“I seem to recall Lennox telling you exactly that you were not allowed to be my friend.” He yelled it, in fact, when he was half-naked in the gym, but I leave that part out.
“Please,” he spurts, “you can’t take everything so literal. If you survive long enough you’ll see he’s not that bad.”
With the courage of two tumblers of Masterson’s whiskey in my belly, I bark out a laugh. “He’s awful! He is a chauvinistic man-child and I don’t think he is hiding a single redeeming quality!”
“I’m sorry,” Jack puts his hand on mine atop the bar and glares at me sympathetically “have you not seen his abs?”
I can’t help but giggle a little. Jack seems like a likable enough character but he works for the devil and I’m not foolish enough to let my guard down. Though, if he wants to engage in gossip, it might benefit me to let him keep talking.
“Abs are not a redeeming quality,” I tell him.
“The hell they aren’t.” His beer is gone and he’s waved a finger toward the bartender to get us another round, which is not a great idea but I’ll nurse mine to keep Jack talking.
“Name me one redeeming quality. A real one. I dare you.”
“Oh hell, the man has a house full of cats, for fuck sake. That counts for something, right?” Jack smirks like he knows he’s being naughty revealing inner details about my enemy.
“Cats?” I exclaim a little too loudly. I don’t know why I cannot picture tough guy Lennox Gibbes with cats. An aggressive, snarling large breed guard dog, maybe. But cats? I mean, I adore cats, all animals really. Except for the little dogs Mom is always carrying around and it’s not even that I don’t like them, it’s that I don’t get attached to them because she never keeps them past the stage when she finds them new and cute.
They’re for showing off, just like her children.
I suppose this means Lennox is comfortable with his masculinity but that’s not a big surprise, manwhore that he is.
“Mmhmm, the man is always bringing home strays. There’s a good quality, Nanny.
“Stop calling me Nanny,” I blurt out. I’ve had about enough of it from all three of these bozos.
“Maybe,” he considers. “Tell me why you haven’t quit yet. You’re in the upper 50th percentile for nanny longevity, by the way.”
“It’s been two days…” I stare at him.
“Exactly, and you’re still here. That’s a long time, comparatively.”
Nothing about that statistic is funny but I do giggle and am happy to have someone to talk to. I know absolutely no one on the team and the only people I converse with are hell-bent on sending me home on the next flight.
“Get on it with it,” he continues, “tell me why you’re still here.”
“I need the job, Jack. Same reason anyone takes a job. Why are you here? What did you mean that Lennox hired you because you’re gay?”
“That’s technically two questions, Nanny—sorry, Mallory—but I’ll allow it because you’re new. As I said, always bringing home strays. I was one of them.”
I’m happy he so easily caved on calling me by my name instead of continuing to address me as a babysitter when that is not at all what I see myself as. Perhaps Jack will end up being the reasonable one of the group.
“You were a stray gay assistant, how does that work, exactly?” I ask him. “Were you just wandering the streets of Scotland?”
“Oh hell, that’s a story for another night with a lot more liquor, but let’s just say that being gay in a family of Scottish Catholic zealots was not a good time.” He takes a long pull of his beer and stares at the empty glass.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry, Jack.” I have zero tolerance for bigotry and this makes my stomach roll. I know how it feels to have parents who shame you instead of support you. I want to put my hand on his to comfort him but I hesitate because it’s not like we’re besties and I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
“Aye well, anyway, the fam’ thought they’d send me away to be cured of my sinful ways. Lennox gave me a way out, more or less.” He orders another beer and I realize we may be here a while. I’m ok with that.
“So you grew up together?”
“He’s a few years older, but aye.”
“And Matthias, was he also a stray?” I ask him.
“That’s Matty’s story to tell.”