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She leaned back and looked at me with shiny eyes, tears slipping freely down her face. “Really?”
“Really. Not going anywhere, unless you kick me out.”
I had never seen her upset like this, but maybe that was because she was afraid to show people vulnerability. As much as I hated seeing her cry, there was a strange sense of pride that she had let me see her like this. How many people have been given the privilege?
“Are you up to some breakfast?”
“I could do tea to start.”
“On it.” I tucked Luna into the blankets and got her kettle going, fishing through the cupboards for the few tea options she had. I opted for peach with honey and sliced up a somewhat wrinkly apple I found in her crisper in the hopes I could coax a few calories into her. I added a splash of milk to the tea for a few more nutrients and she sipped it slowly, allowing me to feed her bits of apple until she looked a little bit more awake.
“What’s the plan today?”
“Normally, the plan would be sleep until noon because I don’t get off work until four, then shower, work out, and errands until it’s time to head to the club. Arthur booked me off for tonight, though.”
“So what you’re saying is you’re going to rest all day, right?”
“I’m not good at rest.”
“Reeeally? I hadn’t noticed.”
She whacked me with one of her pillows.
“I guess there’s not a lot of time to rest with your usual schedule.”
“Nope. Monday to Friday I wake up at six, do my workout and shower, finance job till four, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I teach my classes in the evening. Friday night and Saturday night are at the club.”
“And Sunday?”
“Sort of rest day. I get home around four-thirty in the morning, sleep till eleven, then I hang out with my nieces and have dinner at Stella’s. The rest of the evening after that, I turn into a couch potato.”
“I’m going to have to insist that today be a couch potato day too. Would I be out of line if I called work and asked if they could cover my shift so I can stay here?”
Luna chewed her lip, her gaze going far away as if she were battling with herself.
“If you’d rather I still go to work, then I’ll head to the grocery store and fix you up some meals so you don’t have to worry about cooking for the next few days.”
“I don’t want you to go. I just…”
I needed to get a read on how hard this was for her. “How many guests have you had in your apartment?”
“Um, I think the only people who have been here besides you were delivery people dropping things off, and most of those didn’t come inside except for the mattress, appliances, and setting up my hoop apparatus.”
I had figured the list was probably short, but I didn’t know it was that short.
“Is it hard for you to have people in your space?”
She nodded slowly. “Privacy wasn’t a thing I had growing up. I guess I went a little overboard about it as an adult.”
“Why no privacy growing up?”
Luna shrugged. “My stepdad didn’t believe in bedroom doors. Unless it was his own. The bathroom was the only place I could close and lock a door.”
“That’s kind of fucked up. Is that part of why you left?”
“It was complicated.” Luna picked at her cuticles, refusing to meet my eyes. “My parents got married because Mom got pregnant. It didn’t last very long, and they divorced when I was three. Then Mom got pregnant again by someone else, and she married him. Ria was born when I was five. My stepdad had a temper. My dad wasn’t that great either and as shit as my stepdad was, I knew I wouldn’t be in any better position if I went to stay with my dad. I moved in with Stella when I was twelve. I had to wait until the courts deemed me old enough to pick where I wanted to live. Stella had gotten a little two-bedroom apartment and finally had steady enough work that we could entertain the possibility. Mom didn’t fight me on it, at least. But then Stella started dating Rodney. At first I kind of hoped they’d break up and it could keep being the two of us, but he stuck around. They got married when I was fifteen and I moved back in with Mom. Stella wanted me to stay, but I didn’t want to live with Rodney, and she couldn’t really hold off on him moving in after the wedding.”
“Was it any better with your mom without your dad or stepdad there?”
