Shacking Up(38)

       
         
       
        

We eat in silence for a few minutes. I'm starving. I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast, so I could probably plow through two or three entrees no problem, but I try to scale it back so I don't come across as uncivilized.

Ruby makes an uncomfortable noise. "I think I took too much."

"Your eyes are bigger than your stomach," I observe. She's only managed to get through half the contents on her plate.

She pats her stomach. "It appears that way."

When her shirt was sticking to her skin in the shower I noted the definition there. She's in very, very good shape. I drag my eyes back up, which means I'm looking at her chest for a second before I meet her eyes. "Did you leave room for dessert?"

It comes out heavy sounding, and a little raspy.

Ruby's eyes flare and then her lids lower, so does her voice. "Dessert?"

"I always order dessert when I get takeout from this place. It's in the fridge."

"Oh. Right. I might need a little time for my stomach to settle before I can put anything else in there." She rubs it a few times for emphasis.

I try to keep my eyes in safe zones, away from her chest.

She clears her throat. "Now that we're cleaned and fed should we go through the house rules?"

"Right. Of course. Hold on." I push away from the table and cross the kitchen to retrieve the binder I put together. Since I'm away for such an extended period I wanted to make sure I cover all possible scenarios.

"Wow. You have a binder?" Ruby looks like she's trying not to laugh.

"There are a lot of things that need to be covered."

"Uh huh."

"Your tone implies you think this is excessive."

She takes the binder from me and opens it. "How many pages is this? More than a hundred?"

"It's ninety-eight. Francesca and Tiny have very specific needs."

"Ninety-eight pages of needs." She leafs through it and mutters, "I wish someone was this in tune to my needs."

I bite my tongue and say nothing about how I'm sure I could attend to every single damn one of them if she'd like to go back to my bedroom and play "hide and seek" in my sheets with me. "It's not all about Tiny and Francesca. It also contains codes, passwords, fire safety, where to locate things, how to use various technological equipment, public transit information, areas to avoid, that kind of thing."

"Is there a section on how to make the bed? Do you have a diagram for hospital corners?"

"I trust in your ability to make your bed however you see fit." 

She stops flipping, jabbing her finger at the page. "You have instructions on how to use the washer and dryer."

"This is coming from someone who got stuck in the shower because she couldn't figure out how to adjust the temperature or work the jets. Besides, they can be difficult to figure out." It took me three loads to get what was going on at first.

"I'm more of a visual learner. Why don't you show me all this stuff? Do you have a checklist? Maybe a star chart? I can have dessert when I earn five stars." Her eyes light up with the same mischief I caught a glimpse of when she was playing with Francesca on my bed.

I spend the next hour going over everything in the house, from where to dispose of the garbage to how to use the TV remote, to where to find Francesca and Tiny's food. Ruby appears as if she's paying close attention. When she has a question she puts her hand on my arm and looks up at me with wide, inquisitive eyes.

I'm in the middle of showing her where to find the pots and pans should she want to cook when she walks away from me.

"Um, what is this?" She taps the table across from Tiny's terrarium.

"It's an answering machine."

"What year is it from? Nineteen-eighty?"

She's probably pretty close.

"It even has the mini-cassette tape!" She appears flabbergasted. "You have a cell phone, don't you?"

"I do."

"Then why do you have this?" Ruby picks it up and it takes everything in me not to freak out and tear it out of her hands.

Instead I gently pry the machine away from her and set it carefully back on the table, brushing away any dust or fingerprints. "It's nostalgic."

"Because you were born at the end of the decade?" She's sort of poking fun, but her voice is soft, and she seems more curious now than anything.

"It was my grandmother's. She'd had it forever. The tapes were so hard to find so I figured I would try to teach her how to use a cell phone. She kept saying no, and I kept trying to persuade her."