Romeo glanced at the door to the bedroom, but if he moved, they’d hear, hell, if they got high enough up the stairs, they’d see.
“What are you doing?”
Chad’s voice cracked like a whip.
“I...”Ally whispered.“I thought I heard something ...or someone.”
“There’s no one up there.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure, Ally.”
“Huh...”
Romeo expected Ally to retreat, to apologize perhaps, but there was silence.
A long stretch of stifling silence.
Romeo imagined they were staring each other down.He stayed completely still, even holding his breath in case Ally was close enough to hear him.
Josh broke the moment by honking the horn.
Ally sighed, finally backing down.“He still blames himself.”
“I told him he shouldn’t.”
“He thinks if he’d had offered to come here instead of asking you to his place, you never would’ve jumped.”
“I’m certain that me ...fallinghad nothing to do with Josh.”
“Falling?Not jumping?”
“Ally, I know you think I’m looking for answers where there are none to be had, but I feel it, I feel it in my gut.This isn’t black and white.”
“I’ll talk to him,” she whispered.
Romeo slumped when she left, thumping his head to the wall behind him.
Chad didn’t just shut the door, he locked it too.
“That didn’t go the way I hoped,” Chad said up the stairs.
Romeo went to join him by the front door.“Okay?”
“Yeah.You?”
“I think I’m going to reward myself with a glass of brandy.”
Chad narrowed his eyes.“Reward yourself?”
“For not marching downstairs and killing Josh for shouting at you.That required a lot of willpower.”
Chad snorted softly.“Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For not marching downstairs and strangling him.”
