She pulls open the wooden door and stands there, staring grim-faced into the darkness behind the screen door. “So you didn’t leave,” she says.
“I left,” I reply. “The sheriff made me. And then I came back.”
“You’re welcome to leave again.”
“Emma—”
“There aresomany things I could say to you right now, but they all basically end withI fulfilled my obligations to you two years ago,I don’t want you in my life, please leave.”
No small part of me wishes her brother had gotten away with smashing my face in. It’s clearly what he intended before the other guy jumped between us and got me in the nuts instead.
And it’s what I deserve. “I didn’t mean to leave the way I did. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. You may leave.”
“My email got attacked by AI spam bots. Your notes got lost in the middle of all of them. I would’ve been here before if I’d—”
“Bagock!” something cries at my feet.
I instinctively take a step back.
“Yolko Ono, get in the house.” She opens the screen door just wide enough for a one-legged chicken to hop past her inside, then snaps it shut again like she’s worried I’ll force my way in.
Forty-three other chickens squawk behind me. Or maybe just ten. I don’t know.
No wonder her friends were willing to leave her alone.
She has a gang of guard-chickens, and they areloud. I’d smile—it makes me happy that she got her chickens—but she’s still glaring daggers at me.
I swallow, then have to swallow again.
This woman was my friend when I desperately needed one. I thought I was beingherfriend. But I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t mine too.
And I fucked it up.
I’ve always known I fucked it up. I’ve always told myself she was better off without the limelight I’d bring into her life.
But three days ago, I discovered I fucked up on a level that goes beyond any fuck-up that I could’ve ever imagined.
“How are you?” I ask hesitantly.
“Tired and likely to be up early, which means it’s time to say goodnight.”
“Can I do anything?”
“No. Thank you, but no. Very nice to see you again, Jonas. Have a lovely life.”
She shuts the door.
Flips off the light.
And leaves me without a shred of a doubt that I could offer her the world, and she still wouldn’t want to talk to me.
And I don’t blame her in the least.
11
Emma
