Chapter 8 #2
“You’re going to make my life hell,” Amir sighed when we’d made it through security. It was almost too quick with his fancy tickets that got him a priority security line. Outside of escaping Cole’s reach for the time being, this fake dating thing was the best idea I’d had in a while.
Placing a piece of gum in my mouth, I smiled at him. “I think you could use a little hell, Amir.”
I turned to the right, but he grabbed my arm. Immediately, I whirled on him and pushed him backward. He blinked a couple of times, then jerked his chin in the other direction.
“Gate’s that way.”
“Right.” I stayed beside him this time but put a couple feet between us.
It was significantly louder on this side, with families piled in seating areas and people watching videos on their phones without headphones.
Failure to use headphones in a public space was the most heinous crime, which should be punishable by death.
Fly them over shark-infested waters, slash behind both of their knees, then give them a nudge.
The screeching that came from someone’s phone as we passed affirmed my opinion. It might not even be harsh enough.
“You a coffee guy?” Amir asked, bringing me back to a less homicidal existence.
“Coffee comes from the gods.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, dumb question. Who doesn’t like coffee?”
“Oli doesn’t, but he’s the ideal version of humanity, untouchable by the claws of vice.”
“Who’s Oli?” he asked as he joined a line at Starbucks. Not my first pick, but they had a monopoly in places like this.
“My best friend. Is Travis McKinney yours?”
“No. We know each other from games, and since the World Series we’ve gotten closer, but I’d say we’re casual friends.”
“Who would you call your favorite person to be around? The one you’d die for?
No, scratch that,” I said before he could respond.
“Dying is easy. Who’s the one you would kill for?
Like, if they called and asked you to help them clean up a pool of blood but told you not to ask any questions, who would you show up for? ”
The old lady in front of us looked at me over her shoulder. I offered her a sweet smile until she turned her nosey ass back around.
“I don’t know,” Amir replied.
“Come on. There’s gotta be somebody.”
“A few years ago, I would’ve said Avery.” He looked around the coffee shop impassively.
“The ex-wife?” He nodded. “Sounds like a shitty deal, losing a wife and a friend all at once.”
“It happens.”
“What about—” I snapped my fingers a few times while I tried to think. “Mallory?”
“What’d you do, Google me?”
“Of course.”
“Right, well, I don’t want to talk about my daughter with you. Let’s just take that off the table.”
“What about if Clara or some other person with a camera has questions? If I don’t know anything about your spawn, they’ll be suspicious.”
“If I was dating you for real, I wouldn’t introduce you to her unless it was serious, so it’s not unbelievable.”
I stuck my lip out. “I don’t get to meet her?”
“Never.”
After we ordered, we moved on. There was a half hour before our plane would board, so we grabbed some seats by the window. I watched the planes entering and leaving the tarmac. Amir reached into his backpack and pulled out his notecards again.
“How long have you been in New Haven?” he asked with his gaze on the cards.
“Six months.”
“Where’d you move from?”
Narrowing my eyes, I leaned closer to peer at the cards. He didn’t try as hard to keep me back, so I got a good view of all the question marks on it. It struck something in me, lighting a flame deep in my gut.
I grabbed the cards and got to my feet. He followed, but I ignored him when he said my name. It wasn’t until I’d tossed them in the trash that I turned to him. He glared at the bin, and I wondered if he’d actually reach in to grab them.
“Why would you do that?” he demanded.
“You shouldn’t need cards to get to know me.”
“Renshu sent me a list of things we need to know about each other. I don’t want to be caught off guard if we talk to Clara eventually.”
“Renshu can eat a bag of dicks. He sounds like a lonely old man.”
“He’s not. Remi,” he growled when I marched back to my seat.
I ground my teeth together while I watched our plane pull up. With Amir’s attention on me, I wanted to find my seat and close my eyes until we landed in that damn alligator-infested redneck state. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to go down with a riptide.
I heard him sigh, but I ignored him. Every so often, he took a sip of his coffee. The little sound from his lips on the cup drew my gaze to him more than once. He had such a regal bone structure that I had to wonder if he was bred from kings of men.
Your beauty bends the air to reverence;
I stand beneath, a ghost without inheritance.
Still silent, we boarded the plane ahead of the peasants who didn’t get first-class tickets. Maybe I held my chin higher so my nose could be above the stench of lesser beings.
We’d barely stepped onto the plane when Amir laughed. “You look like you have a stick up your ass.”
Unable to contain my smile, I looked at the aisle numbers. “I get window.”
“No, that’s my seat.”
“Too bad.” I dropped into the chair before he could try to steal it from me.
“Alright, but you have to answer a question for me.”
When he sat, I looked at him and arched a brow. His eyes met mine, such a dark and calm color that was difficult to read.
“Is it from one of your little cards?” I asked.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “No, completely organic.”
I waved my hand for him to go on.
“You disappeared deep into your head earlier. What were you thinking about?”
“Do I have to be thinking about anything? Maybe my head is just full of empty space.”
“I don’t think so.”
After situating my headphones around my neck, I brought my heels up on the chair. “I’m going to ask a question first. Why was it so easy for us to talk when we first met?”
He contemplated for a minute. “Maybe the mystery of it all. You certainly confused me, but also intrigued me.”
“I think it was the lack of expectation. This isn’t anything real”—I motioned between us—”and we’ll go our separate ways soon enough. But hell, man, you had notes jotted down like I’m a data set, not a person.”
Amir’s lips rolled. “I get what you’re saying. I’m sorry.”
I must’ve been messing around with the worst kind of guys for too long because I found myself surprised by his quick apology.
For the briefest second, I wondered what the point of this entire thing was.
When we met, we’d connected in a way that was undeniable.
Ever since then, it had been a struggle, to put it lightly.
I didn’t know which one was more true to us, but if I actually got to know him, maybe it’d be like that first night.
Then again, that might have been some sprinkle of fairytale magic that wasn’t meant for us. We’d simply been caught in the crossfire of someone else’s happy ending.
He was too put together for me to attach myself to in the daylight. I wasn’t molded to fit into a life like his. I’d learned to live in ruins, and that was a place he wouldn’t know how to survive.
Silently, I continued to stitch together the words I’d started inside.
The crown of men is carved in bone, not gold,
A lineage whispered, silent, fierce, and old.
Yet standing near, I feel the dust I wear,
Unworthy shadow to a king unaware.
“I’m from San Francisco,” I said before I lifted the headphones to cover my ears. “But most recently Seattle.”
“And my other question?”
Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes and let the music overtake me, all while I felt his gaze on the side of my face.