Page 79 of Fitch

But I had to ask... because I had to know.

“Are you gonna move in with him?” I asked. “Permanently? I mean, I want you to be happy, Benj. Don’t think for one second I don’t want that for you. It’s just that, we’ll need to find someone to help cover rent, I guess.”

Benji sat up, clearly trying to put his thoughts in order before he answered. “Nolan wants me to,” he replied quietly. “I told him I don’t know... I want to. God, so bad. But it’s a huge step. I’m staying here while the court case is going on, and I can cover my rent at the unit while I stay here, so you guys don’t need to worry about that.”

“Benji,” I murmured. “If you want to live with him...”

“I am,” he replied. “We’re treating it as a trial basis for now. As long as us three keep meeting up like this during the week, it won’t be so bad. I miss living with you guys. I’m kinda stuck here, so you guys coming here is my only outlet.”

“I miss you too,” I said.

We both turned to Ky, waiting for him to say he missed Benji, and he rolled his eyes. “Fine. Same. Whatever.”

It made me and Benji chuckle, and we settled back in silence for a bit.

“Dominic wants me to think about my future,” I finally admitted. “My future. Like, what even is that?”

Benji’s eyes cut to mine. “Nolan asked me the same thing. A while back, but he wanted to know what I dreamed of being or doing. I told him being alive was my main one.”

Fuck.

I sighed. “Yeah, I dunno what I even said. I just... mumbled my way through it. I don’t like thinking about that shit because people like Dominic talk in terms like short-term and long-termgoals and actioning plans, and whatever the fuck that means. My idea of a short-term goal is making it through the weekend without getting abused or... whatever.” I sighed again. “Fuck, why did he make me think of this shit?”

“Because he loves you,” Ky replied.

Benji and I turned to stare at him. He still had his eyes closed.

“What?” I asked incredulously.

Ky cracked one eye open before closing it again. “Why else would he care about your future if he didn’t want to be part of it?”

“He never mentioned being a part of?—”

“Why would he mention your future if he doesn’t want to be in it?” Ky said again, calm but maybe the loudest I’d ever heard him speak. “Because he wants to be in it, that’s why? Otherwise he wouldn’t give a fuck. He wants you to think about your future because he cares. Because he wants you to have a future. And he doesn’t want you to be a hooker.”

I shook my head. “He said he wouldn’t ask me to change.”

Ky opened his eyes and sat up. “I’m telling you both,” he said, looking at me and Benji. “They don’t want you to rent yourselves out. But they can’t say that. They’re treading a line of control versus respect. Fitch, I’m telling you, Dominic is in love with you.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

He put his hand up. “The man I saw yesterday, here with you in this very place, is one hundred percent in love with you. The way he looks at you... fuck, how he looks at you when you’re not looking... He is inlovewith you.”

I blinked, unsure of which surprised me most. What Ky was saying, or how he was saying it. I’d never seen Ky say this much, at once, with so much passion and conviction.

He shook his head. “He asked you to think about your future to get you thinking about doing something else. If you don’t have to be a hooker anymore, what would you be? That’s what he’s asking.”

“Okay,” I whispered. “Christ. What makes you the expert?”

“Because he watches people,” Benji replied. “It’s what he does.”

My mind was starting to spin.

Ky saying more than ten words in a row.

Ky spitting facts as if it was something he did every day.

That Dominic was in love with me . . .

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