“Laurel told me the three of you keep to yourselves.” She snuggles the blanket more tightly around her. “But that you’re nice.”
“I think we’re nice.” Risk sits close enough that he can catch her if she starts to fall one way or another, but far enough away she won’t feel claustrophobic.
I hope.
Arc sits on the ledge in front of the fireplace andthatgets Chrys’ attention.
“So, it’s not that you don’t like heat…?”
“Temperature doesn’t bother us,” I clarify. “Hot or cold… either’s fine, but since we’re out here, cold is usually what we have.”
“I don’t think Jess knows that.”
“We tend to stay away from her,” Arc says. “For my part, I’m pretty sure she appreciates that.”
“Jessica is his number one fan,” Risk says, snorting.
Chrys’ lips quirk in something that might be a smile. “She thinks you’re an asshole.”
Putting on that smarmy look he wears too well, Arc says, “She might be right.”
“I don’t think she is…” Chrys looks at him for a long moment, and his smarmy smile fades.
I wonder what she’s thinking that made him look away… almost ashamed.
“I’m not going to blame you for that. Just so you know.” She shifts again, yawning. “Jess thinks a lot of people are assholes when she doesn’t know them.”
“We should tell them you’re here.”
Arc glares at Risk, but we both know he’s only saying it because it’s true. Not because he wants to do it.
“I don’t want to tell my sisters I’m here. For one, they will try to bulldoze me. For another… I’d like to have more answers before I get hit with a million questions I can’t answer.” She grimaces and tongues the hoop in the center of her lip and then one of the piercings on either side. “But I do need to let one person know I’m here.”
“Who?” I ask.
Arc interrupts, knowing before Risk. “You work for the Agency?”
Nodding, Chrys pulls the blanket down so she can get one arm out and then tugs it more tightly around her torso. “I do marketing graphics and pitch ad copy at them. I don’t know if they’d notice that I wasn’t logging in, but I still want to tell my direct report. She’s an absolute sweetheart and I don’t want to put her in a jam.”
I stare at her bared arm… we all do.
The tone of a drone delivery echoes through the room, and Arc looks at it before turning back to her with another question.
“Would you like to change first?”.
CHRYS
There are a dozen options in front of me and honestly… I would have picked everything in the line up if I’d been given the chance to keep or reject them.
I’d blame it on Arc being able to read my mind, but I was so out of it before…
“Why did you pick these?” I ask, snuggling an electric blue pair of leggings. They’re so soft.
“You like color.”
That’s all he says. So simple. So predictable of me.
But I don’t really care.
