Oh, the irony.
Roo steps into my line of sight, stopping me from glancing at the camera facing me. The salted rim of the margarita glass is level with my mouth, and the smell of tequila is strong enough to burn my nostrils.
“Is there anything else in this other than liquor and ice?”
“And salt,” she adds with a shrug. “You don’t have limes.”
I take the glass with a laugh. “So… shots?”
She holds her tequila out, bumping it against mine. “To poor decisions and worse men.”
“May the decisions be fun,” I counter with a smile. “And the men regret ever crossing us.”
Eris is home. It’s not really any safer since Daniel lurks outside her apartment building as often as we do… But it is better because we can watch her more closely.
That’s what I keep telling myself.
I don’t actually believe it, though.
She would be safest here with us.
I observe her from the too far distance of our loft, wishing she were here instead of at her place. My eyes don’t stray from the main monitor where the image of her sitting in an armchair in her bedroom keeps me riveted. On the screen to my left, the camera feed cycles through her hallway, kitchen, living room, but I only give it a sliver of my attention.
Her legs are curled beneath her, hiding her bare feet. I imagine the hoodie she’s wearing is mine, and she thinks it smells too good to part with. The messy knot atop her head is only askew because I’ve made it that way… But I don’t stay in my delusions long.
I want to catalogue everything about her, though I stop when I see how collected she is.
Eris appears at ease as she talks with her friend, Romily. Unguarded even. There’s no tension in her shoulders as the day winds down. No signs of lingering panic, like maybe she keeps reliving the visit from her ex.
All I see is focus.
She’s calmer than most people would be after a stalker gets mere inches from you and then gets dragged out of a building. Much calmer than any of us were as we stood idly by.
Romily pads barefoot back and forth across the bedroom as she talks animatedly with her hands and raids Eris’s closet like she owns the place. My girl just sits and absorbs the clear chaos of her friend, phone gripped in her hand like she can’t put it down, as if the secrets inside it are too important to part with. She’s still just as steady and controlled as she normally is, but there’s something different about her now.
I click on the volume icon in the camera database, loading the sound to one of the two bedroom cameras we installed, so I can hear the women talking.
“Put this one on,” Romily calls as she exits the closet, tossing a dress onto the bed. “This is the final answer. You look hot in green.”
Eris doesn’t move. She just wakes her phone, fingers sliding across the screen in smooth motions. She stops, and a message flashes across the chat interface on the right side of my screen.
Eris:
Are you still watching me?
I smirk as she glances at the camera.
Locke:
Always.
She rolls her eyes and rotates, tossing her legs over the arm of the chair so she can stare head-on into the other camera.
Eris:
You know Roo will change in here too, right?
That’s weird. Even for you.
