Page 97 of The Casualty of Us
He grins widely as we loop around the memorial. “So you do like him.”
“Shut up, Frogman.” I come to a stop with an irritated sigh, grabbing for my foot to stretch and frowning up at him. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“What?” He gives me a confused look, stopping a little ways in front of me to go down into a lunge. “What do you mean?”
“You have to have something better to do than this.”
He pauses, expression turning considering before pulling up out of the stretch to ask. “Do you know why I took this job?”
I shake my head, hating having to admit. “No.”
“I have a little sister about your age,” he starts casually. “When I got the file on your case, I just kept thinking what if that was her and it kept me up at night, honestly.” A small shrug leaves him, and he grabs the back of his foot as I drop mine. “So I put my ass on the plane, and that was that. I knew I had to see you through it.”
I lift a brow at him in challenge before sighing, “Cute.” Picking it apart easily. “Comparing me to your sister. Finding that thread of commonality. Trying to incite a shared bond.” I scoff at the summarization, continuing to call him out. “If you’re so good at what you do, then you should know better than to think such blatant manipulation would ever work on me.”
His face goes hard at my words with something in it reminding me of Ollie’s these days and making a sick feeling fill me with it.
“You know, Ophelia.” He frowns, walking a couple of steps closer to me. “If you weren’t so determined to put yourself in this guy’s crosshairs, you might be able to see that we’re just trying to help you here.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“You think that.” He laughs quietly, and the sound grates on my ears. “But one day you’ll realize that it’s a lot easier to take down the monsters when you have someone at your back.”
“Sure,” I snap, taking off again and heading for my next stop without looking back.
Because they didn’t offer to do that, did they?
They just came in and rolled right over me with everyone else. I barely get to pee these days without someone knocking to check that I’m still there.
I make it across the intersection with Talan right on my heels, eyes drifting over the two-story white building with its café and market on the right sharing a wall with the small Postal Plus company to the left beside it. A short metal fence surrounds them both, with a smattering of cute little tables situated underneath umbrellas dotting the sidewalk. The perfect place to grab a quick tea before making the drive home.
I take the steps down to the door of the café at a jog, pushing it open and stepping in with a wave of AC immediately hitting me hard. It ghosts across my skin with a chill that leaves me feeling sticky and just wanting a shower, but I drag my feet up to the register anyway as Talan falls back to hang by the door. Probably scaring the shit out of every one of the other customers in here as he eyes them like he’ll pounce if they even move. My own gaze goes to run over the multitude of fridges and wine racks in the store before spotting Zoey behind the counter with her pink and black hair tied up into a messy bun today.
I smile at her while coming up to the register, and her lips lift in greeting.
“Hey, girl.”
Her eyes dart curiously to where Talan’s standing per usual, and I refrain from commenting, ordering instead just like every other day. “I’ll have my usual small dirty chai and—” The collection of croissants in the display case draws my attention, and I add up the people at home in my head before sighing. “Like ten of the almond croissants, I guess.”
“You guess?”
I lift my gaze back to Zoe, and the smirk on her face has something like a laugh leaving me. “Please, yes, thank you.” It would be inhumane not to feed them along with myself, I guess. “How’s your model coming along, by the way?”
Zoe perks up at the mention of her PhD project, dripping a shot of coffee for my drink and chattering back. “Good! I’ve been tweaking some of the code that’s been kicking me back when it comes to the wind models, but I think I’ll have the kinks worked out by the end of the year.”
Because apparently two master’s degrees weren’t enough for her, no, Zoe chose to continue on with getting her PhD at Georgetown in environmental science as well.
“And a semester ahead of schedule.” I lift a brow at her with a small grin. “Go on, be proud.”
I knew she was my kind of a girl the second I found out her proclivity for academics.
“Yeah, well.” She shrugs with a small laugh. “I’m waiting on proud until I’ve made it through—oh!” Her eyes blow wide. “Cara was in earlier and said they finally had a box open up.”
I clear my throat quickly. “Really?”
“Yeah.” She nods happily while pouring the milk into the chai. “Said she’ll have the keys ready for you whenever you want to stop by.”
“Thanks.” I swallow nervously and dart my eyes to where Talan is still standing over the door, immediately taking in the way he’s squinting at a guy walking down the street outside and making sure he didn’t hear anything. “Hey, I’m actually in a really big rush today.” I look back to her while jutting out my lower lip dramatically. “Is there any way if I call her and have her drop them off you could hold them for me until tomorrow?”
