Page 25 of Stoker's Serenity

I just missed her.

It was a strange feeling, and I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not.

I mean, I liked Serenity, no doubt about that, but I really didn’t like how much I missed her when I wasn’t with her. It led to some messy ruminations as we rode. Mostly, me wondering how soon was too soon to care about someone so deeply. Someone you barely even knew.

We rode through the ’Glades and I was acutely aware that we were headed in the general direction that Serenity lay. We stopped at a nice spot to picnic and Charity wandered over.

“Hey, you doing alright?”

“What? Me? Yeah, I’m alright.”

She laughed at me and said, “Dude, this whole day you’ve had such a long face. Like you’re seriously moping. What’s going on?”

Faith wandered over and suddenly I had an audience as I rooted through my saddlebag for my lunch. A bunch of the guys were goofing off, throwing a Frisbee around, laughing, and I just wasn’t feeling it like I usually was ? because she wasn’t there.

“I got it bad for this girl…” I said out loud and Charity and Faith exchanged a look.

“Awww!” Charity cried. “Where is she?”

“Work. The Galleria Mall in Lauderdale.”

“She coming to the beach party tomorrow?” Faith asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Bringing her friend Linny.”

“You going to make it?” Charity teased.

“Honestly,” I laughed some, “I hope so.”

“Awww! Wish Galahad missed me that much.”

“What?” he called. “How can I miss you when I never let you out of my sight?” he demanded.

“Good point!” she called back happily, and I laughed.

“It’s only a few more hours.” Faith winked at me and I smiled.

“Yeah.”

“You do have it bad,” Charity said. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Just go easy on her. She gets overwhelmed real easy.”

I fixed my eyes on Faith and she smiled. “I don’t know anything about that.” She smiled and rolled her eyes as she said it, and I chuckled.

“There’s something there,” I said. “Not sure if it’s the same type of bad, but something bad happened.”

“How do you know?” Charity cocked her head, her interest piqued.

“Just do.” I leaned my butt against the seat of my bike and opened the can of soda I brought with me, taking a drink quickly as it foamed from the vibrations of the ride. I shook excess of the sticky soda off my hand and looked at both the girls.

“She does the same things I did when I first got to you guys, huh?” Faith asked. “Jumpy, always apologizing, a nervous wreck?”

“Yeah.” I nodded slowly.

“Oh.” Charity looked thoughtful. “Anxiety? PTSD?”

“My guess is both, but she hasn’t told me why. Not yet. Things are still really super new, but she trusts me, or is starting to. I’m just afraid of fucking it up.”

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