Page 128 of The Turning of the Tables

SETH MAYS

Are you sure I can stay with you?

ELLIOT CRANE

Yes.

Do you think I’d lie to you?

I think you’d tell me what I wanted to hear.

I won’t.

Lie to you or tell you what you want to hear.

Unless I mean it.

You sure?

Yes.

I’m not usuallya spontaneous person. I don’t make decisions on a whim. Especially big ones. And, okay, I’d been thinking about this for a whole week, but this was a really big decision to make after only a week.

Sometimes, though, life throws such a massive,steaming pile of shit that you don’t really have a choice. Like when Noah got sick. When I walked in on Devin’s little blow job.

Now.

Noah was still out of the country. Maybe it was stupid to do this before he got back, but I had the feeling that if I did wait for Noah and Lulu to come back from their cruise, Noah might be able to convince me to stay. Maybe through guilt, maybe through rational arguments, maybe a combination of both. But I had the feeling that if I wanted to justgo, I had to do it now.

I texted Noah and told him Elliot had offered to let me stay with him if I decided to look for work in Wisconsin, and I was going to take him up on his offer. Because while I appreciated what Hands and Paws did, it wasn’t me. Or, rather, itwasme. I was the problem. I wanted to use my degrees in biochemistry and forensic science. I wanted to feel not only like my work mattered, but thatImattered.

Noah tried to argue with me, but he hadn’t paid for international calls, so at least I didn’t have to listen to him yell and cry. It was pretty clear that he was probably doing both, but none of his arguments was convincing.

He’d miss me—and I’d miss him, but it wasn’t like I was disappearing forever.

I didn’t have a job there—I didn’t really have one here, either. Not one I wanted to keep, anyway. And I could find a stop-gap there just like I had here. Green Bay, which wasn’t too far away, also had a branch of Hands and Paws if I got really desperate.

And, he argued, Wisconsin was really far away—yes, but there were planes and cars that could close that distance for things like holidays. It was farther than we’d ever been from each other—by an order of magnitude, but it wasn’t like I was never going to see him again.

Next, I texted Quincy, who had been commiserating with me for the last nearly two months. She’d even gone in and tried to argue with HR to reinstate me a week or so after they’d fired me—I adored her for doing that, but I also knew it was futile. I told her I had a possible job offer, but that it was in another state.

She wished me well, told me she’d miss me, told me to keep in touch.

I texted Maza, who wished me luck and told me he’d provide any reference I needed.

I texted Ward, who asked if I wanted to work for BTV.

That one stopped me for a few hours. If I worked for Ward and Mason, I could stay in Richmond. I wouldn’t have to work at Hands and Paws. But. But Beyond the Veil didn’t have a lab. I had my stuff in storage, but I needed it so infrequently for them, that it wouldn’t be most of my job. They had two mediums, a historian, and a receptionist already. They’d be paying me for basically no reason, and that stung my pride. I wanted to be valued and important.

All of that, and this might be my only chance to see if Elliot was willing to compromise on Rule Two if I were living in Wisconsin.

It was stupid. Reckless.

It was the act of a completely hopeless romantic.

I packed up my backpack and a huge duffel, left a longer explanation for Noah in a note on the kitchen table, and walked downstairs and out to my car.

North Avenue to Laburnum, then I95 north.