“Ophelia. You got three hours of sleep, you haven’t had anything to eat, and you—look at me.” She glanced up and I tilted her chin. I inspected her eyes, those blown out pupils. Ilet out a short, tight breath. “You’re still in sub-space. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. She pulled out of my touch and yanked her shirt over her head.
I took the hem of her shirt. She glared at me, so I informed her, “It’s inside out.” She let me pull it over her head, turn the fabric around, and then slip it back over her head. “If you’re going, then I’m going with you.”
Her mouth twisted. “You’re not going to like it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s…kids. The zoo. Sunshine.”
I wasn’t budging. “Give me five minutes to put on some clothes and I’ll call us a cab.”
Ophelia finally relented. “Fine.”
I kissed her forehead. “Go to the kitchen. Eat something. That’s an order.”
Ophelia and I caught a taxi to Queens. Her hair was a wild crown around her head and her eyes were unfocused as she stared out the window.
I spotted a bite mark on her shoulder. My fault. I pulled at her shirt, covering up our sins.
“What does your sister know?” I asked.
She glanced at me and lifted her eyebrows. “About us?”
“Yes.”
“Everything.”
My turn to sound surprised. “Everything?”
Ophelia shrugged. “She’s my sister.”
She said it like it was natural, but it couldn’t be anylessnatural to me. I compartmentalized. I had my real life—the ambulance, the street team, the work I did to give myself purpose. Then I had the Seekers Club—the play I performed to keep myself sane. The two never entwined. Cortez only knew about the Seekers Club by pure, rotten accident—I had a submissive on the St. Andrew’s Cross one Friday, only to turn around and spot my EMT in a leather corset.
You never know who people are off the clock.
Ophelia didn’t have my same hang-ups. She was open about everything. It was one of the things I loved about her.
Hmm. There was that word again.
Note to self, stop that.
The taxi pulled up in front of a multi-storied house in Astoria. Who I could only assume were Ophelia’s sister, Aleena, and her two kids were already sitting on the stoop, waiting for us. I paid the cab and we got out. Ophelia brightened and lifted her arms up. “Chipmunks!” she shouted.
The kids jumped up and Ophelia crouched down to hug them both. Her sister looked very much like her, only she had a softer body and a sterner mouth. Aleena watched me warily as Ophelia went to hug her, too.
“You’re late,” Aleena said.
“I know. I’m so sorry. Aleena, this is?—”
“Alex.” I extended a hand towards Aleena. “Nice to meet you.”
Daytime names. No more Phantom.
Aleena shook my hand like she was testing the weight of it. “Alex,” she said, pronouncing my name slowly, “I’ve heard so much about you.”
I bet you have. “Likewise. Are these yours?”
