AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The very real curtain call.
A happy fluke, I guess, that she came to my house and this happened again. But we both know this can’t continue.
After tonight, it’s over and done.
If only that didn’t make it far too real.
* * *
The melancholy lingerslike poison after a sting.
She’s still in my arms, breathing gently across my chest.
Still, there’s a blue aura I can feel, sadness creeping in.
I just don’t know how to mention it.
Some shit, I can handle without breaking a sweat.
Business, character assassinations, former associates of Uncle Aidan’s outfit who would’ve loved to slash my throat with piano wire if I wasn’t so high profile...
I’ve built my new life around my career, and it’s no exaggeration to say I know what I’m doing.
But this, this is uncharted territory.
I’ve never been one of those touchy-feely guys. The men who talk about their feelings without it getting weird.
In the life I’ve lived, feelings are something you hide, an annoying vulnerability that shouldn’t exist at all.
Hell, even justunderstandingthis feels harder than learning Coptic Greek.
I’d rather talk facts and figures.
Give me numbers, graphs, figures organized into a spreadsheet.
Data doesn’t lie, assuming it’s not manipulated.
People, as numbers and assets and liabilities, make sense to me.
They have a function and either they do it or they don’t.
If they don’t, they get one chance to fix it before they can fuck right off and stop troubling me.
Mostly, I’m barely in charge of that day-to-day minutiae anymore when I handle the big picture.
Shareholders, expansions, and reputations to keep.
This doesn’t feel small, though.
It’s about the size of Everest, all squeezed into this room.
Destiny, with her eyes shut and her breath steady and her hands balled slightly. This is like waiting for a time bomb to detonate.
Mainly, the fact that she’s pulling away.
Walls have gone up around her, despite the fact that we’re still naked.
I don’t know how to reach her.
