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“Yeah, so that I can hold your right hand with my left.”
He grins and I can’t help but return it as those damn butterflies start up a jig in my stomach again. Wordlessly, he holds out his hand in offering to me and I take it. Because I’m crazy. The right kind of crazy where Cove’s concerned.
Together, hand in hand, we walk back up to campus from the docks. It’s getting late but it’s a nice enough evening and neither of us seem to be in a hurry to reach our destination.
“So, where’ve you been, Mai-Tai?” Cove eventually asks, breaking the companionable silence between us. I knew it was coming, but I still sigh reluctantly.
“In the hospital.” I’m not great at lying – unless it’s to myself – so I don’t even contemplate telling him anything but the truth.
“Oh. Are you okay?”
“I had an…issue a while ago and I spent a couple of weeks or so in the clinic getting help, and I’ve been doing really well but I missed a few meds. So my friend thought I should get checked out. I guess it just took them a few days to get me back to normal this time.”
Lies by omission don’t count, right? Nothing I’ve just told him is untrue, but he doesn’t need to hear the full, ugly truth. Especially about Summer’s betrayal.
“That explains the no contact then.”
“Sorry. If I’d known they were going to keep me in, I would have let you know, but the first I knew about it was when they were taking away my phone and my friend was handing them my overnight bag.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad you reached out to me when you could. On your way home no less, you must have really missed me.”
I think he’s teasing if the glint in his eyes is anything to go by, but I’m never certain so I tell him, “yes” and then internally laugh at the shock on his face which quickly morphs to…happiness? Pride?
“I missed you too Mai-Tai,” he tells me, giving my hand a gentle squeeze which gets the damn butterflies all riled up. Maybe I need to see a doctor – like a medical one rather than a head one – about this feeling. Maybe I’m a medical marvel and I really do have butterflies in my stomach. I don’t recall eating caterpillars when I was younger though, and I never grew an apple tree from swallowing a pip either.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I startle slightly at Cove’s voice and then chuckle nervously. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
“I want to know everything about you.”
“That…wouldn’t be pretty. But I was just thinking about when we were kids. Where I come from it’s quite common for kids to think that if they swallow an apple pip, an apple tree will form in their stomach. Did you think that?”
“No. Where I come from, the potential poison in apple pips means that kids grow up knowing not to eat them.”
“Yeah but it’s such a trace amount, you’d have to eat hundreds to do any damage.”
Cove mutters something under his breath, and I swear I catch the word humans.
“Excuse me?”
“To some people maybe. Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay, well what stupid stuff did you grow up believing?”
“Where I’m from, I grew up being told I would live in a palace one day. I thought I would be a prince and maybe one day king, not that I would work there for a bit.”
I smile at his words. I thought it was just girls who grew up dreaming of being long lost princesses. I know I did. Not because I wanted riches and a tiara and a prince to save me, I just wanted a better life. I’d even have chosen Cinderella’s life before the fairy godmother showed up. Anything would have been better than the life I knew.
“That’s cute. So you’re not from here then.”
“Santa Catalina? No.”
“And obviously not the US either if you’re talking about palaces and kings.”
“Correct.”
“So…” I prompt.
