Hard Act to Follow by K. Vale

Author:K. Vale [Vale, K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
Published: 2014-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Kyrie pulled the packing tape over the seam of the box with a rip, and then kicked the box out of the way and reached for the next.

“Careful! Some of that’s breakable.” Liv rolled another mismatched glass in newspaper and snugged the object into a nearly full bin. “Tape,” she said, holding out a hand.

“I’m the tape guy.”

“No, you’re the angry guy who’s gonna smash all my hard work. They may be Salvation Army specials, but they’re still mine. Tape.”

Kyrie handed it over with a grumble, and then moved toward the open TV cabinet to grab handfuls of game cases and DVDs. He fisted a tangled wad of wires, some with remotes on the end and some with plugs, most of them unused since Kyrie and Liv had moved in.

“Just move ’em to the next place,” he mumbled to himself. “Holy crap! I forgot we had a Sega here.”

“Put it in that box over there if you don’t want it.” Liv bungled the tape dispenser and it crashed to the floor. After a short struggle, she finally gave up trying to unstick the twisted piece and bit it off before she slapped the mangled mess against the top of the box. “There,” she said, nostrils flaring.

“Told you I’m the tape man.” Kyrie bent to drop the blue oblong remotes—fossils someone had left one night as a joke—and then swiped a black handleless coffee mug from the cast-off box. The type read, Step away from my mug in white letters. A photo of that grumpy bug-eyed cat from every dumb cat meme on social media glared up at him.

Greg had given Kyrie the mug after he’d complained One-Eyed Willie looked just as funny as the damn feline that somehow had made it to the big time. With his missing eye and crumpled-over cauliflower ear on the same side, Willie was an odd-looking little bugger. That’s what had drawn Kyrie to him in the shelter; Willie reminded him of a drama mask with his two-faced appearance. That, and Kyr figured no one else would pick a middle-aged fugly cat over the countless kittens that were there.

Kyrie had dropped the stupid cat mug in the sink in one of his rare fits of dishwashing, and the handle had snapped off. He kept the broken piece, tucked it away in a drawer in case some mad scientist ever invented glue strong enough to reattach a coffee mug handle.

Wonder if Greg still has the mug I gave him in return. World’s Okayest Lawyer.

With a sigh, Kyrie dropped the mug back into the box and then turned to Liv. He needed to break the sudden spell of melancholy the memory wove around him.

“Hey, you know what happens when they give lawyers Viagra?”

Liv looked up from her most recent tape catastrophe and tilted her head, unsmiling. “What?”

“They just get taller.” Kyrie snorted at his own joke out of obligation, while Liv wrinkled her face in disgust.

“You’d get taller, too, you dick. You’re both dumb.”

Kyrie grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and bounced it off her head.

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