Page 17 of Afterglow
“I thought I could figure it out myself, then I ran you over. And no one’s here. Everyone’s gone, living their perfect fucking lives, and I’m here, alone. Completely fucking alone, trying to make sure you don’t die and you”—there’s a brief pause to rise from my shoulder and release a few more tears before she forces eye contact again—“why do you hate meeee?”
“I”—can barely get out the words—“don’t?”
Short sobs staccato her words like hiccups. “Then”—sob—“why”—sob—“won’t”—sob—“you”—sob—“talk”—sob—“to”—sob—“me?”
Oh, God. This poor girl thinks I hate her because I have the biggest crush on her and can’t seem to piece together more than two words whenever she’s around.
“Because I suck.”
Three words. Progress.
I’m surprised she could even hear me over it, but her wailing quiets. She pushes herself away from my chest, and I reactively free her from the hold. “What?”
My hands find each other between my knees, knuckles cracking as I fidget with them. Heat creeps up my neck. My tongue goes lax, pretending to be dead when put on the spot in these unexpected circumstances. “I’m…I’m not good with words.”
“No shit,” she mutters, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.
My knees clench around my entwined hands. “I’m sorry, too.Um, for everything.”
Her hands fly to her face as she recoils to the corner of the sofa. “Oh, my God. No,I’mso sorry. I just physically assaulted and trauma-dumped on you.” She sniffles. “You know what’s crazy, though? We’ve been living together in this apartment for a couple of weeks. I’ve been doing your laundry and cooking you all sorts of meals from that list your doctor gave me—” She points to a piece of paper in the kitchen stuck to the fridge with a magnet. “Granny’s dhansak recipe single-handedly got you outta the house with a clean bill of health.”
“That was…all you?”
I don’t think my own family has ever taken care of me like that.
“Yeah, silly. Who do you think? Your fairy godmother? It’s the least I could do…considering I took you out. I mean, the team sent a young kid named Leo to help?—”
“Oh. My PA.”
“—But the poor guy was supposed to be on vacation. So, well…I felt bad enough, and basically asked him to help me order groceries and whatever you needed for a couple of weeks, and then sent him on his way. Between me and Nurse Linney, we had it covered.”
“Wow,um.I didn’t know.”
“Anyway, what I meant to say was that we’ve been living together—technically, I’ve been living out of my suitcase—and though you’ve seen me have an embarrassing meltdown…we haven’t been properly introduced.” Behraz gets to her feet and straightens her worn-in, oversized University of Ottawa tee before extending a hand. “Behraz Irani. Most people call me Bea.”
I stand, too, but afraid that towering over her makes her uncomfortable, I hunch my shoulders to accept the shake. “Fletcher Donovan.”
A static shock sparks between us.
“Sorry,” we say together.
Another blush sears my skin, this time going as high as the tips of my ears. We retake our spots on the sectional, the silence awkwardly filling the room.
“I’m sure you wanted no part of it, but now you know the fucked-up disaster that is my life,” she resigns. “But I know so little about you.” One of my shoulders lifts in a half-shrug. “Other than you have Pokémon collectibles, some sort of intimate friendship with SuzyQ doughnuts, and have an insane collection of fantasy novels.”
“That’s…a pretty good summary.”
Bea motions to the filled bookshelves to point out a Pokéball and a Customer-of-the-Month trophy from my favorite doughnut shop. “And that you’d rather have an almost-stranger take care of you instead of your family.”
When the almost-stranger is the woman you’ve been fantasizing about for six years, and your family is a bunch of jerks? I think I made the right choice.
“It’s complicated.”
“Yeah?” She leans on a hand on the cushion next to me. My eyes follow the acute angle of her elbow up to her face. Her headtilts to the side, those goddamn eyes rounded with curiosity and concern. “Wanna talk about it?”
Not really. Not at all. But after these past two weeks, I owe her that much.
Chapter 6
