Page 109 of Female Fantasy
He stumbles over his words.
“Look, I didn’t tell you about my mom because I don’t talk about my mom with anyone,” he confesses. “She moved here after the divorce because she wanted a fresh start. Said she couldn’t take running into her family at the grocery store or my dad at the car wash. I was mad at first that she was so far away. It felt like she had abandoned us, abandoned me. You know? But now that I’m grown, I realize how good it’s been for her. She really does have a new lease on life. So I try to visit her every few months. It’s…new. But we’re trying to get to know each other again.”
He’s rambling so fast, I can barely make out every other word.
And you know what? It’s adorable.
“Nico.” I reach for his hand and squeeze. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I know talking about your family isn’t easy for you. So it means a lot.”
He gives me a shy half smile, and I feel like I may melt into the pavement.
“For what it’s worth, it seems like your mom really cares about you,” I add. “More than my parents care about me, honestly. And they’re still happily married.”
“Who needs parents breathing down your neck when you have Tey?” Nico jokes.
He opens his mouth to say something else, then hesitates.
Closes it again.
“Were you going to say something else?” I prod.
“Well, there’s a small, tiny chance that I told you I was coming to see a girl because I wanted to make you jealous,” hefinally says. “Minuscule, even. Can you blame me? You were going on and on about how perfect this guy was going to be. It was driving me insane. I just wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine.”
My heart starts pounding so loudly, I think it’s connected to a car speaker.
“Well, there’s a small, tiny chance that it worked,” I tell him. “Minuscule, even.”
He lowers his head so close to mine, his breath ghosts across my cheek.
“You were jealous?” he asks.
“Maddeningly so,” I answer.
Two pigeons sitting on a wire above us choose that very moment to squawk at each other, breaking the tension between us. We spring apart, giggling like schoolgirls.
“We better get going,” he whispers, never once taking his eyes off of me.
Then I hear a familiar drawling voice behind me.
“Leaving so soon?”
“The reason we were able to successfully power share is because we are interloched?” I ask.
Nix nods. “That is the working theory. Of course, there is no record of an interloched couple attempting such a feat. You two might very well be the first.”
I turn to look at Ryke. His fists are clenched, his body writhing with the need to go to me.
To hold me. To comfort me. To protect me.
There are shadows below the golden orbs of his eyes, dimming his light. Even his skin looks unusually pale. He has been driven to sickness by this truth. And I believe in my very core that he did not enjoy deceiving me.
But I also know he does not regret it.
He just has to live with it.
For however much longer we get to live.
“I will allow you the opportunity to tell your story,” I say to him, ignoring Nix’s greedy eyes and the whinnying of my dolphin horde. “You may explain, and I will listen. Then I will decide whether I can forgive you or if I will return to the surface.”
