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“It—”
“Please.”
He looks down at me for a long time, and I know he’s warring with himself. He wants to give me this but thinks it’s letting himself off if he does. He drops his hand, and I think he’s going to leave me here with all these questions, but instead, he takes my hand and leads me to his office, where he deposits me in a chair and locks the door before standing in front of me.
He crosses his arms and lets out a resigned sigh as he leans back against his desk.
“What do you want to know?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sawyer
I’m throwing my stuff into a locker when Ezra joins me, stuffs his hoodie inside with mine, and puts his phone on the shelf.
“How’s it going?” I ask.
“Fine. Nothing I don’t already know.” I’ve just come from a human-science session, and he’s come from tech. It’s a rare morning when all three of us have our individual sessions at the same time, so we’re meant to be meeting here for combat, but Harlow’s not arrived yet. “What about you?”
“Same. You seen Harlow?”
“Not yet.”
Grabbing our water bottles, I make my way through to the room in case she’s already here, but I don’t spot her. She’s pretty hard to miss, being only one of two women in the whole cohort, and seeing as she’s just had ethics, I assume she’ll come with Clara anyway. I find a space within sight of the door for when she arrives, and Ezra joins me a minute later as we stretch to warm up, but she’s still not here. Clara sneaks in just before the instructor closes the door, and even when he starts explaining the training, Harlow’s still not appeared.
“Nico’s not here either,” Ezra tells me when my eyes find the closed door again, and I look around to see he’s right. Is that a good sign? He doesn’t always run the sessions, but he’s always around emanating furious vibes, so it can’t be a coincidence that the day Harlow is late, he’s not here either. Maybe she decided to approach him after all. It’s that thought that keeps me in the session and not searching the whole building for her.
Neither Harlow nor Nico make an appearance throughout the whole two-hour combat session, and by the end, Ezra and I are both antsy to find our girl. No doubt he’s also remembering the last time we didn’t hear from Harlow. We fetch our things and leave quickly, heading straight for Nico’s office. If she’s not here with him, then we panic.
When Ezra knocks and Nico’s voice comes from the other side, relief niggles at me, and when he pushes the door open and we find Harlow and Nico together, heads close as they look deep in discussion, my shoulders lower from my ears. They both look suspicious, but that fades when they see it’s us who have knocked.
“There you are,” I say to Harlow, and she grimaces.
“Sorry, I got caught up. I should’ve messaged.”
“It’s fine. We guessed you must be with Nico when neither of you were in combat.” She looks back at him, and something unknown flashes between them, which I can’t say I love. If they’ve been here two hours, they must’ve talked, but it still seems tense, unspoken words simmering between them. About what, I’m not sure, but at least they’re not shouting at each other.
“You ready?” Ezra asks, drawing Harlow’s eyes to him, and she nods lightly and stands, but Nico grabs her hand. She turns to him with a frown, and he stands too, cupping her face in his other hand.
“Are we okay?” he asks her softly, and she nods against his palm, her eyes softening.
“Yeah, we’re okay.”
His whole body seems to relax a little, although he’s clearly still tense as his head bobs too.
“Okay,” he says, then his eyes flick to us and he lets Harlow go. He checks his watch.
“I’ll see you later?” she asks, her eyes not leaving him.
“Yep,” he says easily as he moves toward the door to hold it open. Harlow slips through first, and Nico watches her go until we follow behind her.
There’s no time for her to tell us what just went on, as we all separate for our final sessions of the day, and I don’t see either of them until we’re meeting back at the car, ready to go home.
“Do you mind if Nico comes over tonight?” she asks.
“No, why would we mind?”
Harlow shrugs lightly. “I know Ezra isn’t his biggest fan—”
