Page 19 of The Ones We Fight For

Walker turned to Talia and pointed at a table. “Did you want to… sit?” His original plan had been to buy Talia a coffee and get the hell out of there, but his mouth and body ran off without his permission. Unaware of the mental battle going on inside his head, Talia took a seat on the antique couch Walker normally sat at instead of the table he suggested, as usual, blowing all his boundaries to smithereens. Walker sat down next to her and folded his hands on his lap, unsure what to say.

“So, are you going to call me on it?” Talia asked before Walker could spark up a conversation.

“Call you on what?” Walker furrowed his brow.

Talia shrugged. “I lied. A vanilla latte is my drink, and you already knew that.”

Stunned into silence for a moment, Walker blinked stupidly at Talia. He’d been caught red-handed, and yet he was more annoyed that he’d been bested at whatever game they were playing.

“Fine. Why did you lie? What is this? Some kind of weird test?” He inquired.

“I just wanted to see if you would say anything, like I’m now going to call you out on the fact that you already knew what I was going to drink and tried to pretend that you were just guessing.”

“You’re… fucking insane.” Walker gawked. It was the only thing he could think to say because he was still reeling from the shock of her being able to read him like an open book. He was so used to being an enigma to women that Talia’s blatant disregard for the cool man of mystery vibe he tried to embody delivered a definite blow to his ego. “How?”

“They used to call me a human lie detector at my old job.” Talia grinned, clearly enjoying his discomfort.

“What job was that, exactly? Assistant to Sherlock Holmes?”

“Lawyer.”

“Ah.” Walker nodded. “That explains the clothes.” Talia looked down at herself, and he wanted to slap himself for mentioning anything that implied he’d spent any longer than zero time thinking about her outfits. “Not the current outfit. The stilts you use as shoes and the sunglasses that scream ‘get away from me, I’m a New Yorker who doesn’t open doors for people.’”

“So you know I’m a New Yorker, too, then?” Talia pried.

“That was a lucky guess. You aren’t the only one who can read people.”

Their coffee orders were called out before Talia could respond, and Walker waved her off to signal that he would pick up both their drinks. It wasn’t hard to figure out which one was his. One of the cups had a phone number scrawled out on the side, his earlier friendliness toward the barista clearly mistaken for flirting. Sitting back down across from Talia, Walker passed her her drink and waited for her to take a sip. She did and cringed, obviously forgetting she had not ordered her usual.

“But I thought you loved chai lattes!” Walker teased, the smirk on his face compromising his feigned innocence and giving away his inability to pass up an opportunity to poke fun at her.

“I don’t know why, out of everything, I chose chai. I hate chai.Literally anything else would have worked,” Talia groaned.

“Here.” Walker held his drink out to her, and she cocked her head in curiosity. “I like chai, and they have cream and sugar on that stand over there that you can add to this. I haven’t drunk out of it yet.”

“You aren’t worried about getting weird diseases from me?” Talia inquired, passing her drink over to him.

“Do you have weird diseases?” Walker lifted the drink to his lips and took a sip in defiance before waiting for her response. He actually despised chai with every fiber of his being, but it was too late to turn back. He would drain every last drop of that blasted drink just to prove a point. What point, exactly? He had no idea.

“Yeah, I do.” Talia nodded as if it was of no consequence. “It’s this weird parasite thing that eats holes in your stomach. I got it when I went on a trip to the Amazon. I’ve had several surgeries to remove the parts of my stomach that have died off.”

Walker choked on the chai sliding down his throat before recognizing the playful smile on her face.

“You’re fucking with me,” he determined, shaking his head.

“Definitely. But it sounds like some shit you would get in the Amazon, right? They have fish that swim up your urethra, why not flesh-eating parasites, too?”

Walker made a mental note to never visit the Amazon.

Talia walked over to the coffee bar and poured some cream into her new cup. The stir stick she picked up didn’t go into her cup, but instead between her lips, chewing on the end of it with her teeth. She didn’t sit back down across from him, choosing to stand as he took another sip of his disgusting drink and did his best to not give her the impression that he wasn’t enjoying it.

“So… I wanted to thank you again for helping Piper. It’s been… well, it hasn’t been easy. I really wished she would have called me because I would have picked her up if she did. She shouldn’t have been walking home at all. Anyway, we had a discussion this morning, and I think we’re on the same page now. I’m scheduling a therapy appointment for all of the kids as soon as places open up tomorrow. Carter already has one set up after the whole skipping school incident, but… you get the point.”

“You don’t owe me any explanation, Walker,” Talia said plainly. “I’m not holding anything against you like you are me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Walker stared back at her, remembering just how infuriating she was.

“It means my relationship with my dad was nonexistent. I lived here till I was seven. My mom woke me up in the middle of the night to skip town and get away from him, so I do know what a horrible person he was, and I’m sorry I wasn’t more of a positive influence on him, but I doubt my presence in his life would have been enough to save your family. My mom was the most wonderful person I’ve ever met, and even her presence wasn’t enough to cure his narcissistic personality.

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