He’s toying with a lock of hair on the side of his head, which makes me feel feral. ‘Something like that.’
‘Need some assistance from a deeply intelligent young woman?’
He looks doubtful. ‘As this exercise involves looking solely inward, I’m not sure if anyone could really assist.’
‘Well, maybe I could help you look inward? Like some kind of all-knowing sage,’ I offer as I lean towards him, the glow from the desk lamp illuminating my face.
‘And this ‘sage’ would extract my greatest dreams?’
‘Sure.’
‘That’s very generous,’ he says dully, spinning away from me before standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets. Stalling.
‘This is just a silly exercise,’ he grumbles. ‘I have everything I need. But it feels unlawful to – I don’t know – not do one.’ He gestures to the hundreds of notes surrounding us.
‘Come on, we talked about this. We’re talking about wantsnow, not needs. So…’ I nod down at his empty note. ‘What do you want?’
His eyes dance across my face for a moment before he clears his throat and looks back at the wall. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Alright, well Ido.’
‘Youknow my deepest want and desire?’ he drawls, raising a brow.
‘Well, we did discuss it, if you can even recall.’
He goes still for a moment. ‘We did?’
‘Yes,’ I say patiently. ‘Your relationship with your brother moving forward is a priority. You want things to be better between you, right? You want to be more open with him? Repair things?
His expression falters. ‘Writing something like that on a post-it isn’t going to change anything, Nora.’
‘Wouldn’t hurt.’ I give him a warm smile. ‘Writing it down makes it feel more real, but I think that’s good. It feels like acknowledging it. It feels like… a start.’
His eyes are still flickering across the wall. I grab the pen from the desk and hold it out to him.
‘Commit to the bit, Walker.’
He huffs a breath and reaches for it with a reserved smile. ‘Fine.’
I grin as he scrawls his note onto his post-it, then quickly slams the pen down. His chosen desire doesn’t seem like it consists of many words. He approaches the wall before shooting me a glare and waving his arm toward the exit, ushering me away as I did to him.
‘Go away,’ he says mildly.
I scoff. ‘Why? I know what it says.’
‘Go away,’ he repeats, his expression increasingly stony.
‘Fine,’ I relent, hopping off the table with a toss of my hair. ‘Keep your secrets. Enjoy your quality time with your post-it.’
‘Thank you.’
I find the others crammed around a computer in the opposite unit, with Owen sitting in the office chair and Hennie lounging on the desk next to it. I jump up to sit next to her.
‘Relinquished your greatest want to the wall?’ I ask, nudging her shoulder with my own.
‘Absolutely,’ she says. ‘And you?’
‘Yeah, I did actually,’ I reply brightly, shooting her a wide smile. Trying to communicate something only she might understand. She studies my face for a moment before meeting my eyes again with a slow grin.
