AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Explode?
Collapse?
Loom threateningly over Huan?
Try not to pounce?
Better to maintain a good impression with his family and say our goodbyes now.
We chat for a bit more, and then they leave—but not before making me promise to visit their house soon for dinner.
I’ve got no idea if I will or if I can.
I’ve got no idea what is going to happen next.
I’m still in the kitchen when the front door opens, and then I hear footsteps. By the time Huan walks in, I've scrambled up and am half-leaned against the chair.
He looks like I feel—and likely how I look, too, considering how much my hands have tugged through my hair. His normally pristine and professional clothes are askew. There are shadows under his eyes and new lines by his mouth.
He stops across from me, tucking his hands into his pockets. I won’t be able to tell if they are steady or not. As his eyes go down, they snag onmyfingers tightening on the chair that is no longer a casual instrument of support, but my desperate crutch.
“You were at my house,” I say, with a clear note of surprise.
He doesn’t answer, a rarity for Huan who is usually too mannered to ignore a direct address. Even stranger is how slowly he looks over me, as if there might not be other chances to see me. Is this goodbye? Is he getting ready to leave me? That love-sickness I've been keeping at bay threatens to swamp me.
“I didn’t know where else to wait,” he finally says.
“You never called me back. I called you earlier.”
“They took my work phone.”
“Oh.”
“As for my personal cell, I was going to give you another hour before calling. You’ve been through a lot with the media, and I knew you would be busy figuring it out with Shreya and Mohinder.”
More has happened since, and I should update him.
“Well, I quit the movie,” I tell him. “Had an argument with my mother and left, but not before I told her I don’t want to act. That it’s not for me.”
Huan’s hand leaves his pocket. “Are you?—”
“I’m getting better,” I say. “Preeti gave me some good advice on giving my mom space to adjust to the news. Hopefully that helps.”
“Good. That’s good.”
We lapse into silence again until a stroke of impatience rolls over me. We are being so civilized and polite, and we haven't crossed the space yawning before us.
“I wasn’t sure—I didn’t know if you had left—there would be reasons—as this—me—is complicated,” I blurt out. I’m not making sense, but I’m trying to say that I know he’s guarded himself ever since his sister passed, and that he deserves easiness because of it, and I know I am difficult and so a part of me wasn’t completely shocked he might have left.
I try again. “I thought you left.”Me. “That’s why I came here to find you.”Because I don’t want you to leave.
“I didn’t.” Huan steps closer, and that’s when I notice the faint bruise on the side of his forehead.
That does it. I rush forward. “Who did this to you? You've got a bruise.”
“I hit the edge of a door.”
“Right.”
