The Arrangement novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: Lucy's Kitchen
Lucy cooked spaghetti on Thursday night, which meant she was planning an interrogation.
She cooked it the way she did everything at the end of a twelve-hour shift, with her braid coming down and her clogs kicked into the corner.
Our kitchen was the size of a closet.
It held a table with three chairs, a window that looked at a brick wall, and a smoke detector that had never once been right.
Caspar stood in the doorway with a bottle of wine in both hands.
"You're tall," Lucy said.
"Yes."
"Sit. Not there, that's Joss's. There."
He sat.
She stirred the sauce and looked at him over her shoulder for a long, silent minute.
"I'm a nurse," she said. "I read faces for a living. Do you sleep?"
"Recently."
"Do you eat?"
"I eat toast."
"Do you have friends?"
He thought about it honestly.
"I have a publisher."
"That's a no."
"It's a yes. She's very kind."
"Okay." Lucy put down the spoon. "Joss tells me there's a contract. She tells me there are twelve clauses, and one is about feelings. I need you to understand something. If you hurt her, I know where the hospital keeps the heavy needles."
"Lucy."
"I'm being friendly."
"I'd deserve it," Caspar said.
It was the right answer, and Lucy's face softened by a few degrees.
"Plus I'm a very good shot," she said. "With a syringe. I did a rotation."
"I believe you."
"Good. Pasta's ready."
She pointed at the colander in the sink.
"Joss, drain that."
I got up, and Caspar got up with me, and without a word he took the colander out of my hands and carried it to the sink himself.
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