Hallie shrugged. It was too much for a stranger, but she worked in a hotel, she’d honestly done weirder, more involved things to help customers feel safe and comfortable. “I just thought someone might need them. You never know.”
Audrey sucked a breath in slowly, nodding. It seemed like she could just about handle the gesture if she thoughtanyonemight have been given the cutlery in question. “I should…” She looked around, clearly wondering where to put the cutlery she wasn’t going to use while they ate.
Hallie wasn’t ignorant enough to think Audrey could just keep hold of them and eat in peace.She, however, could.
Under the table, she reached across Audrey, taking the offending cutlery from inside the napkin Audrey was holding them in.
“You don’t need to do that,” Audrey said quickly, eyes wide and alarmed.
Hallie smiled gently. “It’s okay. I’ve got them.”
“But…” She obviously wanted to ask about germs. It had taken Hallie a remarkably short time to put together that Audrey really struggled with those, and even less time to figure out that her ability to manage those feelings was impeded by being around her family.
Hallie slipped the cutlery onto the seat behind her, hidden between her body and her coat. “Not a problem at all. And, when we’re done, we’ll just put them back on the table like nothing happened.”
Audrey stared at her, a million questions lighting up her eyes, ones she was unlikely to ask at a table filled with her relatives.
Hallie watched her, but, in her peripheral vision, she was very aware of the way Audrey was tapping her fingers against her thumb.
It took a while, but, eventually, Audrey sucked in a breath and uttered a barely audible, “Thank you.”
Hallie smiled and nodded, unsure how to tell her that, just like she’d promised to always be available to talk, she’d always be available to help with this, too.
Thatperfect planof hers was really going to shit.
Chapter Eight
Audrey was exhausted by the end of the day. Breakfast followed by a parade of stores to buy Christmas gifts and decorations. Didn’t most people use the same ones for more than one year? She wasn’t sure why, every single year, her family felt the need to shop for new decorations. And she’d had no time to recover from her moment over the cutlery, or from Hallie having brought travel cutlery with her. It had been for Audrey. There was no getting around that. It was sweet, thoughtful, more insightful than she’d been expecting from someone she’d just met. And it didn’t make sense.
Neither did the standing… arrangement they now had. Hallie hadn’t taken to quizzing her over breakfast, not after the cutlery thing and Audrey’s agreement that she could spend her evening asking questions. Though, Audrey suspected that was mostly to do with giving her the space to shut down—as much as one could at breakfast with their whole family.
She shut the door to her room a little too firmly and flopped onto the bed. Her head ached, spinning unpleasantly.She wanted to go home so badly. The longer she stayed here, the more it felt like she’d never get home again.
She pulled her phone out and dialed Zora.
“Hey, babe,” Zora said upon answering, her voice giving away that she knew Audrey was going to be in a bad state. “How’re you doing?”
“Oh, you know.” Audrey pressed two fingers to her forehead, trying to smooth out her aching brow. “How are you? How was the wedding?”
“Audrey…”
“Please, Zora. I just need to talk about something else, something good. Just for a minute.”
Zora cleared her throat, and Audrey could imagine her nodding reluctantly. “It was good. Service was awesome, then pictures. We got ATM cupcakes and then hit up the Museum of Death.”
Audrey hesitated between confused and amused. “Well, nothing says‘till death do us partquite like that.”
“Babe, you work in forensics. Are you really gonna judge? Kind of hypocritical, don’t you think?”
She laughed. “Firstly, that’s my job, not where I get married. Secondly, not judging, just surprised. Have you ever considered that it says something about you that your best friend is a forensic entomologist and you dated two people whose idea of a good time on their wedding day is the Museum of Death?”
“Yes, I think it says my mission to save you from yourselves has a fifty percent success rate so far.”
“How’s that?”
“Federica and Akua are a lost cause, but, if you eventually decide to find someone and don’t—actually, where are we at on that one? Pro-wedding?”
Audrey sighed. She appreciated Zora checking, rather than simply assuming she was pro-wedding like her family thoughtshe should be, or going in the opposite direction and assuming she was anti-marriage simply because she refused to do what her family wanted. “Generally speaking, yes, I’m pro-marriage. But I don’t think you need to worry that’s coming my way anytime soon.”
