“I’m—”
“No!” She lifted her hand, not willing to hear his excuses, mainly because she knew if she did, she would melt and fall for whatever he said. “I’m serious. I told you I needed space, and you followed me,” she lowered her voice, “to a women and children’s shelter.” She took a deep breath. “That isnotokay for so many reasons.”
“Tiana, I?—”
“I’m serious, Niko, youcan’tdo that.” She waved her hand between them. “We can’t do this. Just because we,” she lowered her voice again, “spent the night together does not give you the right to show up here. I mean how did you even know I was here? Did you put a tracker on my phone?”
“What?! No, I would never?—”
“It doesn’t even matter. Whatever this was, this arrangement, it’s over. It’s done. I can’t do this.”
“Tiana, I didn’t?—”
Tiana’s hand was reaching for the doorknob when it opened and Ramona, the residential coordinator, walked in.
“Niko, there you are!” Her face lit up. “I thought we lost you, everyone is waiting for you in the rec room.”
“Sorry, I’m coming,” Niko said as he walked around Tiana and out the door.
Tiana’s gaze bounced between Ramona and Niko’s retreating back.
“The rec room?” Tiana repeated to Ramona.
Ramona nodded. “Yeah, for his self-defense class, he teaches it two to four times a year, depending on his schedule, has done for the past… I don’t know, twelve years or so. It’s amazing, he’s amazing. I can’t count the number of lives he’s saved.”
Shit.She’d already been a bitch, and now she could add psycho to the growing list of ways she repaid Niko’s kindness. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not this wasreal. Even if there was a chance it could have been, she took care of sabotaging that all by herself.
19
Niko wasn’t a hero.Motivator, maybe. Shit-talker, definitely. But whenever he came in to do these classes, he saw real heroes. He saw women who refused to wilt, who protected their children no matter what it cost—their homes, their livelihoods, their support systems.
Tonight, he was doing a demo with a block of cheese and a battered wooden spatula, showing the kids how to wedge their fingers between an assailant’s grip and their own skin. His volunteer, a four-year-old named Silas, was primed and ready to go.
“Okay, just like I showed you.”
Silas’ face scrunched in concentration as he executed the move and the cheese crumbled. The crowd, mostly single mothers with their kids in tow, erupted in cheers and then a few giggles when Silas did several karate kicks. The laughter was contagious, the sound bouncing off the walls, and for a second, everyone’s spirit, even the haunted ones with faraway stares, looked like they might believe the world wasn’t all bad.
Those were the moments Niko lived for in these classes. Just a spark of hope, of light, of levity in the darkness that thechildren and women had lived in. He always believed the spirit needed healing as much, if not more, than the human body. The next demo was a success, there were more cheers, and he high-fived Alice, a seven-year-old, tiny for her age, in unicorn pajamas, who’d just nailed the “solar plexus surprise,” then watched as she scurried back to her mom, grinning from ear to ear.
The class wound down with the usual Q&A, which tonight seemed to have a lot less to do with gouging out eyeballs and a lot more to do with Niko’s love life. “Do you have a girlfriend?” Alice called out, and one of the older women, who looked to be in her sixties, raised her hand. “Are you taking applications?” her tone was only half-joking. As much as he wished he could answer in the affirmative, even if it was “fake,” Niko responded with his usual deflection and charm.
Clearly, he’d crossed a serious boundary or triggered her. Just because he hadn’t meant to do it intentionally didn’t matter. The end result was the same. She was upset and that was the last thing he wanted.
Niko finished the last round of goodbyes, dispensed a few extra fist bumps, then slipped out the side door. He didn’t want to linger, his mind was still snagged on that moment with Tiana, the way her eyes had shuttered and her smile collapsed when she’d seen him, like he’d tripped a wire inside her. He should’ve said something, anything, something smart, kind, or anything at all. Instead, Niko had watched her get herself more and more worked up. Then Ramona came in, and he had to go teach, and now he had no clue where she was, if she was even still there. Had she left? If she had, was she walking?
He cut through the back hallway, pushed open the door to the offices, and found Ramona standing in front of a brand new copier. She looked up and smiled. “Hey, handsome!”
“Hello, Beautiful, is Tiana still around?”
Ramona shook her head. “No, she took off after I saw you in the conference room. Seemed like she was in a hurry.”
He hesitated, searching for a better way to phrase it, then just blurted, “Did she seem okay to you?”
“I don’t know.” Ramona paused, then shrugged. “She wouldnevershow it if something was bothering her.”
Really?
“Right,” he agreed, despite knowing why.
