Page 20 of Shade
I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I would've come back, would've found him, but I couldn't. I'd had no plans of looking for him, even though I'd desperately missed him.
Diego gave a rough, humorless laugh, then shook his head.
"Good thing I found you," he said as he pulled back, then clapped his hands together. "I'm going to go make us some dinner."
It wasn't lost on me that he was running away to a room I couldn't follow him to, at least not in this form, and he'd left his phone behind, which meant he wasn't going to talk to me if I followed him in his shadow.
Sighing, I sat down on the edge of his bed as Pixie hopped up beside me, rubbing her head against my arm.
"Yeah, I really made your human sad, huh? It's completely my fault, but I don't know how to make things better. I can't change the past."
Pixie gave a soft meow, and I patted her head, which just made her push her way into my lap.
Smiling at her affectionate nature, I rubbed her silky fur as I thought about Diego. I couldn't believe he'd waited for me all these years, hoping I'd come back year after year while I stubbornly stayed away thinking I was doing him a favor.
I might have punished that asshole for hurting Diego, but I was starting to wonder if I hadn't been the one to hurt him the most.
Was there any punishment that could be enough for the pain I put Diego through?
Nine
Diego
Bracing my arms againstthe kitchen counter, I hung my head between my shoulder blades. Had I really just blown up on Shade like that?
I'd been embarrassed admitting my childish hope to him, and I'd taken it out on him so I'd stop feeling so... vulnerable.
Logically, I knew he hadn't stayed away because he didn't like me or miss me. I knew it'd been because of his overinflated sense of responsibility. He'd thought he was doing what was best for me, and while it was wrong of him to decide that without my input, I knew he'd only done it because of how much he cared about me.
Sighing, I straightened up and walked to my fridge. I wasn't in the mood to cook anymore, so I dug out two microwave dinners from the freezer, checking the labels I'd put on themto make sure they weren't expired before sticking them in the microwave.
Once they were done, I put them on a tray, grabbed a bottle of water, and walked back to the bedroom.
Pixie meowed from the bed, and Shade chuckled softly.
"She's really good about telling you where she is, huh?"
"Yeah," I murmured, and an awkward silence fell between us. Shaking my head, I placed the tray on the bed, then turned my face toward the spot Shade had spoken from. "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to freak out at you."
"It's okay. I deserved it," Shade said, which took the wind out of my sails. What was the point of getting mad over him not looking for me when we were already together?
"Let's not think about it anymore. Here. It's a packaged meal, so nothing special."
"Looks good to me." Shade took the meal from my hand, and we chatted as we ate, slowly sinking back into normalcy. By the time I'd cleaned up and climbed into bed with Shade big-spooning me, I'd all but forgotten about the whole thing.
We talked all the way until I fell asleep, and even when I slept, I felt like I could hear Shade murmuring sweet, comforting words to me.
He was gone when I woke up the next morning, and I star-fished on the mattress, frowning in confusion when my hand fell on a piece of paper. It was a little wet and chewed on, which meant Pixie had already had her fun with it.
I ran my fingers over the paper, sucking in a breath when I realized Shade had left me the note. When had he even learned to write in Braille?
All the note said was "I hope you have a good day. – Shade," but it might as well have been a love confession for how hard it hit me. No one had ever done something like this for me.
When had he even written the note? My typewriter wasn't quiet by any means, and yet I hadn't woken up. Had he taken it somewhere else to write? Into his shadows, maybe?
Pressing the note to my chest, I sat up and spent a few minutes just daydreaming about my sweet boyfriend. Wait. Could I call him my boyfriend? I'd already been thinking of him that way, but we hadn't really talked about labels. We were soulmates, or fated mates, as Shade liked to call us. Boyfriends probably paled in comparison, but it felt more real, more attainable to me.
Not that I'd be introducing him as either of those things to anyone I knew. The people I could introduce him to—Liam and Haruto—already knew him, and other than that, the only friends or acquaintances I had were a few of my coworkers. There was no way Shade could meet them.
