Page 68 of Vow of Obsession

“Hey, I get a hug too.” Cosima grabs her hand, yanking her into a hug.

“All right, all right, but it took me years to warm up to a hug with Tova.”

“And it only took days with me.” Cosima gives her the sweetest smile she can muster. “We’re moving quick, Marks.” Marks laughs.

“Give me your phone.” She holds her hand out again. Cosima gives it to her.

“Try on clothes, or you’re making me a liar,” I order Cosima.

“Twist my arm, why don’t you?” She beelines straight for one of the racks. Cosima has chilled out now that Marks is here to fix her phone, and by fixing I mean extracting Z from having access to it.

Marks drops down onto the couch, pulling things out of her backpack. She’s dressed in all black from head to toe, makingher blondish-pink hair stand out. Marks’ hair is an almost white-blond that she is always adding colors to. She never does anything drastic, just a light tint to give it some color. It really works for her.

“I like the hair.”

“I did pink just for you.” I sit down next to her.

"How sweet." I bump my shoulder with hers. “This is nice, being together in person.”

“It is,” Marks agrees but almost appears sad about it.

“You okay?” She shrugs. “Come on.” I bump her again.

“It’s really nice seeing you in person. Too nice.” Ah, there it is. Marks never stays in one place for too long. In her line of work, it’s dangerous. It has to get old, not having roots anywhere.

I wish there was a way for her to feel safe so she’d be okay with settling down. She’s convinced she has to stay moving or things will catch up to her.

“Can I get you ladies…” Brenda, the woman who showed us in here, stops speaking when she sees Marks. “Who are you?”

“She’s with me.” I stand. Shit, how are we going to handle this? Is she going to say something to Brian? Does she have my husband on speed dial and is going to alert him?

“Yeah, that's Marks; just ignore her. We have to drag her shopping with us.” Cosima's tone is sugary sweet. “I’ll take everything on this rack, so I’ll need a new one. Do you have other items I can try on?”

“Of course, give us a little time, and we’ll bring in some more.” Brenda beams before quickly going to find Cosima more clothing. We collectively breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that it was a close call.

“You’re good at this.” I shake my head.

“I think you forget that I’m still a Marino at the end of the day.” This is true.

“That should buy us enough time for me to finish with your phone.” Now that Marks is here, I hate that our visit is going to be rushed.

“Ladies,” Brenda calls as she comes back through the curtains. “This is an issue.” There is a cop right behind her. “This officer needs to speak with you.”

“Thank you, Brenda,” Cosima says dismissively to her, almost rudely. Brenda nods, turning to leave us alone with the cop.

“Is there a problem?” I ask, standing up. Cosima holds out her hand to me.

“Who are you?” Cosima asks him.

“I’m Officer Woods.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Who the fuck are you, and where is Brian?” Cosima steps over and in front of us. What the hell is going on? I see out of the corner of my eye Marks slide the phone down to her side.

"I just have a few questions is all." He gives us a smile. I think he means for it to put us at ease, but it does the opposite.

"Do you have a death wish?" Cosima takes another step toward Officer Woods.

"Don't move." Woods pulls out his gun, aiming it at her.

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