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“Things.”
Hm. I squinted at him. “Still being vague, are we?”
“I collect things that are hard to obtain,” he replied, albeit reluctantly.
“Like flash-drives that are worth tons of money?”
“Flash-drives. People. Evidence…”
“Why was that so hard for you to tell me?” I eased off the bed and marched towards him, wearing nothing but one of his big cozy t-shirts.
He sat his suitcase down and pulled me into his orbit. “Ask no questions, and you’ll get no lies.”
“What does that mean?”
“You already know too much. If I tell you any more of the truth, you’ll wish you had the lies. They’re easier to accept.”
“We can’t have our entire relationship be built on lies Rhys. That’s how we started.”
He took hold of my shoulders and turned me around so that my back was to his chest.
“That isn’t what I was saying.” He brushed my hair to one side. Something cool touched my neck, I looked down, a small gasp escaping when I saw my butterfly pendant.
“You really fixed it?” I tilted my head back to look up at him. “Thank you.”
“I knew it was important to you.” He clasped the new buckle and righted my hair, placing a soft kiss on my forehead. “I have to make a phone call, and there’s someone waiting for you in the dining room.” He stared down at the top of my thighs. “After you get dressed.”
I smothered a laugh and nodded, raising up to kiss his cheek.
Of course, I wanted to know who he was calling and why, but he had every right to privacy. I refused to be that girl. I left him standing in the center of the room and went to put on some actual clothes.
She didn’t look any different.
I wasn’t sure why I expected her to, it’d been literal days since I last saw her. I entered the dining room, skipping past tons of empty chairs until I got to the one that was across from hers.
She watched me approach with a hint of a smile, but her expression was more closed off than I’d ever seen it.
I pulled out a chair and sat down, helping myself to the cheese and meet tray someone amazing had set out.
“So, we’re dead,” I began.
“Our lives are ruined, you mean?” she tried to joke, failing.
“I know it feels like that, and it may for a while, but your life isn’t ruined. You can still be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.”
“Except, I can’t be myself.”
I loaded up a cracker, and sighed. “I don’t know what you want me to say Em. I’m sorry. I never wanted you to be involved in any of this.”
“I know that. I thought we would be able to figure out our problems together. I had to learn the hard way that some problems can’t be fixed, especially when they run in the family.”
Ouch. That was definitely a personal jab at me, and she wasn’t wrong.
It hurt, but instead of crying about it, I laughed. “Finally growing some balls, huh? It’s about time.”
She looked away from me, glancing back up with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Nono. I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s ok--.”
