Page 26 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

“And she really could do with toiletries.”

“Uh huh …” he said, as someone came in and he spotted Rosie back at the table already before the door swung shut again. He ducked out of sight. “Is tomorrow okay? Or you need them today?”

“Tomorrow is fine.”

Rosie smiled as William approached. “Everything okay?” she asked. “You were quite a while.”

“Yep. Sorry. Hands were sticky, that’s all.”

“You were talking to someone?”

William frowned.

“I thought I heard your voice just before.”

“Oh, no. Just someone in the men’s room.”

William tried not to be distracted as they ate. Even ordering had been a fiasco, but that wasn’t because his hands were dirty now, no, it was the thought that he would have to go and see Maria, again. It was just toiletries. He knew what she liked, and if he got it wrong, well she’d just hitch up her abuse at him. What was the difference? He wasn’t sure he could do with another mental beating. She was the bad drug he couldn’t get clean from. She’d poison her image of Rosie until she infected him with it, but he would fight. Maybe she would die soon.

When they had finished eating, Rosie set her knife and fork down and leaned her elbows on the table, her chin resting on her clasped hands. “What’s wrong, William, and don’t say nothing. You’ve been quiet. Is it the pan? You think I am an idiot yet?”

“What? No.” His mind hadn't even gone there. “There’s nothing. Honestly.”

“Are you … regretting me being here?”

Panic sucked the breath from his lungs. “Do you want to leave?”

“No, William,” she cooed. “I don’t. But something is eating at you, and you aren’t talking.”

He leaned across the table and grabbed for her hands, pulling them down and holding them between his. “I’m sorry. I’m okay really. I just have a headache.”

He just needed to call Carly … not for help or advice, but someone to just let this shit out to who wouldn’t care, and if she did care, she wouldn’t say. It wasn’t her place to. She had become his safe sounding board where he could leave his crap and walk away.

“How about we go pick up a dessert, head home and watch something really shit on the television?”

A smile spread across Rosie’s face. “Sure. I’d like that.”

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