He lifted up a pair of worn roller skates I had bought on a whim many years ago.
Roller skates almost exactly like the ugly brown pair he had given me for my seventeenth birthday.
The pair that had been destroyed in the fire.
“Yeah, there should be another pair around here somewhere,” I said offhandedly.
I didn’t know why I bought two pairs of roller skates. Chris had looked at me as if I were crazy when I brought them home, so excited about my purchase.
“I hate roller-skating. Why would you buy those stupid things?”he had asked me.
So I had put them with the rest of the junk I accumulated but could never throw out.
“Did you ever figure out how to stay on your feet?” Yoss joked, putting them down again.
“I haven’t really been since—”
“Maybe we should go sometime. If you can find the other pair that is,” Yoss suggested, surprising me.
He smiled.
I smiled.
“Yeah, that sounds nice,” I agreed, my heart expanding.
“Thanks,” he said again and I waved away his statement.
“I told you that you don’t need to thank me.”
Yoss frowned. “I’m thanking you not just for letting me stay with you. Though that’s more than you should be doing for me. I want to thank you for not…” He seemed to be at a loss for words.
He lifted his eyes, finding mine. Hanging on before he let go…
“For not letting me chase you away. I’ve become way too good at that.”
I crossed the room until I stood just in front of him. I could see how rapidly he was breathing. As if he had just run a marathon. His jaundiced skin stood out starkly in the darkened room. He looked tired, dark circles and blood shot eyes.
He seemed as though he was barely able to stand and I knew how hard all of this was for him. Not just physically. We were both going through an emotional ringer just by being here, together.
But it was worth it.
I had to think that.
I’d make him believe too.
I reached out and took his hand. He didn’t resist. His smile was exhausted. But it was real.
He moved closer. Magnets pulled together.
He cupped my cheek, his thumb running along the curve of my face. “You were better off without me, Imi,” he murmured. I opened my mouth to protest. To rage against this same old argument, but he went on before I could.
“But it’s obvious I have barely survived withoutyou.”
My stomach flipped and rolled and I leaned in, letting my lips touch his. Unable to resist the connection between us that had always been there.
“Imi,” he whispered against my mouth, before pulling me against him with a force that left me breathless.
Then he was kissing me.
