Page 206 of Dark Love

“Yup. So, are you going to hurry up and get it done for me?”

Incorrigible man. “Well, if I give up sleeping at night, it’s possible that I could get it done a month or two earlier.”

“Or you could quit your job answering phones and just write.”

Financially, I could do that. “That job is the only thing that gets me out of the house.”

“I know, Dahl.” He shifts up so that now we’re both sitting instead of sprawled across the couch. “But you’d have so much more time to write.”

“No, Vex.” Why does his name grate on my nerves sometimes? “You don’t understand. If I didn’t go to work, I’d never leave the house.”

“So? You’d be safe. Have plenty of work to keep you occupied. And always be free to spend time with me.”

There’s a lot to unpack in that. Is all of this about him wanting me to be safe? Or to spend all my time with him. “No, you don’t understand. I won’t leave the house.”

His brow furrows. “Help me understand, Dahl.”

How do I explain this without telling him everything? “Before I got this job and moved to Urbium, I lived in my parent’s guest house.”

“Okay?”

“It wasn’t because I couldn’t afford to move out. It was because I never wanted to go out. Ever. I didn’t have agoraphobia, but I could have seen it getting to that point.”

“Dahl.” He reaches out and strokes my cheek.

“So when I say I need this job, I need this job.”

“Then you’ll keep the job… For now.”

Stubborn man. “Oh, really?”

“Because at some point, hopefully in the near future, you’re not going to need that crutch. You’ll be just fine going out with me or your friends whenever you feel like it. Not because you have to punch a clock for some job.”

What a beautiful thing to say. He believes I have more strength than I do. How can people think he’s a monster? His name doesn’t help. “What’s your real name?”

Vex blinks twice. “That’s a big jump. One of these days, I’m going to understand how your mind works.”

That would be one of us that does. “Vex?”

“I can’t tell you that, Dahl.”

After I just exposed so much of myself to him, he can’t even tell me his name. The pain those words cause—

“It’s not because I don’t want to tell you. It’s because I don’t have a name.”

Huh? “Everyone has a name. It’s given to you when you’re born.”

“In a hospital like a normal person. My father didn’t believe in sharing unnecessary information with the government. So, when I was born, he never took my mother to the hospital, nor did he tell the government that I even existed. Vex is the only name he ever gave me.”

No name. The man in front of me wasn’t even given the simple respect of a name. “But you own all this. You have to have a name to buy stuff.”

“It’s a flawlessly crafted false ID.”

“Like spies have in the movies?”

Vex chuckles. “Still not a spy.”

“It would have been easier if you were.” Sort of. I think. At least then he would have had a family that loved him and a name to hold on to.

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