AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He breathed deeply next to me, still on his back, but his hand rested on my stomach. I wouldn’t call him sprawled, but maybe he only spread out when he slept on his stomach? What time was it? I looked at his bedside clock to find it was almost nine. Wow. When was the last time I slept this late? Had I ever?
I rubbed my eyes, then I saw he opened his. Immediately, pain crossed his face. I saw the bottle he would need across the room on his dresser, so I got up to grab it. He would need water to swallow it with, too, so I headed for the sink.
“I can do it dry.”
The tsk sound I made got me an eye roll. Grabbing a glass of water from the bathroom, I brought it to him with his pill. He swallowed it gratefully then said, “Thanks. I don’t want to get too accustomed to the pills. Tomorrow, I’m cutting them in half.”
“I don’t think you’re yet at risk of becoming addicted to them, but what do I know? My family is obviously prone to that weakness, so I should probably never take them.” I sat on the edge of his bed. “Can I get you anything else?”
He took my hand. His thumb grazed back and forth across my knuckles. “No. There’s a package outside waiting for you, or there should be. If not, I’ll have words with my guy. I ordered you a computer. A phone. Some other things you might need.”
It was incredibly considerate, so I smiled at him. “Thank you. Michael, you just keep doing for me. It’s not necessary. You saved me from having to marry that guy and you got shot in the process. You could keep me here with water and stale bread and I’d still be grateful.”
He groaned. “This is nothing. I know you’d start to feel off if you can’t work. Besides, your sisters are blowing up my phone. And clothes are just sanitary.”
I couldn’t argue that, but I fiddled with a button on my shirt rather than looking at him. I remembered my dream—the memory of my graduation.
“Hey, question for you?” I asked, tossing him a glance. He winced and stretched his neck, so I went back to fiddling with the button. “What ever happened to Christine?”
“Who?” I darted another glance up to find him rolling his neck, stretching carefully. He seemed disinterested in the conversation, which surprised me.
Is he for real?“The woman you brought to my graduation? The one who gave me the necklace?”
“Oh! I haven’t thought about her inyears. I broke up with her right after that. Possibly later that night? She was so obnoxious at the event. I only brought her because she insisted, and then the way she went off about the gifts? You guys didn’t need another necklace. You could buy your own or have any number of guys gift them to you. Truth was, you didn’t want any more necklaces at all, but she went on and on…” He cut himself off, gesturing vaguely off to the distance. “I’m sure she’s still out there, doing what she does.”
I was sure he was right, and with my own phone, I could google it for myself. I never did that on my computers, because they had to be pristine for work. So if it wasn’t work related, I did it on my phone.Separate entities and never the two should meet.
What a weirdo I am, even in my own head.
I got up and walked toward the kitchen. “I’ll make us breakfast in ten minutes.”
“Oh, awesome.” He jumped to his feet. Just seconds ago, he was wincing, meaning Michael really was a menace to himself.
I had the new computer charging and uploading files and had just finished setting the phone to do the same thing when Michael joined me in the kitchen. I scrambled eggs, which smelled great with a little seasoning. I wasn’t much of a chef, especially not in comparison to some of the family. My brother-in-law Max owned a restaurant and was on the Food Network. He was always being listed among the nation’s greatest chefs, but I was functional and could, at least, feed myself.
And Michael, as it turns out.
“Why were you thinking about Christine?” He walked around me to pour coffee. “Do you want some? I know you don’t always drink coffee.”
Michael was like that—over the years he’d been around, he just knew things about us I never noticed him learning. Some things didn’t have to be explained, which was nice. “Yes, today I am drinking it, but no sugar. It’ll just make me jittery.”
My hips could do without the extra calories, too. I tended toward more curves than my sisters. Layla was tiny and battled a constant fear she was fat. Hope worked out and always looked fantastic. They’d both bounced back from babies like nothing had happened to them at all.
Much as I wished I could really be above it all, I wasn’t. I did want to feel okay about my body, even if I never wanted to see my face on another magazine.
“Hey.” He placed the coffee next to me as I spooned the eggs onto a plate. “Why did you ask about Christine?”
I hadn’t successfully avoided that question, I realized with a fresh flush of heat to my face. “Sometimes I just dream normal dreams and sometimes I have memories instead. Last night it was graduation. And it occurred to me that I didn’t know what had happened to her. You didn’t bring her around again. Or maybe you did? I just left for a while.”
“You did.” He set down his coffee. “Didn’t come home for almost a year, but you wouldn’t have seen her again, anyway. She was gone.”
The coffee was good, so I took another sip and enjoyed the way the warmth blossomed in my chest.I should look at what brand of beanshe usesand buy some for myself.We ate in silence. I never felt like I needed to fill silence, but I knew others did. Still, a thought drifted through my mind, and I had to push down the need to say it before it got me in trouble.
“What was that?” He pointed at my face. “I watched that—whatever it was—move over your face. Say it. What?”
I stared at him. It was the most animated I’d ever seen him. Michael alone was wickedly dangerous to me, but the way he made me feel seen with the Leia chess piece burned in my chest like a reminder.He can really see me.
“It’s nothing. I was wondering what you and Hope ate when she was here with you.” I shrugged again, as if it didn’t matter.
