Sliced Trees and Dead Words

17 - He's rewriting the entire male species in my mind.

- LUNA -

Luna: Nell, will you hate me if I have today off?

I feel awful for up and leaving Nella in the lurch with work. Weekends can be so chaotic there with people coming up for a short trip away to the beach, pampering themselves with a haircut and maybe dolling themselves up with some professionally applied makeup before going out on the town on a Friday night.

I feel even more awful that I left without having asked her first. Wolfe and I are already in the car, just leaving the Byron Bay town limits and merging onto the freeway. If she replied saying yes, I'd have to get out and hitch back home, which wouldn't be hard considering the constant flow of travellers we have who come to stay temporarily from every which direction.

Nella: Of course not, babe. I assumed you might be away this weekend after I spoke to Wolfe this morning. Take as much time as you need, and text me as soon as you get there to let me know you arrived safely. Love you xo

Nella: Oh, and take it easy on Wolfe, Luna. He was really gorgeous with you last night, and he seems like a genuinely good (and hot) guy ;)

"Why do you look like someone just sent you a picture of one of Medusa's turds?" asked Wolfe, his eyes shifting between the road ahead and the side of my head a few times as he laughed at himself—or my disgusted facial expression, I don't know—and refocussed exclusively on the road.

I can't really tell him that I'm irritated at Nella for betraying me by backing his corner, but chose another Nella-related reply and asked when and how he spoke to my best friend this morning.

"I went for a run when I couldn't get back to sleep and bumped into Nell and Mase on the beach," Wolfe said. It kind of made my Lune feel less special considering he shortened Nella and Mason's names too. Maybe his cognitive functioning only allows for one syllable names? Or maybe he's already just too comfortable with my friends that everyone has nicknames now. Next he'll be referring to Siella as Si, or El, or La. It would probably completely destroy what little self-esteem I have left.

Curiosity left me with a lot of questions, and he's been silent since he got in the car and started driving. "What did you talk about?" I asked.

He smiled at the road, and patted Medusa's head as she lay on my lap after changing gears. "Your need to access detox and/or rehabilitation services for your alcoholic tendencies."

Bastardo!

"You're silently swearing at me in Italian again," he laughed as he changed lanes to overtake the slow Holden Barina in front of us. "Aren't you?"

"I can do it out loud if you'd prefer?" I countered, annoyed by the fact he seems to know how much I swear at and about him in another language. I assume I did it a lot last night. I seem to grow more Italian when I'm drinking. Tony finds it amusing, as it seems Wolfe does too if his laughter is anything to go by.

"You don't strike me as one to hold back, Lune," he said, tapping his knuckles on the dashboard as if he was impatient about something. "You have something to say to me, say it. Any language, any time. Though, there's a good chance I won't understand you if it's anything other than English."

"Well, non capisci una fava," I said, grinning as I looked out the passenger window because I just likened his intelligence to my favourite legume, and also kind of because he called me Lune again.

"You see, I want to be insulted because I know you probably just called me stupid or something because I can't understand anything other than English; but it just sounds too sexy to be offended when you speak like that."