Elly in Love (The Elly Series) (22 page)

“You would be surprised,” muttered Keith.

Elly walked down the hall to Dennis’s room. She almost opened the door but stopped herself short and gave a gentle rap. “Dennis, may I come in?” Elly heard an approving grunt.

Dennis was still in the exact spot she had left him—staring at her computer monitor, eyes rapt on the screen, which was now a whirlwind of color and loud explosions.

“Oh, that looks interesting!” She set the manicotti down next to him. “Is that your magic coat?”

Dennis looked over at her with a frown of annoyance. “No.”

Elly stood up. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you bring out your plate when you are done?”

“Sure thing,” muttered Dennis. He looked down at the warm manicotti and then back up at Elly, with something vaguely resembling gratefulness. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Elly shut the door quietly behind her. She headed into the living room and sank onto the couch with Keith, curling herself against his side.

“How’d it go?” he asked.

Elly gave a shrug. “I think he really likes that game.”

“He seems pretty passionate about it.” Keith wrapped his hand around hers, bringing it to his mouth for a kiss. “I’m sure that this is going to be great, him staying here.” He looked at the ceiling. He was lying.
Again.
Elly pushed down the surge of crazy circling up from below
. It’s fine. Everything is fine.
Keith gave her hand a soft squeeze and reached for his wine glass. “So … tell me all about Lola Plumb.”

Elly thought for a second. “Actually, she’s kind of
nice
. Nice and very sad.”

Keith raised his eyebrows, making a scandalized face.
I love him,
thought Elly, suddenly, impulsively.
Oh Lord, I love him
. She watched as he took a bite of manicotti, making happy faces and sounds. “Oh, so good,” he sighed.
Please don’t hurt me, Keith. I’m not sure I could survive it.

She hated even the thought of it.

Dennis was talking to someone in his room. She wasn’t sure who or what he was talking about, but Dennis was definitely talking to someone. In
her
house. Elly hovered outside the door in her pajamas, unsure of what to do
. Should I just go in there? Is he on the phone?
(There was no phone in that room.)
When did he bring someone home? What if he’s … gulp … in bed with someone?
The thought made her nauseated.
Just knock. DO IT!
Elly knocked lightly on the door. “Dennis?”

“Yeah?”

“May I come in? Are you alone?”

There was a long silence. “Uh …
yeah
?”

Elly opened the door. Her first thought was that Dennis looked like hell. Huge, dark bags hung under bloodshot eyes. His hair was streaked with dark grease spots and was plastered across his sweaty forehead. He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the night before. Elly glanced over at the guest bed. It was still hastily made—the exact same way Elly had hastily made it the night before. She couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Did you even sleep?”

Dennis gave a shrug. “No, but I had so much to catch up on. Since I left Ohio, I haven’t been leveling up my character. I can’t be left behind on the quests, just because I haven’t had time to play. Besides, my friends,”—Elly noticed the pride in his voice when he said “friends”— “they were waiting for me.”

Elly leaned against the door, trying to appear at ease.
Just me and my brother, hanging out in the morning. Totally normal.
Totally normal that he didn’t sleep because he was killing goblins and minotaurs and going on quests with his “friends,” who could be pedophiles. “So you stayed up all night?”

Dennis nodded, a blond lock of hair falling in front of his face. “Yeah, it was
sweet
.”

“Fantastic!” said Elly, not really understanding why she had said so. She motioned to the kitchen. “So, um, I am heading into the Store B this morning with some of my staff—we’re setting up some of the structural stuff inside. My friend Kim will be there with her son, Hadley, my godson, and I was wondering….”

“No thanks,” Dennis interjected quickly. “I need to grab my breakfast and get back to it. Ahora is going to be on soon, and I haven’t played with her for a while, I bet she’s
freaking
out.”

“Oh. Okay.” Elly bit back her disappointment. “Maybe we can have them over for dinner sometime soon. Hadley is so cute.”

Dennis spun his chair back to the computer. “Sounds good.”

Elly turned to leave, but hesitated at the door. “There’s cereal and milk in the kitchen, along with some Pop-Tarts.”

“Cool, cool, cool,” he replied.

She took a deep breath. “Who were you talking to?” Elly saw Dennis’s posture slouch at the computer. “Do you have a cell phone?” she pushed.

Dennis shook his head. “No, I
wish
. I was just, you know, talking to myself.”

“Oh,” said Elly. She gave him her widest smile. “No big deal, I do that all the time. It must be genetic.”

Dennis stared off into the imaginary world past his screen. “When I would get home from school every day, my mom would be working and my dad was usually at the bar or screaming at me from his place on the couch with a bottle in his hand, so I would just go into my room and talk about my day. It just felt good to get it out, you know? Everything I learned, the kids that teased me, the science award I won….” He looked up at her, and the vivid blue eyes that mirrored her own ripped at Elly’s heart. “Total loser, right?” He gave a sad smile.

Elly patted the door frame. “Nope.”

Dennis gave a smirk. “Uh,
thanks
. Coming from you, it means a lot. Hey!” The computer screen in front of him gave a short beep. “She’s
on
! She’s on. Ahora … what’s
up
?” And just like that, he was gone.

Elly shut the door behind her. “Are you going to shower today?” she shouted through the door, impressed at her last-minute bravery.

There was a pause. “Sure, whatever!” he yelled back.

Elly could hear the heavy rhythm of his meaty hands pounding the keys and his hushed voice. “Think you can take that from me, assassin? Well, how about you try and take
this
blade flurry, you half-witted troll….” Elly gave a sigh as she headed to the shower herself. Dennis wasn’t the only one who didn’t smell like roses.

