“He paid. Thank you for that. Although couldn’t you have made up something else? Like maybe I was a secret assassin or something. And, Cameron?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for getting me the job. At Rick’s.”
I frowned. “You know?”
“I asked Dylan when he’d just woken up. Why didn’t you just tell me about the job?”
“You wouldn’t have accepted it if you knew it came from me. You’d have been suspicious and rejected it,” I said. “Are you angry?”
“That you got me the job?” She shook her head. “No, I’m not angry, Cam.”
“I never stopped thinking about you. When I came back, I didn’t know if you’d ever let me see you again. Talk to you again. I knew our deal was off after what I did. I didn’t have a plan and I was going fucking crazy thinking of you. I had forgotten I had asked Dylan to tell you about the job before all…this happened. So when I found you at The Yard that day, I was caught off guard. I didn’t expect to see you. And when I did, I was desperate to hold you and never let you go. But I was more…afraid you’d reject me.”
“Was that why you acted like nothing happened? I thought you just didn’t care.”
“Of course I cared. I’m just good at…looking like I don’t.”
She gave me a small smile.
“I told Dylan not to tell you I referred you for the job,” I said.
“You can get him to talk about almost anything in the morning when he’s still half-asleep.”
I laughed, remembering what she was like in the morning. “You’re a zombie until you drink your coffee.”
She flushed. “I guess you know that by now about me, huh?”
“I want to know more about you,” I said.
“I want to know more about you too.”
She smiled at me, and I smiled back.
I noticed she didn’t have her blanket anymore. It must have fallen when we were in the secret passage. I took off my jacket and placed it on her shoulders. And this time, instead of shrugging it off and throwing it back at me like she did that first time I walked her home, she held it closer to her.
“Thanks.” She gave me another smile. I wanted her to keep smiling at me. “Can I ask you something then?”
I nodded. Just don’t ask me to leave you alone. Like you did before. Even if I deserved it.
She looked down at the ground as we walked before she asked, “Why didn’t you text me before you left?”
I didn’t answer right away, wanting to give her a real, honest answer by thinking about what I was going to say to her.
“Sometimes,” I began, massaging my knuckles with my other hand. “I need to get away from…everything.”
That sounded useless, but I didn’t know how else to explain it to her. I wished for words, better words I could give her to remove the sadness in her eyes.
I looked down, gathering my thoughts, and tried again. “There are things in my past that still haunt me. And I have to deal with them the way I know how.”
“Is this where you went?” She gestured at the maze.
“I went to finish a project up north first. And then I drove here. But yeah, I stayed here for a while.”
“I see.”
I must have taken a while gathering my thoughts because I heard her sigh.