And as I find myself blankly staring at Elsa with, no idea how to respond to that, I sort of just stammer there frozen, “uh….yeah….” on the spot.
Déjà vu.
How does she always do this to me?
I turn to Jörn for help but he seems slightly terrified of his mother at the moment judging by the look on his face,
“mamma!”
But she turns her icy gaze at him with her perfectly arched brows that could shoot an apple off your head and slice it with their precision,
“ja, Jörn? har du något att säga?”
but I don’t don’t know what it means
But Jörn replies in English,
“really?”
“‘Really’ —vad?” And shoots more arrows
“‘Nice of you to rejoin the party’? Would you say you rolled out the red carpet in the past?”
“What are you talking about? I brought a gift for her that time when you were —“
“I think your presentation might have been lacking that time too,” but he says this under his breath
Oh right, the perfume. Which she opened on the spot. She thought I needed a shower as I recall,
“oh the Hamptons!” I say foolishly as it suddenly vividly dawns.
That was the day when we were hiding from Stina and the Swedish intelligence director guy; what was his name? I think it was Marcus ….but now I am here in Jörn’s New York City apartment which ….
“Has anyone seen Ilya or the penthouse lately?” I blurt out before considering who I’m addressing. Must be concussed
“Coffee?” Jörn suddenly says and looks at me
Josef clears his throat loudly and everyone looks at him. When I look at him he gives me a wink, but not within Elsa’s view and gestures for me to go to the kitchen with Jörn with two jerks of his head in both directions respectively
I don’t need coercion to get out of her line of fire and walk straight for the kitchen.
“What are you doing? Have you forgotten where I keep the coffee?”
As I’m opening cabinets and searching his refrigerator,
“no I’m starving, I don’t remember when I last ate but ….” most of what I find seem more Ikea than what I know ….”what is this?” I ask pulling a bowl from a shelf
“Mamma’s saffron batter,” he says
No idea what that means, so I put it back,
“maybe Ilya has stocked the penthouse fridge,” I say and start to head out towards the direction out
“Wait, where’re you going?” Jörn grabs my shoulder and stops me, turns me around
“Wha—excuse me? I am not obligated to—“
“Duvan!” but it is Hanna now, “I’m so glad to see you—I wanted to tell you news with Eric and I!”
“Oh please—!” Jörn seems suddenly enraged
“Pappa! You have no business trying to—“
“What am I trying to do, Hanna? Stop you from making a huge mistake—“
I manage to slip past without them being aware, not realizing Andreas was watching from the other room and walks over to me.
“Ambush,” I say looking up at him
“If you really want to get out of here for a few minutes, I wouldn’t mind seeing the penthouse again, but don’t you need a key?”
“No, it has the combination code, remember? Let’s go,” I say
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