Page 73 of Delirium
“Yeah, really.” I chuckled. “You know, that day when he brought me here, man… I’m still not sure how he didn’t kill me in those first couple of years. That younger version of me was a real asshole.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we should expect our kids to be real assholes as well, because the two of us were?” she asked, laughing the entire time. “We’re gonna have our hands full with them, won’t we?”
“With the two of us as parents, I’m going to be surprised if one of them doesn’t come out holding a knife. Look.” I pointed toward the black-and-red stand in front of us. “That’s the place, and they still have the same owner. Well, it’s the son now, but they still have the same burgers, I swear. My previous president put them under our protection. Back then, many gangs were running around Santa Monica, trying to take over, but we put an end to that.”
We walked closer to the stand, where a kid who couldn’t be older than twenty stood behind the counter, looking at us with a bright smile.
“Welcome to Manny’s.” He grinned. “What can I get you guys?” His eyes widened when he saw me, smiling from ear to ear. “Mr. Knoxx—"
I was about to greet him back, when Ophelia blurted out her order, without waiting for me.
“The cheesiest cheeseburger,” she said. “Please. And pickles. Lots and lots of pickles.”
I started laughing, looking at her as she stared at the pictures of burgers behind the kid.
“You really are hungry, huh?”
“I’m starving,” she said.
“Would you like to have some french fries with that?” the kid asked, typing everything into his system. “Something to drink?”
“Yes to the french fries.” She was basically salivating at the thought. “And an orange juice, please.”
“Coming right up,” the kid said. “Mr. Knoxx.” He smiled. “It’s been a long time since you last came. Is it going to be the same as usual?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Life got a little bit crazy. But I’ll have a Star Burger combo, with Pepsi.”
“Perfect.” He typed everything up, while Ophelia practically danced next to me, giddy about the food. “Here.” He gave us a small, round device over the counter. “It’ll start beeping once your order is ready, but in the meantime, you can have a seat behind the trailer.”
Paying for our order after he told us the amount, I took the device before Ophelia could. After thanking the kid, I pulled her with me toward the area where the tables were arranged, just behind the truck, overlooking the sea.
“I hope it won’t take too long,” she murmured as we sat down. “I’m really, really starving.”
“I should go and tell him to hurry up. I don’t want you to eat me. I still need all of my limbs.” I laughed as she punched my shoulder.
“Jackass. You don’t get to complain. I’m an incubator right now.”
“Uh, what?” I asked.
“An incubator, for the babies. I’m eating for three.”
“Is that the excuse you want to go with? Phee, I hate to break it to you, but even before the babies were there, you were eating like a grown-ass man.”
“I needed my energy,” she exclaimed. “All that running and fighting required a lot of energy.”
“I know.” I laughed. “But on a more serious note, what did you want to tell me? Your message kinda frightened me and if it wasn’t for a drunk Nico, I would’ve gotten home in a second.”
“I think,” she started saying, playing with the napkin on the table. “I think you should probably tell me first what you discussed with Nico. I don’t want to be angry at you and frankly I don’t want to fight over this. If you’ve agreed on anything less than destroying that agreement, we’re going to have a problem.”
“Well,” I took her hand in mine, lacing our fingers and placing them on top of the table, “we didn’t destroy the agreement—”
“Storm!” she whisper-hissed, trying to remove her hand from mine, but I wasn’t having it.
“Just hear me out before you try to feed me to the sharks.” I took a deep breath and turned toward her. “We didn’t destroy the agreement, but we did amend it. Neither one of us wants our kids to have their choices taken from them, and we want them to be able to choose on their own. Just like we did.”
“Get to the point, Stormy.”
“The agreement stands, and they’re still going to help us, however, the kids won’t be forced into marriage unless they want it.”
