FLOWER

CHAPTER 7.8

And we're in for a bike trip to the hovel. Slightly sluggish after the fries. We give ourselves a moment to digest. Suddenly my phone vibrates. it's Mum. She's probably worried. We didn't tell her we'd be back later. I pick up. It's not worth eating so much before a workout.

- Halo.

- Różą, some handsome gentleman is waiting for you with flowers.

- Mum it's not possible. I don't know any handsome gentleman. - Here all the more so, and if there is, he already has a girlfriend.

- So dark.

- That's a better word. You can find countless dark ones here. - And it's not about color at all.

- Please come back, he insisted that he won't leave until he talks to you.

- Throw him out of the door.

- Róża, no such nonsense. Your father interviews him as if he were in a police station.

- Mom, it's a trap, run away from there. How he is able to talk to his dad.

- Go home.

- It's going to be hard on the bikes, it might take me a few days.

- To the hovel! Content.

- We're getting ready. - It is better not to test Mum's patience anymore.

I get up and hang up. My sister looks at me expectantly.

- A gentleman is waiting for me with flowers.

- A new way to lure us into its tentacles. I wonder what they will come up with when Romeo suddenly evaporates.

We leave the pub and get on our bikes. We try to get to the hovel as quickly as possible. Catching your parents in the act is worth everything. Every sweat and exertion notwithstanding, my stomach reminds me a little of its contents. Finally reaching the hovel, we quietly get off our bikes. We enter the garden, then the garage. We open the front door as if on tiptoe.

Of course, it's quiet inside. Suddenly, you hear footsteps coming from the living room. First, to my surprise, pink roses come out. And behind them. A smiling, slightly nervous one of the triplets. He looks too nice for Asher, too sober for James, his eyes fixed on me.

- Nathan? - His corner twitches into a filthy smile for a few seconds.

- Get out, Asher. You're not supposed to be here anymore! - Nasturcja shouts ominously.

Dad emerges behind the horsefly from the living room.

- Nasturtium, could you give him a chance to speak up?

- NO!

- You know what he did to Róży.

- Yes I know.

Asher immediately turns pale. My father looks at him without saying anything. What might happen to him next. He has the same facial expression when he goes to the shooting range. At least he was walking before we moved here.

- I wanted to apologize for this unfortunate incident at school.

- What an understatement. You should have a restraining order. - My sister won't let me speak.

- Here are roses for you. - He holds out the flowers towards me.

- Put them between your buttocks.

- I might leave you with him. I feel like I'm not needed here at all. -I'm finally asking my sisters.

You are too nice to such rubbish. - And he steps between me and Asher.

When she's done with him, I'll have a hornet, not a horsefly.

- Thank you for the flowers. I accept your apology.

- That's exactly what I was talking about. Roses have thorns, and yours is lost somewhere. - Snorts an offended sister at me.

She snatches the roses from Asher, circles me, opens the door and points to the field with bouquet

- Outing. - She looks expectantly towards Asher.

Without thinking, he says goodbye and leaves. Dad just looks at Nasturtium with pity, who looks away at our guest with hatred. Mom emerges from the kitchen and approaches dad, who hugs her. And they both look at their youngest offspring. Glaring at a bouquet of pink roses. I ask who forced him to come here and apologize to me. There's no way he was here of his own free will. Nor the change in his behaviour towards me in the days that followed. I'm not that naive.