Page 73 of Queen of Ruin

“Something like that,” he sighs.

I pull a container from the floor and hand it to him. Reluctantly he takes it and starts stacking the packages inside. When he finishes, I show him where to place it in the storage room, stacking it on the top shelf for me.

Darren reaches down and picks up a small teddy bear that must have fallen out of the bins. He looks at it before setting it back with the rest.

“Sometimes kids don’t have time to grab their stuffed animals before they come here,” I explain while closing the cabinets and flipping the lock back on. “It doesn’t replace what they had to leave behind, but it makes them feel better.”

“My mother never really discussed any of this with me,” he admits, “but I guess I never really asked. It’s not exactly dinner conversation.”

I tilt my head in confusion.

“Discussing such things isn’t proper dinner etiquette,” he attempts to exaggerate how his mother would sound. “Did you ever feel like you were born into the wrong family?” he questions, forcing me to think of just how sad and lonely someone as exuberant as Darren felt being confined to proper dinner etiquette among other things.

“No.” I push a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “Although I have wished I was.”

Darren stares at me, and the confines of the storage unit are too small to contain our confessions.

“You can’t choose the family you were born in, but you can choose the family that you belong in,” he says.

“I don’t think it works like that.”

“Why not?” he challenges.

“Because it just doesn’t.”

His lips open slightly as if the words he wants to say are trying to find their way out, but then he presses his lips back together before he walks out of the storage room.

“Rori Colton’s seat in the Fifth Congressional District is open,” he declares, and it leaves me with a prickle of something more to come.

I have a feeling, but I ask anyway. “What does that mean, Darren?”

“I spoke with Rausch, and he’s behind me…”

“Rausch?” I widen my eyes. “So you’re telling me you want to run?”

“He’s someone you want on your side politically,” he explains. “And yes.”

“Why would you do this?” I ask, and his face falls.

“I thought you’d be happy for me.” He pinches his brows together. “Getting my life together and shit.”

“I don’t know why you would think that.” I take my aggression out on breaking down the cardboard boxes to get them ready for the trash.

“Why are you so upset about this?”

“You can do whatever you want, Darren.” I tuck the cardboard under my arm and stalk down the hallway through the kitchen where some of the volunteers are getting dinner ready.

Darren follows me into the alley where the trash bins are.

“I thought you’d be happy. I can help people like Ethel, make a real difference!” he raises his voice, and I let the heavy lid fall back into place.

I whirl around. “Is that why you gave me access to the money? I demand.

“Are you seriously asking me that?” Darren growls. “I already told you why I gave you the money.”

I know what he said.

“It would be the best thing for you.”

---