Page 139 of Oh, Flutz!

“I’m not leaving you,” Katya says, with a finality that lets me know that there’s no chance of changing her mind. “Now, someone, tell me what to do.”

Lian tells her. And she pulls me through.

Chapter Forty-Eight

BRYAN

Once it's over, Iget the hell out of there.

I get out of there the second the pressure eases up and I open my eyes to her grey ones right there in front of me, wide and worried and almost—never mind. There’s a split second where I’m just sitting there, staring at her, feeling the most grounded I have in weeks. But then she blinks, and it’s enough to break the spell. I get up, her steady hands falling from my arms, and I ignore the tiny “wait” that leaks out of the room behind me.

I sit in the off-ice room for who knows how long.

Then Katya walks in. I don’t look up.

We both sit there in silence for a beat, waiting to see who breaks first. For once, I don’t.

“Are we going to talk about what just happened, or are we going to ignore it?” Katya asks conversationally, the edges of her voice simultaneously sharp and frayed. “Because really, I don’t think that strategy has been working out too well thus far.”

I smirk. “You don’t say?”

She stares me down, clearly unamused by my sarcasm. “You’re not being funny.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.”

“Yasha, I’m not joking around.”

I still. That one word crawls back under my skin, prying things open I want to keep shut and shoved under my bed forever. “When are you going to stop calling me that?”

“When you start talking to me.”

“What do you call this, then?”

“A sad attempt at trying to shake me off.”

“Funny, I’m usually the one being shaken off.”

“Stop making this into a joke. It isn’t a joke.”

“Of course it isn’t a fucking joke!” I explode, and Katya rears back. “You don’t have to tell me that!Jesus.” I dig my hands in my hair, trying to walk away, but she just blocks my path, face deceptively steady. I know she’s trying to hold her ground.

“I’m sorry,” she says, like she means it. Then she shakes her head. “Bryan, you’re my partner. I don’t want you to hide from me.”

I wish I could ignore how her calling me her partner makes some idiotic part of me want to just push all of this aside and let things be okay again. I wish I could stop thinking that,well, Ekaterina, if you didn’t want me to hide from you, you shouldn’t have run.

God, this is impossible. This whole situation is impossible. “I didn’t want you to see it.”

“See what?”

I shut my mouth. “Forget it.”

Katya blinks, mouth twisting, hesitating. “I don’t think any less of you for it. You know that, don’t you?”

I close my eyes.

“Don’t you?” she repeats, slightly louder, slightly desperately, and I run a hand down my face.

“Katya, I can’t—”

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