After fifteen minutes of silence, I escaped to my own rented room, showered, changed, and took off. I walked several blocks before circling back to the motel. In the command center, I located the note and headed to the diner, hoping my face wouldn’t betray the previous night and all the lies I planned to tell.
Elliott arrived around noon, and Ozrik’s team perked up. Despite what happened that morning, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed, knowing there would be no sneaking out for a repeat of the previous night.
I’d been monitoring the encroaching storm system with Olivia for the past hour while someone from Charles’s cameracrew performed individual interviews. Roe warned they were purposefully stirring the pot and pitting people against one another. I wasn’t looking forward to my turn, especially since I’d been the cause of many raised tempers that morning with myabsence.
Apart from sharing a few glances and one shaky smile, Ozrik and I hadn’t spoken. It was my doing. He surely wouldn’t give a crap if people knew the truth. Avoiding him was necessary for my sanity. If we talked, if we so much as stood beside one another, I feared our entire night would be written on my face for anyone to see.
As it stood, I could barely focus on reading the radar. My mind continuously drifted. Every kiss and touch we’d shared was emblazoned in my brain. The sensation of Ozrik’s naked body against mine was something I wanted to relive.
Questions arose that I’d never considered. Like, at what point was a person not a virgin anymore? Did what happened constitute sex? Was it only penetration that counted? What about oral? Were shared orgasms sex?
A flush climbed my neck and burned my cheeks when I imagined exploring more. How would it feel to have Ozrik’s mouth on me? Would anal hurt? Was I a top or a bottom? How were those things figured out?
I was embarrassingly uneducated. Fear and shame and a metric ton of self-denial growing up had kept me from researching online or driving to a big city for clandestine experimentation. I was probably the only twenty-six-year-old on the planet who had never viewed porn. I wasn’t stupid. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the mechanics of gay sex. Still, I felt wholly unprepared to participate and feared Ozrik would find my clumsy advances and naivety annoying.
“What is wrong with you?” My sister nudged my arm, breaking me from a daze.
“Nothing.” I sat straighter and squinted at the computer screen.
“Are you fevered?” She touched my forehead.
I batted her hand away. “Don’t. I’m fine.”
“You’re flushed and sweating.”
“I’m fine, Olivia. Lay off. It’s… hot in here.”
“The air-conditioning is on.”
I ignored her, focusing intently on the local weather map.
“You know you can talk to me, right?”
“I have nothing to say. I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well.” I clicked to another tab, checking reports and scanning numbers that wouldn’t compute. It was too soon for alerts anyhow. The storm wasn’t scheduled to move into the area until late afternoon or early evening.
“Gale.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
Olivia continued to study me like I was a science project, and I did my best to pretend I didn’t notice. Our connection as siblings and twins made it hard to hide. Olivia read every muscle twitch and expression. She was attuned to my anxiety.
Checking over her shoulder first, she lowered her voice and leaned in. “I saw your shoes.”
My shoes?
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“This morning. In your room. They were beside the bed with your backpack and camera. Your book was on the nightstand. I’ve never known you to go anywhere barefoot and without your gear.”
My scalp prickled. “So?”
“You didn’t go for a walk.”
My muscles petrified. The air in my lungs turned to cement. “What are you talking about? I went for a walk. I said I did. It’s what I did. Why are you—”
“Gale—”
“I woke early. It was too dark for a camera or reading. I went for a walk so I wouldn’t wake Noah.”
