“Would that be…I mean, would you mind?”
“You know I never mind. I just don’t want some monster tearing my door down because you didn’t go home for nightly suckies.”
“Fuck off,” I snap, but I almost smile at how ridiculous that sounds. Even if it’s kind of true. But things aren’t getting better. Rathyn is hanging around in my head but not giving me answers, and I’m not going to forgive him just because he misses making out with me.
“I don’t mind if you stay,” Zane says as he grabs his bag. “But you need to decide if you’re in or out.”
“Yeah,” I breathe out. He’s not wrong. I can’t live in this limbo forever.
I sulk on the couch for a while before pushing myself up and heading to the gym. I manage a lackluster workout, mostly watching a few Vyastil lift weights. They remind me of Cielo.
Of Rathyn.
I shake that off and continue working the triceps machine when I feel someone watching me.
I turn my gaze and see Dante standing there, wiping his sweaty face with a towel. When our eyes meet, he smiles and waves.
Then he makes his way over to me.
“Hey, you okay?” he asks, and I sniffle loudly.
“Oh, oh shit.” He glances around and then pulls me off the machine. I go easily, letting him guide me into the locker room and into a corner where we can talk privately.
“What is it?”
I sniffle and swipe at my eyes.
“It’s a long story. And it’s so fucking depressing.”
He frowns and then touches my wrist gently. “Okay, I know what you need. Can you wait for me to shower and change? I also need to let my brother know I’m going to ditch him.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I say quickly.
He waves me off. “Nah. Luca’s a gym addict. He’ll be happy he doesn’t have to quit early because of me.”
I nod, and he rushes off, leaving me to lean against the lockers, my eyes closing, my mind reaching out for Rathyn.
I can’t find him as easily as I used to, but a moment later, I feel his presence in my mind. He says nothing, just lingers there, feeling everything I am.
I let him sit with it. The anger, the pain, the sadness.
I hear his low, off-pitch hum before my eyes snap open.
Dante is touching me gently, pulling me out of my mind and into the present. “You okay there? Looked like you dozed off?”
I clear my throat. “I’m good.”
“Alright, come on. Let’s go.”
He links his hand with mine, a friendly gesture more than anything, as we walk out of the gym and into the cold Michigan air.
“Where are we going?” I ask when he moves to his car and unlocks it.
“My shop.”
“Oh.”
“We can talk there privately. I’d take you back to my place, but my cousin and her wife live next door, and they’re super fucking nosy. And I’m assuming you can’t go home?”
