Chapter 31 : Pascal's Bad Day and Other Foolishness

[pascal_curious]

 

 

“I’m going to… um… check on Andy,” I announced. I’m not quite sure why I bothered; nobody seemed to take much notice. Lazlo and Nervous were absorbed in arguing with each other in hisses and whispers, Amber and Bernard were absorbed in each other, and Circe was just standing in the middle of it all looking bemused.

 

 

I went into the house where I threw my keys on the coffee table and went in to check on Andromeda. She was awake, contentedly trying to put her toes into her mouth. I picked her up and gave her a cuddle. I wondered how long it would be before everyone left. My plans for my day off had consisted mostly of lounging on the sofa with my daughter and reading a book. We were about half way through “Atlas Shrugged” and I know she was finding as fascinating as I was.   (Note sarcasm)

 

I took Andy to the living room and placed her under her Danglemaster. It was a silly contraption consisting little dangling baubles that hung just within her reach. She loved the thing almost as much as she loved trying to eat her toes. I gave the UFO bauble a swing and watched her follow it with her big blue eyes. I had to admit, just watching her play with her toy all afternoon would be a day well spent. Unfortunately, I guessed that my brothers and friends had other plans. I knew it wouldn’t be long before one of them noticed my absence and came looking for me. I was even willing to bet a twenty on who the first one would be.

 

I went to the kitchen and took a glass from the cupboard above the sink and a bottle from the cupboard below. I took these and made myself comfortable in my favorite spot on the loveseat. I poured myself a drink and threw it back in one gulp. I immediately poured another, propped up my feet and waited. I thought about turning on the TV, but decided that I should enjoy the peace and quiet while I had it.
 
It was only a few minutes before the peace was broken by Lazlo and Nervous. They took no notice of me as they stumbled through the front door and Lazlo frog marched Nervous into the greenhouse. There was definitely something going on with those two. The hisses and whispers outside were a clear indication of that. I hoped that Lazlo wasn’t still laboring under the illusion that Amber had a thing for me. His weekly queries of “have you asked her out yet?” were really getting on my nerves. The whole idea was ridiculous. I didn’t know what it would to take to get the idea out of his head. Maybe this Bernard guy would finally convince Lazlo.

 

Lazlo and Nervous were followed by Circe, still looking bewildered. She looked at me and gave a little shrug as she crossed the room. She spotted Andromeda and stopped to tickle the baby’s toes and swing the little llama bauble. She played with Andy for a few minutes before she let out a heavy sigh and walked over to me. She was wringing her hands anxiously.

 

“Do you know when Vidcund will be home?” she asked.
 
“Monday, I think.” I told her, wondering where I should go to collect my twenty bucks. I took a sip from my glass and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Monday?” she asked.

 

I realized that she probably thought Vic was at work.
 
“He took a long weekend and drove out to Vegas last night.” I explained. “He said he needed to get away from here for a few days.” I wasn’t about to tell her who he went off to Vegas with. She would find out soon enough, and it wasn’t going to be from me.

 

“He hasn’t been answering my calls.”
 
“I don’t think he is going to be answering calls from anyone for the next couple of days,” I told her with not a small amount of grim satisfaction. I wasn’t sure about this Lacey girl he had hooked up with, but at least it wasn’t Circe. Circe had been toying with him entirely too long.
 
“Oh.” She said quietly. It was clear from her expression that she was having a hard time deciding what she would say next.
 
“When he gets home, do you think you could ask him to call me?” she asked. “We fought the other night, and I really wanted to apologi…”

 

“Circe,” I interrupted. I knew where this was going to go, and I had no desire to discuss their bizarre relationship with either of them. It annoyed me that somehow I had become caught in the middle. “Go home to your husband.”
 
She looked at me, her mouth hanging open in surprise. 

 

Before she had a chance to respond, or to even close her mouth, Lazlo and Nervous burst out of the greenhouse and ran back the hall. I could hear them stumbling over each other like fools when they reached the end.

