Of course that was wishful thinking.
There was no way I’d be able to relax now.
“Tempest!”
I was still standing outside, waiting to be left alone when I heard my name. When I looked up, Tristan was headed toward me, his arrival decorated by the steady red and blue flashes from the police cars.
Ah hell.
“What happened?! Are you okay?” He asked, removing his jacket to wrap around my shoulders, making me realize for the first time how much the temperature had dropped for the night.
It was warm, and it smelled like him, so I decided not to shrug it off.
“What are you doing here? It’s like four in the morning,” I said, taking a step back to put some distance between us. It was coming up on two weeks since we’d spoken, and the longer I ignored him, the easier it was.
At least, it had been.
Now that he was in my face, it was a bit of a different story.
“I was at the shop, finishing a big piece for a client,” he explained. “Neither of us wanted to spend a second day on it, so we toughed it out.”
“Oh.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You gonna tell me what’s going on, or?”
“Nothing. Somebody threw a brick through the window, and broke up the door. I think they were trying to get me to come down, but I kinda snuck up on them, and they ran.”
Tristan’s eyes went wide. “Trying to get you to come down? For what? Who was it?”
“Obviously I don’t know the answers to any of that.”
“I know, it’s just….” Tristan blew out a sigh. “Aiight, pack yourself a little bag. You’re gonna come with me.”
“I am?”
“Well, you damn sure can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
“But I’d be safe with you?”
He frowned. “What? Yes.”
“Really?” I challenged. “Nya isn’t crashing on the couch too, is she?”
“Will you just go pack the goddamn bag?”
“No, actually, I won’t,” I told him, snatching his jacket off my shoulders to shove at him. “You don’t get to run up in my face playing superhero after that bullshit you pulled with me.”
“You’re gonna act like I haven’t tried to talk to you?”
I scoffed. “Yeah, got your messages about wanting to talk, but honestly Tristan, fuck talking. There’s no conversation to be had, no points to negotiate, none of that. You either get it, or you don’t - there’s no in-between. You don’t get to play it off as an overreaction,” I snapped, trying to keep my emotions at bay, even though I really felt like bursting into tears. “Either my feelings matter more to you than some other bitch or they don’t. And my feeling is that your disrespectful ass ex can’t be in your face, and you can’t be in hers. If that’s a sticking point for you, then… We can leave this where it is.”
“That’s what you wanna do?” He asked, those lights still reflecting off his skin, making the whole thing feel so much more urgent. “Leave it where it is?”
“It seems like what you want. Like her being in your life is the more important thing.”
“It’s not.”
“You sure?”
“I’m positive,” he said, not dropping his gaze from mine. “Now… Go pack your bag.”
The walk to Tristan’s place was quiet.
And short.
It turned out, he only lived about a block and a half away from me, but I’d never been before.
If the progress of our relationship hadn’t been so abruptly interrupted by the whole thing with Nya…things would probably be different.
But here I was now, taking in the predictable blacks, grays, wood tones of his space.
“Hey,” he said, coming up behind me after he’d put my bag - which he’d insisted on carrying - and his own stuff down. “Seriously… Are you okay?”
“Of course. Whoever it was, they ran. They didn’t touch me,” I explained, stepping back to give us some distance.
Still.
“I’m not talking about just physically,” he countered, pushing his hands into his pockets. “I mean…waking up to somebody busting in your shit… That’s not scary to you?”
I blinked.
Had I been scared?
Or was it more…resolute?
I had a survival instinct, sure, but fear?
Well, it wasn’t really in my makeup to fear a moment I’d been expecting would come.
There had to only be so long that I could live this “new” life without paying anything for it. There, eventually, had to be some sort of reckoning.
Maybe this was it.
“I wasn’t scared,” I answered him, once I’d thought through it. “I was armed.”
Tristan’s eyes went wide. “Armed? Like with a weapon?”
“What else would I be referring to, Tristan? My sparkling wit?”
“Keep the attitude, I’m just concerned about you.”
“Don’t be - I can protect myself.”
“It’s not about what you can do, I’m talking to you, damn.”
I blew out a sigh, shaking my head. Maybe I was being a little testy, but I was also fresh off having what should have been my sanctuary violated.
Yeah, I was a little tense.
“What am I doing here?” I asked out loud, even though I wasn’t really asking him, and the question wasn’t even about him.
Not completely.
“Because it makes me feel better,” Tristan answered earnestly, not understanding that I meant… here.
In this neighborhood, in this country, in… this life.
“Somebody broke into your place, you said they waited for you? Yeah, I feel better with you here, not there. Is something wrong with that?”
“Why do you care?”
“Why do I care? Look, I get it, the thing with Nya pissed you off. You’re still pissed. I can take that. But you acting like I shouldn’t - or don’t - give a damn about your wellbeing… it’s petty.”
“Maybe it’s petty, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valid for me to wonder why. I can clearly tell you what I like about you, Tristan. You’re charming, and funny, and pretty much a
