Page 209 of Time Stops With You

I don’t have much resolve left in me to last another night with her downstairs.

I won’t even last the morning if she keeps acting like she did yesterday.

With a deep breath, I brush my teeth and head downstairs. The house is dark, as it always is. But sunlight fights to creep past the heavy velvet curtains.

I cover my mouth as a yawn overtakes me and pass the hallway that leads to my bedroom. A quick peek at the door is all I allow myself. Nardi is probably still asleep.

After making myself a pot of coffee, I hunker into my old, gaming chair and check on last night’s data. I’m quickly pulled into my work until my phone vibrates a few hours later.

It’s Josiah.

I answer quickly, hoping that nothing is wrong. “Hey, Josiah.”

“Cullen, it’s Nardi’s mom.”

Surprised, I sit straighter in my seat. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m sorry to disturb you but… is Nardi there?”

I swing my chair around so I can look down the hallway to my bedroom. “Yes.”

Mrs. Davis sighs in relief. “Thatgyal.” Her Belizean accent is so thick that it’s hard to understand her. “Shedi tiadme.”

I piece together that Mrs. Davis is complaining about Nardi’s behavior. “Don’t worry, ma’am. I’ll send her back home as quickly as possible. I told her she could only stay the night.”

“No, don’t do that.”

Surprise slackens my jaw. “D-don’t?”

“Nardi loves a challenge. The more you resist her, the more she’ll dig her heels in and stay.”

I lean back, too shocked to speak.

“Why do you think she was so enamored by Malcolm? She thought they had this grand, epic love story because he was moving away. If he’d stayed in Belize, they would have naturally grown apart, but Nardi saw every obstacle as a reason to hold on tighter.”

I run my teeth over my bottom lip. After last night, I totally believe that.

Mrs. Davis sighs. “If you’re to have any hope of sending her on her way, you’ll just have to let her do what she wants until she gets tired of it.”

“Let her…” I jolt. “You mean let her stay here?”

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Mrs. Davis says.

Oh-ho, she’s very wrong. I like it a whole lot. I like it in ways I could never discuss with Nardi’s mother.

“Tell her not to worry about Josiah. I’ll take him to school and pick him up in the evenings.”

“Okay,” I mumble, still in disbelief.

There’s a pause and then Mrs. Davis says, “Since things have turned out like this, all we can do is try to minimize the damage.”

“What exactly does that mean?” I wonder.

“It means take care of my baby, Cullen.”

My shoulders straighten as I hear the warning behind those words.

Mrs. Davis hangs up and I stare at my cell phone long after it goes dark, wondering how I got here. It tore me up to make the decision to never see Nardi again. But it was a choice I intended to maintain for her sake.

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