 

“No, I’m going in there!” shouted Lazlo to Nervous. “You go, I dunno, in the bathroom or something.” I heard the bathroom door close and could only presume that Nervous was standing inside, wondering what the hell to do next. My annoyance had reached a new level with their screwing around.
 
“And while you are at it, take your son with you,” I grumbled.

 

Circe turned her back on me and wordlessly started for the door. She stopped a few steps from the door and turned around. The look on her face was one of anger and hurt.

 

“Thank you, Pascal,” she said coldly, “for all of your help this week.” She turned again and went out the door.

 

I ran my hand through my hair in exasperation and took another drink from my glass.

 

 
Lazlo gave Nervous a good hard shove toward the front door. “We’ve got a problem,” he hissed at Nervous as he marched him through the front door and into the Greenhouse. He found an inconspicuous spot between a potted palm and a ficus and pushed away a few palm fronds that were impeding his view of the driveway.

 

“Did she just call him Bunny? What the hell kind of name is Bunny?” he asked as he stretched to get a good view of what was going on outside. He looked over at Nervous who was hiding behind a nearby hosta.
 
“This is all your fault!”

 

“What?” Nervous shouted defensively. “How was I to know that they knew each other? I mean, he had paintings of her all over his house, but I didn’t know it was her. He kept calling her Sophia!”
 
“Sophia is her middle name, and what do you mean, he had paintings of her all over his house?”
 
“How do you know her middle name is Sophia?” Nervous asked. “I didn’t know that.”
 
Lazlo scowled at him. He was embarrassed to admit how the subject had come up, but he supposed he had to.
 
“We were talking about baby names and she told me that her mother had always joked that she was named after Sophia Loren because her father had a thing for her.”
 
“Who is Sophia Loren?” asked Nervous.
 
Lazlo rolled his eyes. “Never mind. What about the paintings?”

 

“He had these paintings all over the place, he painted them himself. He kept calling her his muse. I thought she was just some cute red head. I didn’t know it was our Amber.”
 
Nervous didn’t think he was doing a very good job of explaining his friend Bernard. No matter how he thought about it, it sounded creepy.
 
“That’s kind of creepy,” said Lazlo.
 
“What’s the big deal anyway?”

 

“The big deal is that Pascal is in love with her,” Lazlo whispered from behind the potted palm.

 

“He is?” asked Nervous. He was completely surprised by the revelation.
 
“Of course he is,” Lazlo assured him, “he just doesn’t know it yet.
 
Nervous made a raspberry sound of derision.

 

“Oh crap! They aren’t going to kiss are they?” Lazlo moved some leaves to get a better view. To his great relief, they didn’t kiss; they only held each other. 

 

“Why are we spying on them?” Nervous asked.
 
“Because, we have to look out for her until Pascal gets his head out of his ass and figures it out.”

 

“Oh, come on, Lazlo.” Nervous said with disdain as he turned and went for the greenhouse door.
 
“No, wait!” Lazlo shouted as he grabbed the back of Nervous’ shirt and pulled him back behind the hosta.

 

“You can’t say anything, allright?” Lazlo whispered.
 
“Say anything about what?”
 
“A few weeks ago she told me she has a thing for Pascal.”

 

“Doesn’t look like it to me,” said Nervous, indicating the canoodling going on outside the window.
 
“I’m serious,” exclaimed Lazlo, “I asked her out and she told me she was in love with Pascal. That’s why we have to get rid of this guy.”
 
“I like Bernie.”
 
Lazlo huffed in exasperation. “Trust me, I know Pascal. He’s crazy about her, he’s just been… busy.” Lazlo watched the action outside the window for another minute. He groaned in disappointment as Amber let Bernard caress her cheek. “Dammit, this just sucks. I know they are perfect for eachother.”
 
