Page 69 of Devilish Ink

It was only then that I saw the coat draped over his arm and the umbrella resting against his leg.

“Is it already time?” I asked, checking the clock.

Closing time was over an hour ago. I bit my lip. Lee still hadn’t come.

I considered waiting a little longer. Sending Rian home ahead of me. Of giving Lee another chance. He wasn’t going to goanothernight without seeing me, was he?

“Come on,” Rian said, tugging at my arm. “It’s cold. We’ll keep each other warm.”

We locked up together. I left Dublin Ink bathed in darkness, the neon light switched off. A steady rain fell on the slick sidewalks. It’d been falling since that morning.

For the first time in a long time, I checked the streets.

I realised I’d stopped doing that because Lee always walked me home. I frowned peering into the shadows across the street. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as if…as if I was being watched.

I shook it off. I was being paranoid.

Besides, Rian was here.

Even if Lee wasn’t by my side, I wasn’t alone.

“Do you think you’ll stay in Dublin for much longer?” Rian asked over the pitter patter on our shared umbrella.

I pulled him closer, glancing over my shoulder at the shadows before giving him a look. “Is this because I left my oatmeal bowl in the sink this morning?”

Rian laughed and I relished the clear, full sound. For so long his senses had been dulled that he’d stopped laughing as much.

“You know you’re welcome to stay for…”

I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Really? You want a permanent roommate?”

He shrugged. “If we didn’t kill each other living together after art school, surely we won’t kill each other now that we’re older and…?”

“Wiser…?” I added. I stepped over a puddle. “Um, didn’t our attempt at being roommates end with you tossing your half-finished canvas out on the curb with the trash?”

“Your toyboy of the week threw his leather jacket over my still drying canvas.” Rian pulled me aside out of the way of the muddy spray of a passing car. “He ruined it.”

“I still agree with him,” I teased. “The smears made it better. Postmodern, you know? Abstract.”

Under his breath, Rian mumbled, “If I wanted to smear a masterpiece, I would have smeared a masterpiece myself.” He shook his head. “I hope your taste in men has improved.”

I know he was only teasing.

But for some reason, his words stabbed into my gut.

Would Rian like Lee? Would Lee like Rian?

They seemed so different.

My best friend was every bit a moody dark artist, secrets and darkness tucked away in every crack.

And Lee was a simple kind-hearted country boy turned mechanic. I couldn’t ever imagine him keeping secrets or hiding a dark side.

“I mean,” Rian continued, “eventually, I’d like the place back, you know, when Eithne forgives me. When she’s ready to…”

“She loves you,” I said, squeezing his arm. “She’ll come around.”

“I hope so,” he said as we rounded the corner onto his street. “She just…we just…need more time.”

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