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She felt him nudge her shoulder with his. She felt him sidle closer once more until their arms were brushing against each other—a casual gesture that he always did when he wanted to tell her something important to him.
“I missed you.”
Her heart swelled, then settled. She closed her eyes until pitch black filled her vision and vowed that when everything was done, she would come back to him a better person.
“I missed you, too, Charlie.”
Daria spent the week hanging out with Charlie and the rest of the Bennetts at night, the former making an effort to get out of work early and even bringing some of his workload to their favorite spot so they could talk while he finished stuff.
“Why are you still working for that mean boss? Didn’t you get calls from other companies?”
“Yes, I did.” Something in his tone signaled there was more and he was bothered, but he didn’t elaborate. “I just didn’t feel like taking them.”
“Didn’t feel like taking them?”
“Yes. I like this job. What have you been up to?”
Preparing. Reading. Packing.
“Yano.”
His aura stiffened. “You are dating Yano?”
“Of course not!” she exclaimed in shock. “We are related in some way like you guys are. Wouldyouever date Rosalia?”
“Ugh. Cousin.”
“Exactly. I meant that I have been helping him out. Our king gave him some new duties involving fortifying our home, and Yano is so excited to be assigned something so important.”
“I can’t ever get into calling Marx a king,” he muttered. “But good for Yano. Fortifying’s fun. How’s Bianca?”
“Your cousin and my king are still very chummy with each other. Your niece and nephew are mischievous as hell.”
“Good. We Bennetts are fun.”
“I accidentally heard them again. They forgot to close their door all the way, and I heard the bed rocking loudly. They screamed each other’s name a lot and broke the bed the next day—”
“Jesus, Daria, information overload,” Charlie complained, sounding mortified. “I don’t need to hear the details of my cousin going at it with your…king.”
“I didn’t need to hear them, either,” she shot back. “It’s not my fault I have this kind of hearing and can hear anyone within a mile away—”
She shut up, sensing his shock. She heard him jump, then blinked when the steady gray in front of her was dashed by an approaching black blur.
“When you said you sometimes hear things through walls, I assumed you meant conversations.”
“Hmm.”
“Daria…”
“I heard you once,” she blurted out, then inwardly groaned.Stop talking,her brain demanded. But the words rolled on. “Not that I ever dwelled on it because what kind of sick thing is that? Sometimes I hear people in here, too, but I’m used to blocking them out.”
“I’m assuming you blocked me, too.”
An image came of her in a small room cramped with furniture and a small bed, smelling of bad deodorant and whatever cheap cologne Charlie’s roommate had used. The roommate had been away for the weekend while she had been ushered there, happily buzzed from her first college party. It had been quiet at first…until it wasn’t, and the rush of shifting clothes, heavy moans, and the bed squeaking became the next rhythm filling her ears. She had mostly heard the woman getting pleasured with Charlie quiet the whole time—until the woman hit her orgasm, the bed squeaked louder, and the long, deep groan exploded from Charlie’s throat.
Tingles shuddered across her skin. She shoved the long-buried memory back where it belonged, refusing to acknowledge it any further.
“Yes,” she said. “I blocked it.”
