Page 93 of Devious Gambit

“Say something funny, Rhys,” I prompted. “Say one of your kooky comments that always cracks me up.”

“Do you need cheering up?”

“Uh, you know how it is, family and all that.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Ummm,” she exhaled while thinking of something funny to say and I faltered. The sound of her breath floored me.

Breath equals life.

If I had pulled the trigger, my brain would have begun to die, my muscles would relax, my circulation would slow and I’d take my last breath.

“What happens to elves when they are naughty?”

I started cracking up when her choice of ‘funny’ was a bad Christmas joke. The laughter quickly engulfed my body, shaking me to the core and restricting my breath. I couldn’t breathe, yet I wanted breath. I wanted life.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

I cleared my throat, pulling myself together, wiping the tears from my eyes with my sleeve while I exhaled deeply to calm my breathing. “Yeah, I’m fine. Okay,” I sniffed, “what happens to elves when they are naughty?”

“Santa gives them the sack.”

I groaned. “That’s the worst joke on the entire planet, Rhys.”

“It made you laugh, though. It came out of my Christmas cracker.”

“Yeah, it did the job.” She suddenly became distant as if she was about to end the conversation and I couldn’t let that happen. Not yet, I needed her. I. NEEDED. HER. “Confession time. You’re the first girl I’ve ever eaten pasta and pesto off. Your turn.”

The line went dead for a few beats, before she said, “It’s really embarrassing for me to say, but I don’t think I like Hamlet that much.”

“Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”

“Yeah, we’re studying it and I don’t know…”

“Rhys!”

“What?”

“That’s a shit confession. Give me another one.”

“Okay, bossy.” She sighed again and I closed my eyes, soaking in her breath. “I hoped you would come for me when I was in the library in Stillwater.”

I smiled. “I’d never leave you there, no matter how much you hate me.”

“I’m just used to people abandoning me so I thought you’d do the same. Or maybe I abandon people first before they get the chance to do it to me.”

“That’s a great confession. It sums up you and why you don’t get close to people.”

“Your confession sums up you too.”

“You reckon? Eating pesto off your naked body?”

“Yeah, well. You’re dirty minded.”

“True.”

“And you like good quality food.”

---