“Why?”
She tilted her head. “Why are you asking me about this?”
Good question. It was my growing curiosity, that’s all. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself the more I wanted to get to know Cerise.
I shrugged. “Just having a conversation. You don’t have to tell me.”
“I was tired of being yelled at all the time,” she answered.
“He yelled at you?” I asked, shoving away the sudden anger that had made an appearance. Cerise was irritating, yes, but didn’t deserve to be yelled at. Ever.
“Oh yes. I never did anything right. Didn’t organize things right. Didn’t iron his shirts correctly. Breakfast was too hot or too cold. I didn’t wear the right clothing…” She stopped, catching herself. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” I searched her face. “So he was controlling…”
Cerise pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, beer still in hand. “I suppose so.”
“Did he hit you?”
“What?” She sat straighter. “No! He never did anything like that. He was just rude and demanding.”
“So he was emotionally abusive.”
She shook her head. “I—uh. He was just picky about his things.”
“So picky he had the right to belittle you?”
She was silent, turning away as she downed the last of the beer.
“That’s emotional abuse, sunshine,” I said with a whisper.
She regarded me again, staring with narrowed eyes.
“You shouldn’t tolerate anyone treating you that way, Cerise.” My voice had gone lower. My hand moved, and before I realized what I was doing, I tucked the stray hair that had escaped again behind her ear, my fingers grazing her neck. Her breath hitched as her grip tightened on the glass bottle.
“Good for you for ending it,” I added, pulling myhand back.
The two of us sat silently, not moving as we watched each other. As if neither one of us wanted to look away.
At last, Cerise rose, breaking the trance. “We should join the others or they’re going to think we never do any work.”
Chapter 12
So Many Legs
Liam
“If you look closely,” Cerise said, hunched over a table in one of the research tents. “You can see the tiny hairs on its abdomen. Who can tell me what these are for?”
Aaric and Sylvie began speaking at once, talking over each other to prove their knowledge. I sat back in a chair and watched Cerise teach our students about the bright pink tarantula they had caught. Emberly and Dr. Rosenshield were in the other research tent, cataloging and organizing the plants they’d collected, and Ivan was napping under a tree.
It had been about a week since the cave incident and we’d stayed close to camp the majority of time, collecting our specimens from the nearby terrain. After our poor luck with the spider and the jungle cat, it seemed our group was a tad reluctant to venture too far from the safety of our home base.
Cerise and I had formed a sort of friendship since we shared that beer. We still irritated each other, but my initial curiosity was turning into something more. I longed to get to know her; to learn what made her tick. And not because I was bored or found her puzzling, but because I wanted to. She was interesting. Beautiful, passionate, intellectual. Sometimes she even attempted to befunny, which usually didn’t work but she was so damned adorable when she tried.
I wasn’t just curious. I was intrigued. I hadn’t had a romantic relationship in years, but something drew me to Cerise and I couldn’t stop watching her. The way the corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled with pride when Aaric answered a question correctly; how she suppressed a laugh when Sylvie made a joke; the easy way she explained things to the students.
Cerise glanced up and caught me watching her. I gave her a smile and she blushed in that usual endearing way before turning back to Aaric to answer a question.
