Page 151 of Sparktopia
“Oh, no. I will not be going. But anyway. What do you think of the new decorations?” Clara does a little thing here. Something very girlish and flirty. She looks over her shoulder and tilts herself in my direction as she tucks her chin. Her smile a little bit shy, her eyes a little bit mischievous. “It brightens the place up, don’t you think?”
I look down at the rug—which I am not sitting on—then up at the curtains. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“It’s fine? It’s better than fine. And for nine coins! Can you believe it?”
“Where’d ya get nine coins, anyway?”
“Oh, Rodge. He paid me a groat for yesterday.”
“What? What’d ya do down there, a striptease?”
She laughs. “No. Just… helped fill orders, then I came up here to clean your place. He overpaid me, didn’t he?”
“Way overpaid you.”
“He gave me a dress too.”
“What?”
“A dress. Like the one Prisha was wearing yesterday.”
“Well.” I lean back against the end of the bed. “He likes you. That’s handy.”
“Yeah. So a groat is worth fifty of those coins in your jar.”
“Yep.”
“So.” She shrugs. “I bought all this stuff, plus a whole new wardrobe.”
“So that’s where those pants came from.”
She stands up, modeling them by turning around and giving me a nice view of her ass. “They’re OK, right? I mean, I know they’re ripped. But Anneeta says it’s fashionable.”
She’s wearing a pair of faded denim jeans that are least one size too big for her. They’ve got all strategically fashionable rips in all the right places. Knees, thighs, and a small one on her hip. “They look good.”
My opinion makes her smile. “They do, huh? I don’t know what this magic fabric is, but it’s soft and these pants are comfortable.”
“What else did ya get? Fancy a fashion show?” I wink at her and she blushes.
“Oh, a whole bunch of stuff. But I gave it to Rodge to wash in his machines.”
“Well, there goes all your coin, right? It was nice while it lasted.”
“What do you mean? He didn’t charge me.”
“What?” Now I’m just confused. But also suspicious. “Why not?”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because washing machines require jumps to power them. And a single jump costs four groats. You can make it cheaper by putting your clothes in with someone else’s, but it’s still gonna be at least thirty coins.”
“He said don’t worry about it.”
This is when it hits me. He’s billing me. He’s not giving her any of this for free, he’s just putting it on my tab. I chuckle, because it figures. “Anyway.” I change the subject. Let her think she’s his favorite person in the whole world. What do I care if it makes her happy? “What else did you guys do all day?”
“Anneeta took me to her place.”
I’m taking a sip of soda when she says this, and I nearly spit it out. “What?”
