Page 106 of All Your Hate

Bones stands there speechless as Janine manhandles me into the seat in front of her desk. I shrug and let her fuss over me.

“Tea or coffee?” she asks me.

“Umm, coffee.”

“Lovely. Noah, get us two cappuccinos from the break room.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I have to work and you can’t expect Wynter to know where everything is.”

Bones shakes his head and mumbles something under his breath as he heads down the corridor. He gives me a look over his shoulder before he enters the break room and I grin at him.

“Won’t he be late?”

“No, I always mark his meetings as starting earlier than they do. I know what he’s like for being forgetful. He can’t help it, but I don’t want him to lose everything because of it.”

"What do you mean?"

She gives me a sympathetic look. "He's always been terrible at opening up to people. I'm talking about his ADHD. I'd hate to see him miss out on running this place because Gregory didn't get him the proper help he needed when he was younger."

Gregory? That must be Bones' father.

I had no idea about his ADHD, but it makes sense now. He should have told me so I could have understood him a bit better.

Bones comes back with our coffees and kisses the top of my head before heading into his meeting. Janine is grinning from ear to ear at me and my cheeks turn as pink as her hair.

“I always hoped to see Noah settle down with someone, but didn’t think it would happen anytime soon. How did you meet?”

I tell her a vague story of seeing him at a club and how we got to know each other over drinks. She seems to believe it.

“He’s never wanted to help himself before. You must be the reason for it.”

How can she think that after knowing me for such a short amount of time?

“He’s helped me a lot,” I say honestly. “I’m trying to do the same for him, but it’s hard to get into that head of his.” I look towards the closed doors of the meeting room and wonder what’s happening in there.

“You’ll get there. After all, you're already in his heart.” My head snaps back to Janine and she laughs. “You can’t see it? He’s very much in love. I’ve known him almost his entire life and not once has he looked at anyone the way he does you.”

I can feel the blush creeping back onto my cheeks. I had wondered if it was all an illusion, a fantasy that he created. But with each day I spend with him more of my heart is left in his hands. It seems I already hold all the pieces of his.

“What’s his father like? Noah doesn’t talk about his family much.”

She sighs and takes a sip of her coffee. “Gregory has his own troubles just like Noah. He’s a good man, but he’s taken on too much alone. Rather than lean on each other they drifted further apart after losing Chiyo and Kimmy.”

My heart jumps into my throat. I’d never heard their names before. I feel guilty hearing this from anyone other than Bones, but I can’t stop myself from asking, “What happened to them?”

Janine’s eyes get watery and with a shaky hand she sets her mug down. “I don’t like to talk about it. Chiyo was a good friend. She and that little girl didn’t deserve anything that happened to them.” She opens up a drawer and pulls out a photo frame. My heart speeds up. "This is them."

It's a photo of Bones, when he must have been around ten, posing with his family in front of the house. His father has similar facial features as Bones does now, but he gets his hair from his mother. She's beautifully elegant, tall with long pitch black hair. His little sister, Kimmy, looks to be around four or five. She also shares their same hair and has the cutest smile. They all look so blissfully happy.

My heart splits in two for Bones. Whatever happened to them must have been something awful for it to affect Bones so deeply.

“I understand. I lost my parents a few years ago.”

“Then you’ll know to give him time to open up to you. He has his demons, but that boy is nothing but good.” If she knew half the things he’s done she wouldn’t be saying that. But I know that everything he does comes from the right place.

Someone lightly clearing their throat behind me interrupts our conversation. An elegant-looking woman in a dark purple pants suit smiles at Janine as she approaches. Her silver hair is piled high on her head and pearls are draped around her slender neck. She looks around the same age as Janine, maybe older. There’s something familiar about her.

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