Page 7 of Until Death Parts Us

I repeat the gesture and start walking over. She keeps her eyes on me as she lights up a cigarette.

“Hey, neighbor,” she greets. “I was about to come over.”

“Oh, yeah?” I question and she nods. “Well, I was coming to see if you happen to have any trash bags.”

“Uhh, yeah. I have some “How many do you need?”

“A few,” I say with a shrug. “I thought we bought more but I can’t find any.”

She takes a drag. “I’ll grab ‘em for you in just a minute.”

“Thanks.” I offer her a smile. “So, how long are you staying around here?”

“Not much longer. I was hoping to see the northern lights, but maybe I need to go somewhere else to find them.”

I nod. “Yeah, I think I’m ready to get out of here. Some place with a little more life.”

“Itiseerily quiet out here.” She drops her cigarette into the snow. “Want to come in while I look for the bags?”

“Sure,” I say, stubbing out the cigarette on the bottom of my boot before pocketing the butt in my jacket.

The inside of her RV is about the same size as ours, but more dated. She heads to the kitchen area and starts digging through cabinets as I remain near the door.

“Not a bad space,” I tell her.

She looks up and lets her eyes move around the area. “Yeah. It’s not luxurious, but it could be worse. I tried to pretty it up.”

“After you stole it?” I ask with a quirk of my lips.

She snorts. “Right.” After several more seconds of her rifling through drawers, she says, “So.”

“Uh-oh.”

Anna laughs. “What?”

“You had a tone.”

“It’s nothing bad. Well, I don’t know. Maybe it is. I was just gonna say, I might’ve caught a glimpse inside your RV last night.”

“Oh?”

She avoids looking at me, finding another cabinet to search inside. “He’s not your brother, is he?”

“No, he’s not,” I reply simply.

“Oh okay,” she replies, sounding a little relieved. “Oh, here they are,” she says, yanking them from the cabinet where they appear to be wedged between other boxes. “Oh, fuck.”

She drops the box and clutches her arm with her hand.

“You okay?” I ask, walking toward her.

“Something cut my arm. I’ll be fine.”

Anna stands up, her fingers still squeezing her forearm. “Anyway, well, I’m glad to find out you two aren’t related, because…” She lets the sentence dangle, her eyes widening and brows lifting as if to say,yikes.

“Yes, well, you watched,” I say with a slight smirk.

Her cheeks turn pink before she pivots away to reach for some paper towels.

---