipment... when the weather has been foul or after a chess match or... ?” Nikolas shrugs again. “He was sending your workout gear to Poland. The dog has been trained to your scent... since your birthday when Uncle realized that you wouldn’t be keeping Cinnamon.” His eyes narrow. “Wait a minute. You’ve said over and over that you can’t have a dog. Not that you didn’t want him.”
“He’s as big as a house! I’m going to be going to school. Living in an apartment. I can’t have a dog like that.”
“Again. Can’t. Not don’t want.” Nikolas shakes his head. “I disagree. You can’t afford to not have a dog, this dog. Not with the work you do. The time that you spend on the road isolated and alone. And you were never planning on living in an apartment. Your plan all along has been to build enough legitimate income to BUY your own place.” He is very careful to not mention school or Maddy moving even while trying to convince her of the rightness of having Mir.
“Yeah, well if I kept him... condo and houseboat just went out the window as options.” Maddy says dryly. Maddy cocks her head to the side and studies her lover. “Okay, I’ll buy that you had nothing to do with this, but you like the idea don’t you?! Me and the dog.”
Nik nods. “Yes. I would...” Nik searches for the phrase and it doesn’t quite fit because he never does when she isn’t around. “...sleep easier if you had Mir with you. Especially after the way Cinnamon guarded you against my grandmother. Guards’ loyalty may be bought or turned. I’ve found that out the hard way. This is your dog, Maddy. And you can have him.” He gives her a grin. “You know you want to.”
“Don’t be a wiseguy. I’ll think about it.”
