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“Isaiah,” she spoke, wearing a forced smile. “Why am I not surprised to find you here? And… mostly naked.” From there, she turned her attention to where I was standing, in just a robe. “I see why you stood me up for our workout and breakfast this morning.”
“Oh, shit!” I cupped a hand over my mouth. “Ace, I—”
“It’s fine. You’re… preoccupied.”
Here we go.
“I’m… gonna finish getting dressed, and I’ll go out through the garage,” Isaiah spoke up, clearly trying to get out of the blast radius of this thing between me and my sister. “Good to see you as always, Alicia. Andyou…I’ll see you later.” He hooked an arm around my waist, pulling me into him again to place a parting kiss against my lips before he disappeared into the back of the house.
Not a nice,we’re in front of peoplekiss either.
“Well,” Alicia smirked. “You two are just cozy little peas in a pod, aren’t you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Which is such a problem for you, for some reason that has me baffled.”
“It’s confusing for you, that I might have an attitude about you breaking our plans because you’re hugged up with some guy?”
“He’s notsome guy.”
Alicia huffed. “Right, I forgot—he’s thethornwho broke your heart a decade ago and gets to just waltz back into your life like everything is fine. I get it.”
“He didn’twaltz back like everything was fine,” I snapped. “And let’s not forget—youput him in my face in the first place.”
“Because I was trying to protect you, like I’ve always done—like I’ve alwaystriedto do. In case you forgot.”
“How could I?!” I half-laughed. “You remind me at every opportunity that all you see is some weak baby bird that fell from the nest and broke its wings. You cannotstandthat maybe I’m ready to try flying on my own.”
“All I wantis for you to fly on your own! I’m just trying to keep you on the lookout for fucking hawks who’ll eat you alive!” Alicia retorted, shaking her head. “Or did you forget flying doesn’t keep you safe from predators?”
“Again—how could I?” I pushed out a dry laugh. “You know… that insinuation, after whatIendured—beatings, rape, being injected with God knows what, forced todoGod knows what… that’s really wack.”
Alicia let out a deep sigh, then nodded. “You’re right. And I’m sorry. I know you’re well aware of the depths of depravity in this world, probably even more than I am. I shouldn’t have said that. I… I am justworriedabout you, Dacia.”
“Forwhat? I am… just as vanilla as I wanna be,” I laughed, for real this time. “I don’tdoanything for you to be worried about.”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “The half-naked thorn opening your door this morning says different.”
“Right – it all comes back to you not liking Zay.”
“I don’tnot likehim,” she denied. “I just think it’s too soon, and that he’s a distraction from your healing and shit that you don’t need.”
“What I need is not up to you,” I countered. “And I don’t even understand how you can be so against me being in a relationship like you’re not damn near married with a kid yourself.”
“I’m a lot further removed from the Garden than you. For years, andyearsafter I left, I wasn’t thinking about being hugged up with someone, falling in love.”
I scoffed. “Okay, well, excuse me for not being some machine, where I could just turn my feelings and desires on and off at will, like you apparently could. And maybe still can – what are you set to now?Ignore my sister’s obvious cries for a little breathing room and completely alienate her?”
Those words brought a sudden flash of anger to Alicia’s face, then…hurt,before she could temper it back to something more neutral.
“Well… this isn’t the first time I’ve been accused of being a robot, so maybe you’re onto something,” she said, turning to head for the door. “For the record… I’m not trying to… alienate you, or ignore what you’re saying you need, I just—”
“Intention versus impact, remember?”
Her lips pressed together in a line, because ofcourseshe remembered that concept, drilled into us in theGardenas a universal part of our training. No matter what kind of asset you were being molded into,impactwas always more important than yourintentions. It was paramount that your actions fell in line with your mission,intentionsbe damned.
“You’re right,” she finally nodded, after a moment. “I’m obviously not hitting the right note with you. I’veneverbeen able to hit the right note with you.”
“Maybe if you stopped trying.”
