I wait for him to elaborate.
“We both came here to neutral ground.It seems that out there”—he points, indicating outside these walls—“we can’t be ourselves.But in here, it’s just us.So tell me, what’s your name?”
Panic rises.
Does he know who I am?
I need to keep my cool.
“Olivia,” I state.
The lie feels like poison on my tongue.
Kit is quiet.“You don’t look like an Olivia.”
“I didn’t realize one can look like a name,” I quip, hiding behind my humor.
“Sure they can.What do I look like?”
I turn in my seat to look at him.Like, really look at him.It’s as if the darkness offers me the courage to openly study him without judgment.
He is utterly masculine.
He smells delicious.
He too turns to face me, allowing me to undress him with my eyes.
There’s something so raw in this.A moment when pretenses are dropped, and we are simply two people who have an explicable connection that confuses us both.
I have the advantage, however.
I know who he is.
But he, he can never know the real me.
“What do you see?”he softly asks, the mood shifting.
Heat creeps up my neck, tinting my cheeks crimson.“A man who everyone wants, but no one really sees.A man who is forever searching, but not sure what he’s looking for.”
Kit’s mouth parts.
It appears I’ve caught him off guard too.
“And what do you think I’m looking for?”
I mull over his question and answer with one simple word.“Peace.”
That word is heavy with meaning as it can represent so many things.But I don’t elaborate because Kit seems to understand.And at this moment, I realize Kit is hiding a secret too.
“What have you seen?”he asks, shaking his head.
He senses something different in me.
He recognizes the anguish I’ve lived through, and that’s because he’s lived through it too.
Does he know I’m damaged goods?
I don’t answer his question.
