“Jo,” I cut her off.
“What?” she asked.
“Explain fully what you’re talking about,” I ordered.
“I need employment,” she declared.
I felt my head give a slight jerk with my surprise. “Whyever do you need that?”
It was then I saw Josette’s head jerk.
“Whyever do I need that?” she parroted.
“That was my query,” I confirmed, and at her look of bemusement, I explained, “You can imagine my confusion since you’re already in my employ.”
“There are showers here,” she said.
“There are,” I agreed.
And there were. Delightful rainfalls in the bathroom that were made more delightful when Noc led me to his and we both bathed together.
“And you enjoy doing your own face paint, I mean…erm, makeup.”
“I do indeed.”
“And they have washing machines for clothes. And irons that get hot by plugging them into the wall. You don’t have to suspend them over fires.”
I knew nothing of this, really, in this world or my other.
Noc had shown us how this was done, of course, in his pursuit of introducing us to as many things as he could before he had to go to work (something that would happen that Monday, two days away, something that I was not looking forward to because it would take him from me).
He was rather diligent in this endeavor in the hopes we’d be able to get along by ourselves when we’d be on our own.
But obviously, considering the subject matter, I paid scant attention.
“This isn’t explaining, Jo,” I informed her.
“Frannie,” she leaned a hip against Noc’s basin, “we’re staying here, aren’t we? In this world.”
“Yes, unless you don’t wish to remain,” I replied hesitantly.
“I do wish to remain.” Another grin. “I like it here. But eventually you’ll have the things you do with Valentine. And you’ll be with Noc. And I’ll be—”
“With me,” I finished for her.
She scooted an inch toward me and her expression turned gentle.
“Frannie, what I’m trying to say is, nearly everything is much easier here. It takes no time at all to do the things I do for you. I can’t sit around all day playing on my phone, watching the television and waiting for Glover to text when I can care for your clothes once a week and have that done in but hours, and I can arrange your hair in no time.”
She had a point.
“And people have employment here, jobs,” she continued. “Even wealthy people on the television have employment.”
“You have a job,” I reminded her.
“I do, but the only people I know are you and Noc, Circe, a little bit, and Valentine, and I don’t know her very well either. If I go to beauty school, I’ll make friends. If I get a job, I’ll meet people.”
She had a point about that too.
“So,” she forged on, “once I learn to drive and can get around on my own, I’ll go to beauty school and arrange hair as my employment. I’ll continue to take care of you, of course,” she hastened to add. “But then, once I start making this-world money, I’ll be able to get my own place to live and—”
She’d been making excellent points.
However, this last one alarmed me enough for my voice to rise as I interrupted her with, “Your own what?”
“My own place to live.”
I raised my brows. “And why would you need that?”
She opened her mouth to speak but got naught out when we heard, “Everything okay in here?”
I turned to see Noc at the doorway to his bathroom. He was wearing another suit. He looked decidedly handsome.
I would tell him that later.
I would also react later to the way his gaze became fixed on the lovely, feminine, flowy and elegant, but somewhat revealing (due to its slash from whimsical ruffled neckline to beltline) red dress that I wore.
Now, there were other things to attend to.
“Josette wishes to go to beauty school in order to obtain employment arranging hair for other people, doing this to make a living with the objective of eventually finding her own home,” I declared like I was saying, “Josette wishes to go on a violent rampage, murdering scores of people in the name of Meer, our god of war.”
It appeared to take physical effort for Noc to tear his eyes away from my dress. They moved briefly to Josette before coming to me.
“Baby, take a deep breath and think for five seconds about what you’re saying,” he urged quietly, going on, “And while you do that, think of how many people in your world get to pick the jobs they wanna have, getting paid well enough to do them that they’re able to afford places to call their own.”
I didn’t need five seconds to think on this. I had no idea how many of such people lived in my world who were able to do that. I didn’t even care.
I just knew if Josette wanted that, I wanted that for her.
And she was saying she wanted that.
I drew in a breath and I did it turning to her.
“You do this knowing, when you leave me, if aught happens you don’t like, for instance you begin to feel lonely, you always have a home with me,” I declared.
Her upper lip started quivering.
“Do not weep,” I warned, feeling my own nose stinging.
The words were trembling when she returned, “I won’t.”
Noc interrupted our moment. “Right, before you two ruin your makeup, meaning you’ll have to wipe it all off and put it on again, can we get the hell outta here and get this fucked-up dinner done?”