Lazlo was interrupted from his spying by Nervous’s off-key singing.
 
“Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch.”
 
Lazlo glared at Nervous with a raised eyebrow. Nervous was finding it very hard to keep a straight face.
 
“Where the hell did you learn that?” Lazlo asked.
 
“It’s one of Circe’s favorites.” Nervous explained through his giggles.
 
Lazlo went back to his spying.
 
“You are such a girl, Lazlo.” Nervous was still laughing.
 
“Shut up!”
 
Lazlo moved from the potted palm to the fern next to it, pushing foliage out of the way as he went. Amber and Bernard were walking toward Bernard’s truck. They had one more brief embrace before Amber started back toward the house.

 

“Shit, here she comes,” shouted Lazlo, pushing Nervous toward the door. “She can’t know we were spying on her.” He gave Nervous a good hard shove and they both stumbled out the greenhouse door and into the living room.

 

 
 
“I am so sorry about that,” said Amber as she came through the front door. “Bunny and I went to school together. I haven’t seen him in almost ten years. I certainly didn’t expect to find him here in Strangetown.”
 
“That’s okay,” I told her quietly. I could hardly be angry about it when it obviously made her so happy. Her cheeks were flushed a pleasant pink and she was wearing the widest smile I think I had ever seen on her. I sipped at my glass while she stopped to give Andromeda a tickle.
 
“Are those tasty toes?” she asked as she sat on the floor next to Andromeda. Andy, foot in mouth, watched her closely as she sucked on her big toe. Amber tickled the sole of Andy’s foot and the baby giggled. She took Andy’s other foot in her hand and kissed the sole with silly kissing noises. “Mmmm, what a yummy little foot,” Amber said between noisome kisses. She played with Andy for a few more minutes before giving the little plumb bob bauble on the Danglemaster a little push and getting up from the floor. She sat on the sofa across from me.
 
“I was wondering, if it isn’t too much of a problem, if I could take Sunday night off. Bunny wants to take me out to dinner, you know, to catch up the last ten years.” She was biting on her bottom lip, I could tell she was anxious about asking. It bothered me that she felt anxious about asking me. It bothered me that she was asking me at all.

 

“I know that you have to work on Sunday,” she continued, “so if you can’t find someone else Bunny and I can go out another night.”
 
I rubbed my forehead just above the bridge of my nose. Why did she have to keep calling him Bunny? It would be at least half as bothersome if she didn’t keep calling him Bunny.
 
“You don’t have to ask, Amber,”

 

“I just didn’t want you to be stuck witho…”

 

“I’m not your employer,” I said, perhaps a bit tersely. I don’t think she expected that reaction from me. I didn’t really expect to have that kind of reaction. It just really bothered me that she felt she had to ask to have a day off.   “You told me you were here helping out a friend. Yet, you are asking me if you can have a day off?”
 
The more I thought about it the more it pissed me off.

 

I looked up and met her gaze. She looked hurt. For some reason, that pissed me off even more.
 
“You won’t let me pay you for your time or anything. I thought that meant you wanted to be here. I thought it was because we kinda made you part of the family.”
 
“I really didn’t mean it to sound like that,” she explained. “I thought I was just being considerate.” She opened her mouth as if to something else and then changed her mind.
 
“Don’t worry about it,” I said as I ran my hand through my hair. “My nephew’s girlfriend is trying to save up for college and wants to come over and sit for Andy. I’ll just call her.”

 

“Okay,” was all that she said as she rose from the sofa. She stooped to give Andy a kiss before she left the room and walked back the hallway.

 

“Goddammit,” I muttered.

 

 

“Your brother just bit my head off,” announced Amber from Lazlo’s bedroom doorway.
 
Lazlo looked up from his computer screen.
 
“Pascal?” he asked.

 

“Yes, Pascal,” she confirmed. “He got all pissed off when I asked him if I could have Sunday to go out with Bunny.”
 
