✅1️⃣ | Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!

87: Intelligence is More Attractive than Appearance

Adi wasn't really into bikes. She didn't understand the amount of effort people put into making them look better, and she didn't understand why they were so important. They were just a way to get from one place to another, a little faster and cheaper than owning a car.

But she could see that Toni's baby was a thing of beauty. Every inch of it was polished with loving care, and the bodywork was a tasteful mixture of racing green and chrome. It was a work of art, and she could tell just by looking that Toni focused on it as intently as Adi did on her reviews. They were both very personal things, works of art that most people might never understand.

This particular motorcycle, the Triumph, was forty years old, and it looked like some kind of historical treasure. And from the look of it, the sidecar had taken just as much meticulous restoration to get it to a state where it could be driven on the road. It perfectly matched the bike, and it was more elegant than a piece of machinery had any right to be.

The bike was a bit crowded carrying two passengers, and Toni seemed to be riding a little slower than usual. It wasn't far to the north side of Schwingford, though, and it was less than fifteen minutes before they were pulling onto the neatly raked gravel drive outside Toni's house.

It looked a little different from the last time Adi had been here. More lived in, maybe. The front door was standing open, and there was a vague impression of clutter that Adi couldn't attribute to any item in particular. The house felt like a place where people lived, and she was sure the large rooms wouldn't feel so empty this time. Adi guessed that the man in the garden must be Toni's uncle, and beyond that detail she didn't know what else to ask.

The guy was standing under one of the trees in the garden, using one arm to lift his chin up to a sturdy branch. His muscles were slick with sweat, and he continued his workout with a grimace of determination. Adi guessed it must be harder than it looked to haul two hundred pounds of muscle off the ground so many times.

"Don't talk to him," Toni cautioned. "He takes his routine very seriously."

Inside the house, the atmosphere was different again. There was a faint echo of music in the background somewhere, and other changes too subtle to easily notice. Britney seemed to know where she was going, leading the way until they'd dropped their bags off in Toni's room. Adi wondered how many times she'd been here, and how long Adi had thought of these two as her best friends without realising how little she'd actually been willing to interact with them.

"Oh, you have visitors?" The first person to greet them was a young man a couple of years older than the three girls, with long hair hanging over his shoulders and a tan that could have come straight from some tropical beach. "Will you be eating tonight?"

"Please," Toni nodded. "These are my friends Adi and Britney. And this is my cousin Harry, short from Hansel. He's hopefully going to treat us to some culinary miracle tonight."

"Ah, I have heard much about you," Harry nodded, "It is a pleasure to finally meet Toni's friends. Please, make yourself at home. I will be serving a meal in about an hour, if this is convenient for you."

* * *

"Your cousin, eh?" Britney asked as soon as they were in Toni's room. "Don't think you introduced us before. They stay quite often, right?"

"Yeah. Uncle Jürgen travels a lot on business. Dad asked him to stop over occasionally, to keep an eye on me so I'm not left to raise myself when he's away on business. The extended family are in and out all the time, but I think they think I'm old enough to look after myself now."

"I bet it's never boring. Different people, different routines, right? And no annoying little brother."

"It's a nice life, I guess," Toni said with a shrug. "I guess I don't talk about family much, do I?"

"Not much," Adi agreed. "I knew you had an uncle stay over occasionally. I assumed it was like a couchsurfing middle-aged mooch, touring relatives' homes because he's not got a place of his own. But that was him in the yard? He's a lot better groomed than my mental image."

"He works out a lot, needs to keep fit for his work. He's no hobo, but you see him getting antsy after a couple of weeks in the same place. Always wants to be moving on. I mean, he is touring the spare rooms of all my other uncles, but that means he's spending a couple of weeks in New Zealand, a week in South Africa, and then on to a villa in Estonia. Our family's settled down all over the world."

"And your cousin," Britney was staring speculatively into space as she spoke. "You never told me he was a..."

"A chef? A polyglot? An artist? Yeah, Harry's the golden boy. Anything I can do, he does better. But kind enough that you have to like him."

"I think Brit was going to say 'a stud', or something like that," Adi grinned, "I recognise that expression. You shouldn't be so interested in someone when you've only met him once."

"We can't all be robots, you know? And I'm not... I mean, it's not like I'm thinking about... He's my best friend's cousin, you know? And he sounds like he's got a lot of stories to share. I mean, don't judge a book by its cover, but wouldn't you like to read a page or two and see if it lives up to..." She stuttered to a halt, cleared her throat, and started again: "Sorry, I must seem like a real ditz now, getting all flustered like this. It's not like me at all, but I guess we all have our moments. I'm sure there's been a time you've met someone and you just want to know if it's more than skin deep?"

Toni didn't answer that, but patted Adi's knee gently, eliciting another giggle from Brit. Adi shook her head, but in her mind was an image of a guy she'd spoken to once in a campus coffee shop.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I kept going back to it for ages just trying to think of a better title. I still think I could find a better one, so would appreciate suggestions.