“Because you’re so sexy, people be fightin’ over your bod,” I assure him.
He turns around like he’s going to walk away.
“Ellison, My Lord of Suits, where might you be going? Are you upset with something your mother said? I will beat her up for no charge. I’ll actually pay you to let me beat her up,” I offer.
He seems to think about this for a rather long time before shaking his head. “Go home.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” I say. “And while I love being with your illusion, I don’t want to leave your body unattended. It’s unsafe out here.”
“It’s only unsafe for you,” Ellison says.
I hesitate. “Oh?”
“Go away.”
“No, no, no. I feel like you said something that would be very interesting to hear more about. Please, spill.”
“Go. Away.”
I push past the illusion and begin running in the direction Ellison is in. I’m on a bit of a slope, but there’s enough of a flat spot on top that I can run on.
“Stop it,” he snaps.
“I have no desire to,” I declare as I run.
“I want to be left alone,” he barks after me.
“Sometimes life sucks and we don’t get what we want. I won’t say a word, but I’m not leaving you alone.”
Ellison doesn’t look to be too terribly far away, so I should catch up to him pretty quickly at a run, even while he speedwalks away from me.
Suddenly, his illusion appears in front of me. I try to avoid slamming into it and twist just enough that I slam into a second illusion and fall in a way to make sure I don’t squish Pocket Lint. The only issue with that is my left hand and arm take the brunt of the fall as I skid halfway down a slope before coming to a stop.
“I know I told you I fell for you, but this is a bit much, dear,” I say.
Ellison looks startled before going “Shit” and disappearing.
“You alright, Pocket Lint the Third, Esquire?” I ask when I pull her out. She looks fine, but the skin is scraped off my arm and is bleeding, as is the palm of my hand. Ah well.
There’s a stick stuck in my flesh that I pull out and toss before tugging my sleeve down.
“Good as new, eh, Pocket Lint?”
The ferret wants to sniff my hand, but I tuck her back in my shirt and decide to slow down a bit so I don’t slam into any more illusions since Ellison has turned around and started to hurry his way toward me.
I twist my hand away from him so he can’t see it and beam at him as he nears.
“Not a word, as promised,” I say.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, sounding worried.
“I simply fell in love with you all over again.”
“Stop,” he says.
I pause and question whether I’ve possibly pushed my feelings onto him too much. Yes, he caved yesterday, but people have sex all the time with absolutely no feelings involved. Was that what it was? It’s not like he didn’t warn me again and again that there wouldn’t be anything between us.
So I smile at him and take a step back to give him space. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with it as he’s left standing there looking exhausted. Why was he allowed to help me, but I’m not allowed to help him at all? How fair is that?
