Straight Punch by Monique Polak

Author:Monique Polak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2014-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

For someone so out there, Pretty Boy was surprisingly in here when it came to tea.

Our pantry had a whole shelf with just boxes of tea. “Chamomile, mint, red hibiscus…” I rattled off the names to Pretty Boy as I moved boxes out of the way so I could get to the boxes behind them. “Sleepy Time, licorice…”

“What about Red Rose?” Pretty Boy asked. “It’s the only tea I drink.”

I found a box of Red Rose tea at the very back of the shelf. I estimated it was about ten years old, but Pretty Boy didn’t need to know that. Besides, maybe tea improved with age—like wine.

Pretty Boy was fussy about teacups too. A mug, he said, wasn’t right for tea. He wanted a cup with a matching saucer. Luckily, we had some of those. When I gave him a choice of two, he couldn’t tell I was teasing.

“Delicious,” he said as he sipped the tea.

I’d made myself a cup of licorice tea. “So I was in Chinatown with Cyrus yesterday and we ran into Jasmine,” I told Pretty Boy.

“Cyrus? I thought you dumped that pretentious jerk-off. I’d put my money on you and Randy. He’s smarter than he looks.”

I ignored that comment. “Cyrus and I have been having some problems. But hey, thanks for your opinion.” I hoped that would shut him down. “Did you know she works mopping floors in Chinatown?”

“Of course I know. Everybody knows.”

“She told me how her aunt got hold of the inheritance money,” I said.

Pretty Boy took another sip of tea. “The aunt didn’t just get hold of it. She gambled it away. She’s hooked on blackjack. Unfortunately, she isn’t any good at it.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. I’d heard about gambling addictions, but I’d never known anyone who had one.

“I wish I was.”

After that, we just sat there for a while. Then Pretty Boy went to the sink and washed out his teacup. “If we were different sorts of people, Tessa Something-or-Other, we could sit here all night and shoot the breeze, but you and I have got ourselves a meet and greet with some bare walls on de Maisonneuve. You coming or what?”

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