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I see Tate shift in his seat out of my peripheral vision. “I’ll take off the bandage and check it out after dinner for you, if you don’t mind,” Mitch says, pouring himself a drink.
I do mind, but I think that it’s getting worse by the hour, so I silently concede and get back to my annoyingly good potatoes. Over the next hour I focus on psychoanalysing Mitch’s interior décor. He’s very woodsy, which makes sense considering his job. I wonder if he made this table. I wonder ifTatemade this table. My cheek’s heat up as I picture him rubbing down the dark oak top.
Get me out of this house.
When everyone finishes eating Mitch insists on inspecting my hand, so I sit on the couch as he undoes the bandages and he lets out a little hiss once my hand is bare.
“How long ago did you do this?” he asks, already rummaging in his first aid kit for something. Hopefully an axe.
Tate is standing over us looking incensed with his arms folded across his chest. I bask delightedly in his discomfort. “A few days ago,” I reply, with a nonchalant shrug. When Tate’sgaze moves from my hand to my eyes I do a sort of self-satisfied smile. His eyes narrow.
“Dad, she needs to go to the doctor’s.”
What’s it to you, Tate?
Mitch doesn’t look up at his son but he nods in agreement. “The cuts aren’t deep but there are multiple, and it’s swelling because one of them must’ve become infected. Hopefully only one of them. We’ll get you antibiotics tomorrow.”
I shake my head at Mitch. “I can go on my own - I don’t need you to come with me.”
Mitch looks up at me once he finishes applying some sort of gel. “Your mom said you don’t drive,” he responds.
That’s kind of embarrassing, especially since I kind of like cars, but I brush it off. “I don’t, but she can take me some time. I’m not putting you out.”
Mitch frowns. “Your mom’s going to be pretty busy at the storage unit tomorrow.”
Now it’smyturn to frown. “My mom doesn’t even have a storage unit. What are you talking about?”
Mitch folds his lips in on themselves. My mom sits down on the free armchair like an Angel of Doom. I glance up at her and she gives me an unnervingly innocent smile.
“River, I’m sure that you’re wondering why you’re meeting Mitch today,” she begins calmly. I sit back a little so that I have enough vantage to look at her fully. “As I mentioned, Mitch is an amazing joiner.” Her pause makes me prickle with nerves. “So I wanted you to meet him before I let you know that he will be doing the refurb on our house.”
My brow creases in confusion. What? I don’t know why she would want our house refurbished, but that doesn’t seem like an issue, regardless. Why are they acting like this is an issue? Am Ithathostile?
I shrug my shoulders and say, “Okay.”
No-one says anything else. Mitch is staring at my mom. My mom is staring at me. I want to stare at Tate and find out if he knew about our parents, but my gut tells me that this is a freshly unveiled nightmare for him too.
I look back at my mom, my suspicions rising by the second. “Aaaaand...?” I prompt.
“Well, obviously he’s going to be in the kitchen to do the cabinets, because the whole thing is going to be coming out. And he might also do a shelving-unit in the living room, for the TV and some displays – you know the sort,” she says casually.
I don’t know where she’s going with this.
“So because he’s going to be doing all of that, we thought, why not spruce up the upstairs too? Maybe matching cabinets in the master bedroom and then, um-” she pauses momentarily. Then she starts speaking a mile a minute. “We thought it might be beneficial to knock through the office wall so that we have three large upper rooms, instead of just two large, two small.”
I blink at her like an extraterrestrial. Why would I care about any of this? I mull over her words for a moment.
Then I look back up at her.
“But if you knock through the office wall, you’ll-”
You’ll be in my bedroom.
I’m not going to be able to stay in my bedroom.
Which means-
“So whilst Mitch and Tate and the boys on the team help out atourhouse, he thought it might be handy if we just… stay with them. Here.” She smiles.
