Page 132 of No Greater Oblivion

She hangs up and gets to her feet.

“Everything okay?”

“Fine. Mom’s just throwing a fit because my brothers are visiting and she can’t find the ‘nice’ plates.’” She rolls her eyes again so hard I’m afraid they’ll get stuck in her skull. “Honestly, I think this was her way of roping me into dinner back home.”

“Will you stay?”

“Depends on whether or not my brothers piss me off bad enough,” she replies. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Promise. Go ahead and deal with your crazy mom and her nice plates.”

She drops a kiss on the top of my head on her way out. “Let’s do a movie night this weekend. We haven’t done one of those in a while.”

“We’ll have to let Doña Ana pick the movie.” I tell her. “We picked last time.”

“Yeah, yeah!” she calls over her shoulder.

A few minutes later I hear her leave. Deciding it’s time to put my memories away again, I pack up my photos and trinkets and shove the box back into its secret hiding place. Afterward, I try distracting myself with a few domestic chores around the house but Doña Ana has been on top of the cleaning lately, probably since Alejandro has been around so often. It hasn’t evaded my notice that some of my more elegant and provocative outfits have been drycleaned and put at the forefront of the racks in my walk-in closet. Most of them are in colors she knows Alejandro loves to see me in; red, deep plum, emerald-green, and gold.

Persistent and lacking subtlety but admirable. I love her for trying.

I consider heading downstairs to see if she’s home. Maybe we can go out to dinner tonight or catch last-minute tickets to see a show. Then again, she’s been making herself scarce lately and whether that’s because of Alejandro’s presence or because she wants to be alone, I’m not sure. I don’t like to encroach on her personal space and decide against it, knowing that if she wants company, she’ll come seek either me or Lyss out.

I lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. Take out my phone to place a call but who do I have to talk to? Partying is out of the question so there goes almost every acquaintance in my contacts. Damiano and I haven’t spoken in a few days which means he’s probably been spending a lot of time with Rian, another person who doesn’t want to see me right now. Which leaves…

Pulling up his contact, I type a brief message.

Me: can we see each other?

He responds less than a minute later.

A: For what?

Me: what kind of a question is that?

A: I don’t have the energy to fight with you today.

A: Any day for that matter.

A: But especially today

Me: is everything okay?

A: Don’t you ever get tired?

I give up on texting and call instead.

There’s a heavy sigh when he answers.

“Dahlia.”

There it is.

The weight.

“I don’t want to fight. I promise. In fact, I wanted to see you.”

The other line goes quiet. “Why?”