Page 125 of Underground Prince

Verily scrambled to a stand, and I could only imagine the craziness racing through her mind as I rose with her, what with his bare skin, his patchwork of bruises, his tousled hair, purple eye and…

Yep. Here was the moment she found his shirt.

“You…oh wow,” she said to me.

He nodded at her in greeting. “I was getting ready to leave.”

The air rippled and swelled the instant he captured me merely by directing words my way. Quiet blanketed us and distorted the kitchen so it was he and I, aware of each other, until Verily cleared her throat.

“I’m gonna…I’m heading this way,” she said, scuttling around Theo and casting caricature-wide eyes at me before departing.

“You heard everything,” I said to him once Verily’s bedroom door shut.

His answer was a brief nod.

“Were you going to leave without saying good-bye?” I asked.

He didn’t react.

I was afraid of this, of daylight bringing clarity with its rays, the dawning knowledge that what we were trying to do was not merely stupid, but reckless. It wasn’t simply our lives on the line.

“You’re a better person than you think you are,” he shocked me by saying.

He threw on his blazer, which I didn’t realize he’d been holding, before turning on his heel. I didn’t move. I was too busy collecting the implications of his words, flipping them around in my head, reflecting over the meaning, his meaning, of that statement.

Typical Theo fashion.

I sprang to the front door, bare feet smacking down the stairs until I reached the main entrance and yanked it open. “Theo!”

He paused on his way to the street, his arm halfway up to hail a cab.

“Take me with you,” I said, suddenly out of breath. A spike of adrenaline coupled with the certainty of decision and pounding down stairs would do that. “To supervise the shipment.” Before he could complete the shake of his head, I tumbled out, “Last night you wanted to expose me to every bit of your world. Get me to understand. So keep doing it. Show me.”

“Why?” he asked, that one word ever so cautious.

“So I can prove to you I’m with you. I want to help you get out of this. You can’t face him alone.”

I didn’t have to explain who he was.

“I’ve done it all my life,” he said, and I could barely catch the words once the lights changed at the intersection and cars sped up. “I’m not used to having anyone beside me.”

Ignoring the state of the sidewalk, the grime and the gum and drying spit, I burst out of the doorway, grabbing his face in my hands and laying on a hard kiss.

“Get used to it,” I said, and ran back to my apartment and slammed the door before he could think of a reply.

* * *

Verily and I got ready for our day together, stepping out into the crisp autumn sun with our totes—mainly hers—stacked heavy with textbooks and laptops. We resumed conversation like we always had, as if there was never a blip in our friendship, and while we carefully avoided talk of Noah, I made sure to say I’d hang out with the group next time they were at the bar. It was about time I was able to see them together as a couple. Maybe then I could graduate past tolerance and to acceptance. I side-hugged her good-bye, and turned right, heading to my shift at the Aug.

Kai’s text came halfway between serving sausages and beer.

Kai: Come over this aft. Lessons continue.

How helpful. Kai was starting to rival Theo with his commands.

Me: Sure. I can be there at 4.

I made it to Kai’s place by four fifteen and was surprised to see that he didn’t have a gaggle of men surrounding his poker table.

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