“So, Hallie,” Mr Umbrella said when we were on the fifth floor, taking a breather. His voice didn’t carry even a note of wheeze, while Glenn was hunched over with her palms on her knees, and my own lungs burnt like something had caught fire on them. “How come you’re moving furniture?”
“It’s not just furniture I’m moving.” Okay, I was breathless as hell, and it came out more like ‘itshhh not jhhhust fuhhhrniture ‘m mohving.’
Mr Umbrella was fluent in wheeze, because he didn’t even blink an eye at my response. I mean, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise really; he left plenty of women breathless, no doubt.
“No? What else will be moving?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow.
“Me and my cat.”
“Drixie?” Glen gasped through her own breathlessness. “We didn’t talk about Drixie moving in with you.”
I turned all my attention to Glen. “Of course, she is, I can’t leave her behind.”
“What about the antiques? I don’t want claw marks all over them.”
“She doesn’t do that sort of thing, and you know it.” I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes.
“She might! She’s never been around antiques!”
I scoffed, shaking my head. “No, Glen, but she’s a cat, and I don’t think it matters how old anything is for her to leave it well alone. What are you really worried about?”
Glen’s shoulders deflated. “Drixie doesn’t like me. I don’t think we’ll get along.”
“Nonsense,” I scoffed. “The only person Drixie doesn’t like is Henry. I’m not leaving her with him.”
Mr Umbrella cleared his throat, and we both turned in his direction. His eyebrow raised in question. “The nonexistent boyfriend?”
“Brother,” I muttered, while Glen went “Eww” at his question.
He nodded understandingly. “Fascinating. Go on.”
I shared a glance with Glen, and we unanimously decided it was a topic to discuss when it was just the two of us. No audience needed, thank you. Also, holy camoly! Time for a distraction.
“Don’t you have anywhere to be?” I asked at the same time Glen said, “How about we ‘go on’ carrying this hellish thing?”
Mr Umbrella glanced at the watch on his wrist, clicking his tongue, then looked from me to Glen and back again. “Okay, ladies, I see what you’re doing, but you are both right. I do have somewhere to be, and we need to get this mattress out of the hallway.”
Somehow he managed to keep talking while we continued our climb up the stairs. “So what kind of cat do you have, Red Cheeks?”
I was red all over at this point, so I couldn’t really fault him for the nickname. I buffed out air, trying to answer as we reached the next landing. “Just a normal black cat.”
“Ah, and why doesn’t she like your brother? Henry was it?” Mr Umbrella asked.
“He’s twelve,” I huffed as if that was an answer enough. I really didn’t have any breath left in me to explain the torture Drixie went through on daily basis under his uncareful hands. No more!
“Right,” Mr Umbrella nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Gotcha.” He was getting breathless himself, which was a pretty good indication of his immaculate stamina, since we’d reached the eighth floor at this point and had to take another break.
I shook my hands, trying to get blood flowing and the tenseness out. Glen sat on the stairs again gasping and wiping at her brows. Mr Umbrella was staring at me again, so I stood up straighter despite wanting to vomit my insides out.
“You know my place is closer,” he joked. I hope to God he joked, because that was bad as far as pick-up lines went.
“No. Nope. Nah. You signed up for this all by your muscly self, you don’t get to back out now.”
“Oh, I’m not backing out,” he grinned. “Far from it.”
It was at least fifteen minutes later when we dropped the mattress in Glen’s spare bedroom—my bedroom. At last! I was most definitely dripping with sweat. Glen was all sweaty, too, and I knew we’d be fighting for the bathroom. Even Mr Umbrella’s shirt was sticking to him but in a delightful way. Nothing like the two of us. I think I’d prefer to show up in pyjamas again to this drenched-in-sweat look, but there was no going back now.
Mr Umbrella gave the antiques in the living room an appreciative look as I guided him out.
