in Rest. He fucked her a bunch, thinking stupidly that they had the same goals—a good time. He continued because it was convenient and now couldn’t fathom where all these feelings were coming from. Why? Because the dumb man had believed her.
From the sounds of it, they were definitely hitting the third act of this show, and it wasn’t going to have a happy ending.
There were footsteps. I heard a door creak open.
“I know, and I’m fine with what it is,” Belinda said.
Sure she is.
There was a pause before she continued more hesitantly. “Why are we echoing?”
I groaned, wondering if lobbing the stone out the door would turn it off. All that would probably do was let the entire neighborhood hear as well. I was pretty sure it was too late anyway.
Musso was at his desk, rolling his eyes. Zab ran to his desk as well, distancing himself from the scene of the crime.
Belinda came into the office first. Her gaze shot straight to me. I might’ve turned a toasty pink. Yes, we weren’t friends, but still, that wasn’t well done of me. I would’ve apologized then and there, but she stormed out of the building before the opportunity presented itself. She took a left turn, walking past the window and disappearing from view.
I was still watching her when Hawk entered the room. My skin went past toasty and into “raging forest fire” temperatures.
He walked over and held out his hand. I saw this all in my peripheral vision, since I was still working up the nerve to look at him. I put the stone in his palm, still not meeting his eyes.
“I guess you learned at least one thing from that book.” He wrapped his hand around it, and the thing stopped glowing.
I wanted to ask how he’d done that, but this didn’t seem like the right time. He held it back out to me, as if I’d have some need of it again. I took it because I feared not doing so would lead to more conversation.
He walked to the door, and I found I couldn’t look away now. He was going to follow her. Maybe things would work out for them. What if he’d only needed an eye-opener?
And then he took a right, the opposite direction Belinda had gone.
I felt bad for her. I definitely did. If there was any happiness in me, it was only because she was probably better off moving on to someone who was into her. Hawk clearly wasn’t—not that I cared.
Zab and Musso were staring at me when I turned around.
“Well, that was awkward,” Zab said.
“I’ve seen worse.” Musso shrugged.
13
Musso and Zab were gone. I’d pulled up a chair near the front window of the office. If I sat really close and leaned my head a certain way, I could see the top of the factory’s roof from here. Even though it was late, there was still a steady stream of glittering smoke coming out of the factory chimney. The only friend I had here was going to die an early death in that place if I didn’t figure something out, and soon. People on the street stared at me as they walked past, but I didn’t care. There were many things that were bothering me, but what these strangers thought was not among them.
Hawk walked out of the back room. I hadn’t seen Belinda or him since the “incident” earlier today, and I was sort of hoping I wouldn’t.
He walked through the office, checking a couple of things on the different counters without saying anything.
I had to say something. “Sorry” fell a little short, considering I’d purposely invaded his privacy, but there weren’t any alternatives.
The silence in the room was heavy as he continued to go about his business. I might as well just get it out. It wasn’t as if I could avoid him. It had to be done.
“Sorry about today,” I said, leaving off the buts that wanted to follow, like the one about Belinda being an ass. Or the big, fat BUT where she taunted me and tried to make me miserable all day. I couldn’t add all those, though, because then I’d look like an ass. That was the problem with apologies. No one wanted buts with them, even good buts. I had to pretend I didn’t have an entire list so long that any jury would’ve acquitted me of a crime due to temporary insanity from torture.
I waited, my gut churning.
He was certainly taking his time