I say what we both already know. “Somebody else knows.”
* * *
Julia spends Sunday night at my house, and neither of us sleep. And not in a good way. We’re both too worried. I feel her staring up at the ceiling next to me.
Around two a.m. she addresses the elephant in the room. “What’re we going to do?”
I let out a long sigh. “About Lincoln? Or my dad running this town?”
“Or that someone knows about my superpowers.”
I don’t comment on the fact that she just referred to her abilities as a positive for the first time since I’ve known her. “Or the busted lab equipment? Or that the team is despondent and Ken wants to cancel the project?”
“Or that I’m being hunted,” she adds.
“It’s not looking great, is it?”
The stress of our ridiculous situation boils over. We both start to laugh. I squeeze her tighter to me and she closes her eyes against my chest. Our laughter quickly fades into heavy silence again.
Maybe I’m naive. Or maybe I’ve just wanted something like this for so long, but with her in my arms it feels like we can handle anything. Nothing can be that bad so long as we’re together.
“Carry on, I guess, until we have more data,” I finally say.
“And no more visits to the lab. If someone is watching us, we need to be extra careful.”
“Agreed,” I say. I find her hand on the blanket and squeeze it.
“And what about us?” she asks.
“Maybe tell the team? Come clean. Plenty of adults work together and date. It’s better to just put everything out there.”
“Well, not everything. I’m not ready to share my powers,” she says. “Oh, speaking of. This may seem random, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I meant to tell you the other day. Ken ran into me outside the testing room. He made some weird, quasi-sexist remarks.”
“Really?” I sit up feeling defensive on her behalf.
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve heard worse over the years. I wasn’t surprised. The first time I ever saw him he was talking to William. Yourdad.They were saying nasty things about you and your team.”
I stiffen. “I’m not surprised. My dad has never believed in me. It irks him that I have made it this far. And forget about the team. He’ll never approve of anybody that is loyal to me. He will tell anyone who will listen that I’m not gonna make it. Ken is loyal to wherever the money is.”
“That’s what I figured. I’m sorry, but your dad is the worst.” She lowers her head to cuddle back into me.
“I agree. And I’m sorry Ken said those things to you. I’d love to punch that guy in the face.”
“Me too,” she says. “But the team is good. Really good. They don’t deserve that hate.” She yawns deeply.
I hesitate, mulling it over. “Yeah, I don’t like keeping things from them. The team will be happy for us.”
But even as I say it, I worry it’s a lie. I don’t tell her that they already inferred a relationship. I don’t share the conversation I had with Jared. I recall his questioning face as he discovered the broken lab equipment. They don’t know Julia as well as I do. What if they wonder if I’m not thinking clearly? What if they don’t trust her like I do? I don’t like that my father was talking to Ken. Just another worry to add to the stack.
“Okay, that sounds good.” She leans up to kiss my cheek. “Everything will be okay.”
“Yes,” I say.
And yet I get the sense that neither of us truly believes that.
