AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I assess every person that comes near her, searching for signs of potential threats, and I ready myself to act if needed.
We make it there without issue, just like every other time, and go straight to the bench she always sits on.
She lowers herself onto it and rummages through the bag of food.
I pull my coffee out of the holder and wait for her to give me my food so I can go to the other bench that’s just a stone’s throw away—my meager attempt at giving her some space. It isn’t much, but it’s the least I can do to make her feel like she isn’t constantly under surveillance.
June pulls out my burger but doesn’t give it to me. Instead, she nods at the open seat next to her. “You can sit here.” She pauses and then adds, “If you want to.”
"Are you sure?" I'm well aware that I nearly force-fed her this morning and like to fuck with her every chance I get, but in moments like this, when I canfeelthat something is going on, I back off. I can’t afford to push her too far over the ledge when our entire relationship has never been on stable ground.
“Yeah, but you better hurry up or I might change my mind.” She smirks and holds out the burger.
I take it and settle in on the opposite end of the bench from her. “Wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?” My sarcasm lingers in the air. All I could ever ask is for her to change her mind—about me, about them, about us.
She doesn't bother taking the bait, instead, she peels back the paper around her chicken wrap and bites off a small corner of it. She chews slowly, swallows, and then stares blindly off into the distance, seemingly at nothing in particular.
“Want to tell me what’s wrong?” I dig into my own lunch, a bit afraid that I might be overstepping my boundaries by asking her something so personal when she’s never been the one to open up without immediately shutting back down.
June draws in a breath, her chest expanding slightly before she exhales, her gaze skimming the ground in front of her. She nibbles on the inside of her bottom lip.
A bird flies overhead, casting a shadow over both of us temporarily.
She looks up to watch it pass, but I keep my eyes firmly on her.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she finally says.
I run my hand through my longish hair, dragging it off my brow. “I can’t fix the problem if you don’t tell me what it is.”
"Why are you so sure there's a problem that needs to be solved?" She takes another small bite of her wrap.
“We wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t.” I nod vaguely at the park around us. “You come here to escape the noise of the city—to think.”
“Maybe I just come for the view.”
“Maybe.” Although we both know that’s a lie.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asks. It’s a question I don’t expect.
“What?” I stare over at her, reading her face to pick up anything I had missed.
“You’re telling me nothing is wrong with you?” She positions her body toward me, her one bent leg coming up onto the bench and the other pulled up on top of it.
“Other than the obvious?” Instinctually, my body gravitates toward her, turning and facing her the way she had done to me.
“And what’s the obvious?”
“I think you and I both already know the answer to that one.” I grin at her. “But nice try changing the subject.”
June rolls her eyes and reaches into the bag to pull out a box. “Can I have one of your fries?” She pops the top and snags one before I can even respond to her.
Not that I would have said no either way. That woman can have whatever it is she wants from me.
Take the bleeding fucking heart from my chest if it pleases you, June.
A thought that I keep to myself, silently begging her to comprehend what I refuse to say out loud.
“Sure,” I tell her anyway. “Help yourself.” I grab a fry and toss it at her. It bounces off her forehead and onto the ground.
