Page 63 of Sugar and Skulls

She hugs herself, defeat creasing her forehead.

“Come eat.” I push a plate of fresh fruit and toast across the breakfast counter.

“Dirk,” she says, choking on my name. Her face contorts at the emotions she is struggling to keep at bay. She breathes deeply before continuing. “Please, take me back. Katie needs me, my friends need me.”

I sit down opposite her plate, pointing to it.

She must think if she complies I will let her go, because she rushes over and sits down shoveling food into her mouth. Maybe she thinks she can talk some sense into me. Sorry, not happening. When she takes the last bite, she gazes at me expectantly.

After several awkward minutes of silence, she tosses her napkin onto the breakfast bar angrily. “Now what?”

I put my cigarette out in the ashtray blowing the last bit of smoke into her face. She waves it away, visibly annoyed with me. I chuckle lightly.

“Well?”

“You tell me what I want to know.”

“Fine. Sure. What the fuck do you want to know?” She rolls her hands to hurry me, like she has somewhere to be.

“Why haven’t you asked Bill where he was all those years?”

“Because I don’t care.”

I tap my lighter on the counter. “Why not?”

“Does it fucking matter? He wasn’t there. Period.”

“Do you think things would have been different if he had been?”

“Duh, of course things would have been different.” Her eyebrows crease together. Suspicion is creeping up on her.

“How?”

“Dirk, Jesus Christ. I don’t have time for this.” She stands up but there is nowhere for her to run.

“Sit down.”

She doesn’t. I slowly rise from my seat. That makes her think twice and she parks her ass back in the chair. I drop back into my own, throwing the picture of her and William onto the breakfast bar between us.

She grimaces, turning away.

“Do you think that would have happened if he would have been there?”

“We both know it wouldn’t have,” she says quietly.

“And you’re angry at him for that?”

“I’m not angry anymore.”

“No?”

“No.”

“What exactly did the priest make you and William do?”

“I’m not doing this, Dirk.”

“You are.”

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