The Wages, An Illustrated Story | 11. Masterstroke | Trashy Secret
“Your… masterstroke?” he smirked.
My face went from warm to hot as I realized I was one syllable away from blurting out my trashy songwriting secret to this handsome stranger. I laughed while I shrugged and spiraled my toe on the floor. He watched me wriggling around, and his smirk changed to a smile that showed off his beautiful cheekbones.
Crystal wasn’t laughing, but she was doing some Olympic-quality eye rolling at us.
“Where are Mama and Papa?” I asked her, while I tried to stand still. “I want to tell them about the song on the radio.”
Crystal began, “Mom and Dad are…”
“They're making arrangements to move to Victoria in British Columbia,” Mark answered my question over Crystal. “Your parents were visiting friends, but they had a falling out with them and came home to change plans. When I showed up here with your sister, they decided to let me in on the family news about the move too. Your mom said, ‘If our little Crystal Carmel is off somewhere making music and meeting men, who on Earth is going to make our Sunday dinners? We have no choice but to make this move to British Columbia.’”
I howled. “You sound just like her. You should have seen the disastrous kitchen dramas Mama created before Crystal finally caved in and took over. Mama said we all made her forget how to be Italian! Have you ever heard such a thing?”
He winked at me, then stuck his chest out and spoke in a deep voice. “Then your dad said, ‘This is a big adjustment for us! You used to help your mother and father so much. I had no idea you would set out to make a living playing those drums. This is all coming true so fast! We have to go talk with some important contacts I’ve been working on.’”
Mark’s antics and charming attention drove me into such a frenzy of laughter that I gasped and covered my cheeks with my hands, and I bonked myself in the head with the paper bag and yelped, “Ow!”