“Really?” asked Lazlo, his interest piqued
 
“Yes, Really.”
 
“Maybe there is hope for him yet,” Lazlo mumbled under is breath.
 
“He went on about how I was acting like he was my employer or something. I just wanted to make sure he had someone to watch Andy.”
 
“He probably has something else on his mind that is bothering him,” explained Lazlo.
 
“I have never seen him lose his temper like that.”
 
“Doesn’t happen often,” Lazlo told her. “But when it does, you better run for cover.”
 
Amber stood beside Lazlo’s desk, chewing her bottom lip and deep in thought.
 
“So, you’re going out with…” Lazlo cleared his throat in an effort to not stumble over the name, “Bunny?”
 
Amber glared at him. “Laugh if you want. It’s just a nickname I have called him since we were little kids.”
 
“Sorry,” Lazlo said with a snort. “I guess you’ve given up then?”
 
“Given up?” she asked, puzzled.
 
“On Pascal.”
 
She sighed. “I’m sorry I ever told you that, Lazlo. It’s not a date or anything. We are just going out to eat and catch up on the last ten years.”
 
“Where’s he taking you?”
 
“Armando’s, he said.”
 
“Sounds like a date to me.”
 
“Why?” she asked, looking worried. “What’s Armando’s?”
 
“I took a girl there once, when I was in college. Let’s just say that you could go there wearing your Sunday best and you still might not meet up to the dress code.”
 
Amber looked really worried.
 
“Please don’t be teasing me, Lazlo. You are being serious aren’t you?”
 
“Yep.”
 
“I didn’t want it to be a date-date.” She sighed. She chewed her lip for a few seconds before adding, “and I don’t think I have anything to wear.”
 
Lazlo went back to typing. Amber was desperate to change the subject. The thought of going out on a date made her stomach go all fluttery.

 

“So if you took someone there in college it must have been pretty serious. Who was it?”
 
“Meh, it was, but we broke up before I graduated. Her name was Lyla.”
 
“What happened?”
 
“She graduated and moved home, and I had two years of school left. The long distance thing didn’t really work out.”
 
She was curious about Lazlo’s past love life but try as she might, Amber just couldn’t stop thinking about her impending date.

 

“You don’t think that he means it to be a romantic date, do you?”
 
“I don’t know. You’re the one who knows the guy.” Lazlo said, not looking up from his typing. “Armando’s really isn’t the kind of place you go for a chat over coffee.”
 
“Darn,” she muttered.
 
“You gonna cancel on him?” Lazlo asked.
 
“No. I can’t do that. It just feels weird.” She stepped toward the door but stopped with an afterthought. “You don’t think Pascal could be upset because…” She paused for a moment. “Oh, never mind,” she finished and walked out of the room.
 
Lazlo smiled and said to himself, “one can only hope.”
 
He was startled when Amber’s voice came from the hallway. “Lazlo, you had better tell Nervous he can come out of the bathroom now. Otherwise he will be in there all day.” She stuck her head back in the doorway. “You don’t honestly think I couldn’t see you hiding behind that ficus do you?”
 
“Dammit,” muttered Lazlo.
 
Amber walked down the hall toward the living room. She felt that she owed Pascal an explanation even though she knew that he had been the one out of line. It bothered her to see him angry. He was usually so even tempered. She couldn’t help wondering and hoping about what it was that had him so upset.

 

Pascal was lying on the sofa, Andromeda sleeping on his chest as he read from a huge book. 

Amber watched them for a moment before she turned around and left through the back door. She didn’t want to disturb his peace and quiet.

 

 

Comments

[pascal-curious.livejournal.com]

I can't find where I got it from, and I know someone in a community mentioned it not long ago. I just stuck it on MediaFire, so you can get it her if you want

http://www.mediafire.com/?aamtfbcxh3s0x5z

[kin-thalas.livejournal.com]

Got it, thank you very much!