Two hours later, Elly was staring at what couldn’t be a real invoice. It couldn’t be. She looked up at Snarky Teenager with total disbelief. “You ordered
koi fish
?”

Snarky Teenager gave a dismissive flick of her hair. “Yeah, and it’s going to be
amazing
.”

Elly pointed at the order. “We have a limited budget, and you bought
koi fish
?”

Snarky Teenager gazed down from the ladder, dangling two cream three-tiered Yoko lanterns from her outstretched arms. “They’re for the fountain.”

“
What
fountain?”

Snarky Teenager shook her head as she continued to climb up the ladder. “Trust me, it’s going to be beautiful. We need to create an atmosphere of beauty and Zen.”

“
Well, I am not feeling very Zen right now as I look at an invoice
for five-hundred-dollar
koi fish
,” growled Elly.

Kim scampered past Elly, swooping Hadley up in the air near her face. “Look at the lights!” she cooed. “Don’t freak out, Elly,” she warned, looking backwards. “You promised a fun day of pizza and Japanese-style decorating.”

“We’re having pizza?” replied Snarky Teenager. “
So
many calories.”

Elly walked over to the new desk that Keith had brought in for them this morning and picked up her clipboard, letting out a moan as she gazed at her to-do list. It was still about eighteen items long. Glancing around the store, Elly couldn’t believe the transformation that had already taken place. Under Snarky Teenager’s talented direction, the store was radically different than the starkly barren space it had been before. The sterile white walls had been painted over with a vibrant lime-green paint, accented by one plum and gray accent wall. Light bamboo shelves lined one entire wall, and in the corner, a huge kentia palm stretched its leafy arms toward the ceiling. A round mahogany desk sat in the very center of the room, which made the entire store center around its clean lines and impressive shape. Elly admired the desk from a distance. It was lovely—rich and cherry colored, with tiny striations in the wood. She had had her eye on this desk for months for Posies, but once she had decided to open this store, she knew it was a much better fit here than it was in her cute little antique-y shop. She was still admiring it when Snarky Teenager placed a giant gold Buddha on it.

Elly paused. “Um, what the heck is that?”

Snarky Teenager looked at it. “It’s a Buddha.”

“I know what, or who, it is. Why is it in this store? Or better yet, why is it on my new desk?”

“Because it looks great there, that’s why. This adds to the atmosphere.”

Elly looked over at Kim, who curled her lip and quickly shook her head before placing a wet raspberry on Hadley’s soft cheek. He screamed in delight. Elly turned back to her upstart employee. “That’s ostentatious. No. It’s not going there. Besides, no one in this room is Buddhist.”

“I’m pan-religious,” declared Snarky Teenager.

“Well I’m mono-Baptist,” replied Elly, “and I’m pretty sure that it’s insulting to real Buddhists that we are using their deity for decor.”

Snarky Teenager’s eyes clouded over with anger. “Well, I like it. It goes with the feeling of the store, and the koi fish and the bamboo. We want this store to feel like a spa,
not
like a tent revival.”

“Not having a Buddha hardly makes this store feel like a revival.”

Snarky Teenager stomped her foot angrily.

Pick your battles,
Elly silently reminded herself. “Fine. You can keep it, but put it in the corner.”

“Nobody puts Buddha in the corner,” mumbled Kim before she and Elly burst into giggles.

Snarky Teenager rolled her eyes at them. “I don’t get your old-people jokes.” They laughed at her all through lunch.

As the afternoon light crept through the office windows, the hours flew by and the shop was really taking shape. Kim, still looking fresh in her pink paisley summer dress and gladiator sandals, cradled Hadley lovingly in her arms. She handed him to Elly. “I’m going to get a coffee. Want a hot chocolate?”

“You know me so well,” Elly replied. “If Hadley and I are gone when you get back, no worries, I just stole your baby.”

Kim gave a tired grin. “I might let you keep him.”

“Liar.”

Kim planted a kiss on his head and walked out. Elly, ever so careful, carried him over to the desk on her hip, sinking down into an old computer chair. “Hi, munchkin,” she mouthed, running her fingers over his face. Hadley grabbed at her hand, making cooing sounds. His impossibly bright sea-glass eyes stared back at her, and his chubby cheeks flushed pink when she blew on them. “This is the most gorgeous baby ever,” she announced.

“Agreed,” said Snarky Teenager, hanging the last of the lanterns. “My turn next.”

Never,
thought Elly. Before she could stop herself, her mind was racing to the future.
I wonder if Keith and I had a son, would he have bright-blue eyes like mine, or a deep stormy blue like Keith’s? Would he be chubby from the get-go? Have a natural knack for making sandwiches? Would he able to carry a tune?
Hadley pushed out the world’s most-violent sneeze, making his eyes cross. Elly’s heart leapt with happiness. It was all too adorable. She looked around the store. With the lanterns hung, it really started to look how Elly had pictured it. It had that deep, aesthetic spiritual connection, that lulling coolness, that “
it
” feeling, whatever
it
was.
It
was a certain hipness that she didn’t have. Hadley was trying to eat her sleeve. “Okay, your turn.”

Snarky Teenager held out her arms. “Babies are, like,
so
in right now. They are the ultimate accessory.”

“Try not to drop your new accessory.”

“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. Hadley dangled precariously from her arm.

“You’re a natural.” Elly reached out to catch him as he almost squirmed out of the girl’s tiny bird arms.