Page 261 of If You Give an Artist a Killer Muse

“Briar,” I stand up. “Where the hell are you?”

“Oh,” She sighs. “I went out for a walk in the park. I just needed to clear my head. It’s fine.”

Fine. That fucking word.

“You went out for a walk?” I ask, putting her on loudspeaker so I can change into my workout clothes. “Alone? Briar, remember what happened last time?”

“I have a feeling that won’t happen again, now that your loving stepdad fucked himself,” She muses.

“Tell me where you are and wait for me,” I tell her as I put on my shoes. “I’ll meet you there.”

“No, Rurik, it’s fine. Really,” She says. “I told you, I just needed to think. Fresh air really helps.”

I hesitate. But she could leave me… If I don’t catch up with her, she could run away and hide from me again.

Fuck.

What’s wrong with me?

“Briar,” I start with a guilty sigh. “I thought you left me again.”

I could hear her suck in a sharp breath. But she doesn’t say anything.

Yeah, that’s not fucking helping with my anxiety at all. I will need her to reassure me a lot better than that.

“Briar?”

“I told you I won’t leave you again, right?”

“The last time you said you’d stay, you disappeared the next day.”

“I know,” She quietly says. “I’m sorry about that, angel. But this time, I mean it. I’m yours, and I’m here to stay. I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Even though every part of me is fighting to step outside this apartment’s door and drag her back inside, I will my voice to sound normal. “Okay. Hurry back, okay?”

“I love you, Rurik.”

She hung up before I could say it back.

Okay.

I’m not going to freak out. She’ll be back. She said so. She won’t leave me again.

But that tiny seed of doubt in my head keeps growing. I can’t stop pacing back and forth inside the apartment.

An hour passed.

She’s going to leave again, isn’t she?

Fuck.

Fuck.

FUCK!

Why does she keep doing this? She’s the one who wanted me in the first place! What the fuck do I need to do to make her believe that I love her and I can’t live without—

The door flies open, and Briar stumbles in with an armful of grocery bags.

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