Chapter 22 #3
Will’s skin was too dark to tell whether he was blushing or not, but Denny could almost sense it. He was a tall, strong man with lovely manners and a kind smile. Even without much background knowledge, Denny was starting to think that Eris had a type.
“How do you two know each other?”
“We used to have a… ah…” Will rubbed his goatee with an awkward laugh. “Situationship.”
“We were fuckbuddies.”
Denny and Will glanced up to find Eris standing by the table, a lopsided smirk comfortably stretched across her lips.
Will beamed up at her. “Delicate as ever, Keane.”
He gallantly rose to his feet. He and Eris shared a hand clasp that Eris willingly turned into a quick hug. Denny had never seen her get so physically close to anyone who wasn’t herself.
“Thanks for the bodyguard service, man.”
“Can’t say she isn’t a pleasure to guard.”
Eris glanced down at Denny as if to confirm the statement. Her expression tensed.
“What did she do to you?”
“Nothing.” Denny could only assume her face must be a splotchy mess from the weeping. Her answer didn’t satisfy Eris, who plopped down in the nearby chair to turn her face to both sides to inspect it. “I swear! It was just words.” Just words and look what they did to me. “I thought it’d be easier.”
“Was it worth it, at least?”
“She admitted that she intentionally abused me when we were together. I’m not sure she said anything really compromising about the stalking.”
Eris took her chin, stroked it with the pad of her thumb before pressing a kiss to her salt-streaked cheek. “You did well, Sunshine.”
Denny didn’t feel like she had. “She’s livid, Eris. I don’t want you to go to prison because of me.”
“Don’t be daft. If that happens, I can only blame myself.”
“Do you have any idea what they do to pretty faces like you in jail?” Will brusquely cut in.
For a moment, Denny thought he was joking. British prisons couldn’t be as awful as the prisons in American dramas. But Will’s concern was real, even though Eris keenly tried to dismiss it.
“Calm down, mate. I’m not going anywhere.” Her matter-of-factness was paper-thin, but she was much more skilled than Denny at dissimulating her distress. “Let’s go home. You’re freezing.”
Will’s jacket slipped down Denny’s back as she stood. She caught it midair and handed it back to its owner.
“You can keep it,” said Will.
“I’ve got this.” Eris peeled off her zip-up hoodie to drape it over Denny’s shoulders. It brought a whole different comfort. Not just warmth, but safety, a sense of home. “Cheers, Will.” Eris clasped hands with him again and added a shoulder bump. “I owe you. Again.”
“Just stay out of trouble.” Will’s black eyes lingered softly on Eris for a few seconds before lifting up. “Take care of my girl, Denny, will ya?”
Sympathy poured into Denny’s nod.
I will. If she lets me.
* * *
Marylebone was calmer after sunset, but bars and cafés created clusters of nightlife that filled the streets with lively noise. It was a relief as they neared the quietness of home.
“Talk to me,” said Eris, giving Denny’s hand a light squeeze.
They’d been walking in silence for ten minutes. Denny wasn’t nervous, but she was still trying to untangle the intricate emotions buzzing inside her. The one thing she knew was that things could only go up from here. She’d do anything in her power to make sure they would.
“I’m fine. More than fine, really.” She surprised Eris and herself with a smile. “It hurt—like hell—, but I needed this. It gave me… closure.”
“Closure.”
“Blake was more honest with me tonight than she was the whole time we were together.”
“That’s what made you cry?”
Denny sighed. The story was too long and complicated. She just wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and rot there until Monday.
“You know what?” Eris tugged leniently at her hand. “You’ll tell me tomorrow.”
Denny was just beginning to feel like herself again. Everything was back to normal: no words or endless explanations required. Back to simple. Back to safe.
“So, Will…”
“What about him?”
Denny’s eyebrows arched. She could never really tell if Eris was being nonchalant or oblivious.
She was convinced that Eris might be autistic.
With all the TikToks about ADHD that they sent to each other, she had fallen into a neurodivergence rabbit hole and she’d been picking up more and more signs that pointed in that direction, too many to be just a coincidence. Starting from the flashcards.
“He’s hot.”
“Yeah. He knows.”
“How did you two meet?”
“Tinder.”
From what Denny had seen, Will wasn’t just a right swipe.
“You seem to know each other well.”
“Well enough.”
“You’re more than fuckbuddies.”
Eris’ throat bobbed, gaze opaque from a distant wistfulness.
“Have you ever been hungry?” she asked. A muscle rippled in her jaw. “That kind of hunger that bites you from the inside and makes you feel like your stomach is tearing itself apart?”
“No,” Denny mumbled, ashamed. It was a very special brand of shame, the one that plagued her whenever Eris breezily brought up a new heartbreaking memory from her past. Denny had a feeling it was about to happen again.
Eris shivered. Her bare arms were covered in goosebumps. Denny tried to give her the hoodie back, but she refused.
“I was living in this shithole hostel the first time I met him. I hadn’t eaten in two days.
No job, no money. I needed a distraction.
When I arrived at his place, my stomach wouldn’t stop growling.
” A small grin stretched up one side of her mouth.
“Will said he’d changed his mind, invited me out for dinner. ”
“A real gentleman.”
Eris huffed a laugh. “Too much, honestly. Took me three hours to convince him I still wanted to fuck.”
The more Denny learned about this bloke, the more she liked him. He’d been nice to her despite a very apparent conflict of interests.
“He’s in love with you. You know that, right?”
A sharp sniff punctuated Eris’ hesitation. “That’s why I stopped seeing him.”
“You never considered settling down with him?”
“Considered, yes. His stability was tempting.”
No one would’ve blamed her if she’d chosen comfort over love, knowing where she came from.
“I think he would’ve made you happy, if you’d given him a chance,” said Denny in all earnestness.
Eris shook her head, perhaps a bit sullenly. “I don’t do relationships. Never wanted one.” There was already a ‘but’ on the tip of Denny’s tongue, which was promptly cut off. “You don’t count. I’m still trying to figure out what you did to me.”
Denny did her best not to gloat too much at the compliment.
“How long were you… involved?”
A sports car sped past them, the high-pitched rumble of its engine causing Eris’ shoulders to twitch in discomfort.
“We hooked up regularly for like… two years?” The hint of curve in Eris’ lips became less subtle.
“He never let me go home with an empty stomach. Sometimes he gave me leftovers, sometimes he had vouchers he needed to use up. I pretended not to see why he was doing it. It was easier to accept his charity that way.”
It sounded so familiar that Denny couldn’t help but point out the obvious. “He was just trying to take care of you.”
“I know. But that was always going to be one-sided, and it wasn’t fair.”
“I think your honesty is the reason he stuck around. He knows you care about him, even though it’s not the way he wishes.”
Eris halted to give Denny’s hand a warning tug. “Stop trying to paint me as a good person.”
“You are a good person,” Denny retorted, doing the same. “Whether you like it or not.”
“Or not.”
“Oh my god, shut up.”