AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Derelict.”
She turned and glared at him. “Excuse me, it’s called built to last.”
Anton snorted. “Practically nonexistent technology specifications. Absolutely behind on current regulations.”
“I believe that could be termed as old-world charm,” Grace pointed out.
Anton took a drink from the bottle. “Only if you use the phrase loosely and liberally.” They turned and began walking down the path once more. Grace opened her mouth, fully intending to wax poetic about Betsy’s stalwart virtues, but Anton beat her to the punch. “You have nothing to apologize for, Grace. I deserved everything you threw my way.”
A beat of silence passed before she cleared her throat, eyes shifting towards the warm glow of the fairy lights on either side of the path.
“Very true. You did.”
Anton sighed with a little grin. “Truthful. How refreshing.”
“Is it?” Grace sipped her drink, eyes on the man next to her, the man who seemed light years away from the brat she had encountered less than a day before. What would she do now that he was here with her like she’d wanted for months?
Anton hummed. “You have no idea. I quite like it.”
“That’s…” Grace bit her lip, trying to pick her next words with care. “Well, good.”
“I’m glad you think that, because I do, too.” He looked at her and she saw the same warm and intense look he’d used on her at the start of the night. Boy howdy. That look did things to her. He moved closer and Grace felt a flare of panic shoot through her body as he did. If he came any closer she didn’t know what she’d do.
“I’m sorry about RED,” she blurted out.
At the mention of the stolen equipment Anton’s expression darkened, the happy smile on his face slipping away, and Grace almost swore. What had she been thinking, bringing up RED out of nowhere? She’d meant to show that she remembered, not wipe the smile off his face.
“I just-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said, but Anton waved her off. “That was stupid. I shouldn’t have brought it up, and-”
He held up a hand, stopping her. “It’s alright. No harm, no foul. I mean, you didn’t steal it. Shit happens. Just have to move on and learn from it,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes, and when he took a long drink from the bottle Grace nearly winced. “I’ll take what I learned...apply it somewhere else...like Betsy’s jaunt into this century.”
Her lips turned up in a half-smile. “I’m still sorry. I didn’t mean to bring the energy down. It’s just that Lou told me what happened, and we hadn’t…” Her voice trailed off and she looked away from him, cheeks burning hot at what she hadn’t said.
“And I hadn’t called to tell you yet,” he said, filling in the words she’d stopped herself from saying. “It’s the situation I told you about the last time we spoke,” he said, and Grace heard what he wasn’t saying. The last time we spoke translated to‘the time I asked you out.’
“I wondered why you went quiet,” she said.
“Said something about me ghosting you, right?” he asked, and she wanted to take a tumble right off the path they were on and vanish into the dark forest around them.
“Ah, yeah, you remembered that, huh?” she asked with a nervous laugh.
“Kind of hard not to when you screamed it at me.”
“It was for emphasis.” She cleared her throat and then said, “I’m sorry I screamed, though it wasn’t even a scream, it was a shriek. I’m sorry I shrieked at you. I didn’t know it was because of RED and not, you know, normal ghosting.”
They stepped out from the trail and into the bustling clearing that served as their party site.
“Don’t fret. You’ll just have to make it up to me.”
“Excuse me?” Her mouth went dry at the words, but Anton had already turned toward the party that seemed to be in full swing. The bonfire burned away while their teams worked to assemble s’mores and pass out libations.
“Make it up to you how?” she asked him.
Anton didn’t answer, just shot her a wink and raised his bottle to her glass in a toast. And then the man was gone, slipping away into the crowd that parted like the Red Sea for him, leaving a confused but intrigued Grace in his wake.
nine
"The meetingof two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: If there is any reaction, both are transformed."—Carl Jung
