Romani Armada Read Online Free Page A

charge!” Mariana squeaked, looking alarmed.
    “You do a good imitation of it, then,” Deonne told her dryly. “You fooled me. Why don’t you fool the administrators of this mental estate we’re all prisoners of and tell them I want the idiot living next door to me evicted?”
    Mariana smoothed her hands over the rudimentary controls on her desktop. “Deonne, I appreciate that you’re finding it difficult living back here in this time—”
    “Do not handle me!”
    Mariana blinked. “I wouldn’t do that—” she began.
    “You would and you did,” Deonne snapped at her. “Even your voice changed. You could have been Nayara, for all the difference it made. You were very nearly copying her accent, too. Christ, Mariana, don’t you have a single individual corpuscle in your body? You admire them so much you have to channel them every time you open your mouth?”
    Mariana swallowed. After a moment, she said quietly, “I am quite capable of thinking for myself, thank you.”
    Deonne snorted. “You fooled me again, then.”
    Mariana’s face reddened. “I do know how to be kind and empathetic, for example.”
    Deonne drew in a sharp breath, shocked. She drew herself up straight as she realized that she was leaning over the small desk Mariana sat behind, in a classic intimidation posture. What did she think she was doing? Picking on the fat, ugly girl at the back of the classroom because she’d had a bad night? Deonne cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I can’t even think of a good excuse for my behavior.”
    Mariana gave her a small, tight smile. “I think a few nights’ lack of sleep has something to do with it. You may like to know that I have already complained to the complex administrators. I’m not the first, either. But I told them we would stop renting the apartment if it continued.”
    Deonne opened her mouth to protest, alarmed at the idea of losing the privacy of her single occupant dwelling, no matter how small it might be.
    Mariana shook her head. “Oh, it’s only a threat,” she assured her. “Call it an economic incentive. It’ll help them find a way to fix things. They told me they would look into the matter and report back to me with all haste. My Chinese is still quite weak, but I’m sure that’s what they meant.”
    “We own this building. Can’t you do something more than complain?” Deonne spread her hands. “He’s doing it deliberately, you know.”
    “Why ever would he do it deliberately?” Mariana asked, sounding shocked.
    Deonne rolled her eyes. “Probably because he doesn’t like me.”
    Mariana’s mouth opened.
    Deonne almost laughed at her expression. “Oh, come on , Mariana. You can’t be that naïve. Lots of people don’t like me. You’re a prime example. It doesn’t bother me, except when they do something about it, like this idiot living next door to me.”
    Mariana stood up. “I don’t dislike you, Deonne. I just haven’t got around to liking you yet, because you don’t make it very easy. The man next door to you seems to actively dislike you. It’s an important difference.”
    Deonne considered the woman. “You’re right,” she agreed. “You’re right on every point.” Her heart squeezed unhappily. “I don’t make it easy. But you don’t make it easy for people to appreciate you properly, either.”
    “Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Mariana replied, with another glowing smile. She picked up her notebook—a non-digital paper-filled one.
    “Of course you wouldn’t, because you think you’re sweet and charming and pleasant to everyone and you are that. But you’re smart as a whip, too. Nayara is no fool. She wouldn’t have left you in charge here if you weren’t.”
    As Mariana opened her mouth, Deonne raised her voice and overrode any protest she might have been about to make. “And don’t give me that wide-eyed nonsense about you not being in charge. There’s no one else here paying bills and dealing with the