She gave a little shrug, but it looked more sad than dismissive. “Well. They don’t.”
I studied her face for a second. She tried to hide so much behind that mouth and that attitude, but moments like this told the truth on her anyway.
“Melissa.”
She looked up.
“You got to stop moving like you by yourself in this world.”
Her expression changed instantly, like them words rubbed up against some part of her she protected hard.
“I am by myself,” she said.
“No, you ain’t.”
“You do not know that.”
“I know enough.”
She sat back against the couch, crossing her arms like she needed the barrier. “And what exactly do you know, Roman?”
I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “I know you act like you do not need nobody because somewhere along the way needing people got dangerous for you. I know you talk tough because it keeps folks from seeing where you soft at. And I know you keep turning me away not because you do not feel shit…”
I paused, letting my eyes drag over her face.
“…but because you do.”
Melissa went still.
For a second, all I could hear was the ocean outside and both of us breathing.
Then she looked away and let out a little laugh with no humor in it. “You think you know everything.”
“Nah,” I said quietly. “Just enough.”
She did not answer.
A knock sounded at the door a few minutes later, and I got up to grab the food. When I brought it back to the coffee table, Melissa sat forward and helped me unpack it without me asking. The normalness of that hit me in a strange place.
Like this should not have felt as natural as it did.
We ate and talked a little more after that. Not heavy this time. Just small shit. The food. The island. Who had the worst attitude between us. By the time she started smiling for real, some of that tightness around her eyes had loosened.
And I could not stop looking at her.
At one point she caught me.
“What?” she asked.
I did not even try to lie. “Nothing.”
“That is not nothing.”
I leaned back and let my eyes stay on her. “You look better.”
A little color touched her face, and she rolled her eyes like she wanted to dismiss it.
“Whatever.”
