“I’ll eat,” she said, but gave the cups of tea a hateful look. “But I am not choking any more of that down. And if you tell my mother, I will set you on fire in your sleep.”
“Noted,” I agreed, unable to stop the smile from tugging at my lips.
“Who cooked?”
“Me,” I told her and watched her freeze with the fork half raised to her lips. “Relax, I know how to cook eggs.”
“Really? Because I once had to inform you that you can’t put aluminum foil in the microwave.”
“Didn’t have microwaves most of the time. Had to learn to cook. Sometimes over a fire. Never gave myself or Voss food poisoning. It’s safe,” I assured her.
“If I get sick—“
“Yes, I know. Waking up on fire. Very scary,” I told her, rummaging around in her sheets for the remote for the TV. “What are we watching?” I asked, dropping down near her feet.
If she had any thoughts about me sitting there, she didn’t vocalize them.
“Jungle 2 Jungle,” she told me.
“That’s an unfamiliar one.”
“A rich city guy learns he has a teenage son who is being raised by his wife he needs to divorce so he can remarry. The catch is, she has been living in the Amazon with a tribe for years, and his son is very, I don’t know, feral. And he brings him back to the city. He tries to eat the cat. It’s probably not politically correct for this day and age, but it’s an old comfort watch,” Louana told me as she finally put some of the eggs in her mouth.
“How’s the food?” I asked as I searched for the movie.
“It’s not bad. It could use ketchup.”
“Ketchup on eggs is almost as bad as you putting it on mac & cheese,” I told her.
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” she said, shrugging.
Then we fell into companionable silence as she ate and we watched the movie.
Things seemed almost, well, good.
Until my phone vibrated in my pocket.
And a text came that I was praying would never come.
“What?” Louana asked, and I could feel her keen gaze on my face.
“What what?” I asked, tucking my phone away.
“Don’t bullshit me. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you look that freaked.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told her, shrugging it off.
Because I couldn’t tell her.
I couldn’t tell anyone.
But it looked like my past was finally starting to catch up to me…