Page 71 of Stealing Blinds

Sylvie: You don’t know that.

Me: I do. Your pupils dilate when I say it.

Sylvie: They do not!

Me: Yes, they do. You do some other things, too, but I know how carried away your filthy mind can get, so we won’t discuss those now.

Sylvie: You’re not awake because of my dilating pupils. What’s going on? Sorry if I was weird at the end of the night. My mind was starting to drift to tomorrow, the job, and everything your brothers said earlier.

Me: It’s okay. I’m sure today was a lot.

Sylvie: It was. Mostly in a good way.

Sylvie: Now you. What’s messing with your head?

Me: I don’t sleep well.

Sylvie: Staying asleep or falling asleep?

Me: Both. I have nightmares sometimes.

Sylvie: Oh, I didn’t expect that.

Me: No one ever does.

Sylvie: What about your family?

Me: Nah. I’m not the haunted one.

Sylvie: They don’t know you have trouble sleeping and have nightmares? You all seem so close.

Me: We are. Mad knows. It’s a middle-kid thing. The oldest two carried everything. The youngest two acted out. Mad and I smiled through it. But now, it’s different with him gone.

Sylvie: He’s in the apartment below this one.

Me: And so happy. I love Tessa. I love them together. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Sylvie: But you’re lonely.

Me: More than I’d like to admit.

I take a deep breath and offer some unfiltered truth.

Me: Maddox isn’t the reason I realized it though.

Sylvie: No?

Me: No.

Sylvie: Maybe it’s worse because you’re not in your own bed.

Me: Probably.

Sylvie: You should do something about that.

I shoot straight up because I sure as fuck would like to do something about that, but I need to know what she’s thinking.

Me: Sly???