“Yeah,” he said.
She could feel the electricity between them, a nearly audible crackle. Was she reading this right? The next words came tumbling out of her mouth:
“I mean, you’re not, like,attractedto me, right?”
There it was. The elephant in the room, exposed.
When he looked at her, she couldn’t make sense of his expression. It was a mixture of surprise and knowing and guilt and confusion and revelation. In just his few seconds of hesitation, she knew the answer to her question.
She did her best to sit still there on the edge of her bed, to not jump in and relieve them of the awkward silence. She watched him struggle with a response.
“I mean, that’s sort of irrelevant, isn’t it?” he said finally.
He said it with a sheepish grin that made Sasha’s cheeks feel hot. He would kiss her if she leaned just a bit closer. She was surprised by howmuch she wanted that. It wasn’t just curiosity about what would happen if they did kiss; it was undeniable chemistry between the two of them.
“Right,” she said.
She leaned slightly back, away from any temptation. She didn’t trust herself.
“Sitka,” he said.
Nothing more. Just her name. His eyes were still on hers. It was like they were playing that childhood game of who could go the longest without blinking. She was determined to win.
She stayed still and silent. She was surprised by his obvious angst. He was admitting, wordlessly, that he was tempted too.
“Sitka,” he said, again, “I should go.”
She didn’t say anything to try to dissuade him. She nodded once to confirm her understanding. He stood and started backing out of the room, still facing her, as if waiting for some shift in her appearance, some utterance of a suggestive word, to change his mind. There was more power in refusing to give him this. She wasn’t stupid.
The tension of the moment was broken by a noise coming from the living room. It was the slider door opening. As Erik turned to leave the room, he collided with Aurora.
She yelped, then quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh my god,” she said.
Freya lifted her head from Sasha’s chest, but didn’t open her eyes. After a moment, she collapsed fully on Sasha again. Aurora and Erik were frozen in place. Sasha waited to hear if Angeni was awakened, waited to hear her footsteps in the hall. There was nothing.
“God, you guys scared me,” Aurora said.
“You scared us,” Erik said.
Us.
Sasha watched Aurora take in the scene, trying to make sense of Erik there in Sasha’s room.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I came in for some tea,” Aurora said. “Thought I heard voices in here.”
“You did hear voices,” Erik said. “You’re not the only one who couldn’t sleep.”
Aurora’s eyes kept darting between Erik and Sasha, as if her brain was trying to make sense of something. When her eyes landed on Sasha’s chest, Sasha knew she was noticing her thin white camisole, the nipples underneath it.
“I’ve been having some insomnia. Sitka here’s been my nightly therapist through it,” he said.
“Nightly?” Aurora said.
“Unfortunately,” Erik said with a laugh. “I’m going to have to start paying for services.”
Services.
