I slide into the chair Ben vacated. It's still warm from his body heat, which makes my skin crawl for reasons I don't want to examine.
"Before you say anything," I start.
"You were stalking us."
"I was observing from a respectful distance."
"That's literally the definition of stalking, Corvus."
"I stayed in my car. I didn't approach. I didn't interfere."
"You WATCHED." She leans forward. "Like some kind of creepy surveillance specialist. Which, granted, you are, but still."
"I needed to see," I say, abandoning pretense. "I needed to know if you were going to choose him."
"So you didn't trust me."
"I trust you. I don't trust him."
"Ben didn't do anything wrong," she says firmly. "He's been nothing but kind and respectful and understanding about a completely insane situation."
"I know." The admission tastes bitter. "Which makes him more dangerous, not less."
"Dangerous how?"
"Because he's everything we're not." I set my laptop down, meet her eyes. "He's safe. Normal. He didn't kidnap you ortorture you or force bonds on you. He called you 'evening star' and made you laugh and kissed you on a roof under summer stars. He represents the life you should have had."
"But he's not the life I chose."
The words hit me harder than they should. "You chose us?"
"I told him that. Now. That I'm pack. That whatever we had in Columbus was summer romance, not real life. That I can be his friend, but that's all."
"He's going to keep trying," I point out.
"Probably." She takes a sip of her cold coffee, grimaces. "But that's his choice. And my choice is you three. Fucked up, complicated, formerly-creepy-stalker you three."
"Formerly?"
"Currently-creepy-stalker in your case, apparently." But she's almost smiling. "Seriously, Corvus. A stakeout? In your Tesla? You couldn't be more obvious if you'd hired a skywriter."
"I parked across the street," I mutter.
"In direct line of sight of the window where you knew I'd be sitting." She shakes her head. "For someone so smart, you can be remarkably stupid about subtlety."
"I deleted the seventeen plans," I offer. "I only flagged his transcript for review, which is barely interference. The old me would have destroyed him."
"The old you also kidnapped people, so maybe let's not use that as the baseline for good behavior."
Fair point.
"I'm sorry," I say. And mean it. "For watching. For not trusting you to handle it. For being a creepy surveillance specialist."
"Are you sorry for delaying his transfer?"
I pause. "No."
"Corvus."
