Page 182 of Dark Endures

“This looks pretty fancy to me.” She lifts the flower to her nose.

Beautiful.

We eat in silence.

Only halfway through her plate, Mindy sets down her fork and stares at me. “You found me.”

“Yeah.” Does she need reassurance? Should I get a therapist to talk to her?

“That means you know who took me.”

Where is she going with this? I nod.

“Are you mad at my brother?”

Livid would be the proper term. Though it’s fairly hypocritical since I spent hours worrying that someone from my past took you. But I’m going to linger in my anger a little while longer. “You almost died.”

She leans back against the pillows and closes her eyes for a moment. “I have quite a few stepbrothers. For most of them, I try to forget they exist. There are no family reunions or occasional get-togethers. The only person from my childhood that I look forward to seeing is Waylon. Blood relation or not, he’s my brother. He even named his baby girl after me. I don’t want you to hate him.”

“Then I won’t.” No matter how hard it is.

“Was Waylon the reason you were so afraid when I hired you? And why were you working two jobs?”

“Three,” she says off-hand. “Waylon wasn’t totally the reason. It was more about giving him the money. How do I explain this? For my whole life, money has been precarious. When Mom was with someone, there was plenty of money. When she was in the process of finding someone, money was tight. But it was more than that. When my bank account is empty, like it is now, I feel like my safety net is gone. And if something happens and I trip, I’ll fall to the ground. Being homeless makes it even worse.”

“Homeless?” What does she mean by that?

“I can’t go back to living with Adonis. And when I’m well enough, you’re going to want me to move out of your place. It’s scary not knowing where I’m going to live or how I’m going to pay for it.”

“Your bank account has money in it.”

“What?” She shakes her head. “How is that possible?”

“You’re entitled to sick leave both here and there.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that you’ve been paying me this entire time?”

“Of course. And this penthouse is yours for as long as you’d like. We can even have it deeded over to you, if that would make you feel more comfortable. But I would prefer that you marry me and we live here together.” Way to go, genius, proposing when she’s hurt. So romantic.

“What? No. You can’t just say things like that. We just started dating. I can’t handle that. I don’t even know if I was supposed to talk to you about Waylon. Should I have called you? Those are things we need to figure out right now. Not marriage.”

That didn’t go well. But at least Mindy’s thinking about our future. That’s a step. “You should always call me.” I will always be there for you.

“That’s what I thought, but—” She picks up her fork and spears a piece of french toast.

I thought I had endless amounts of patience, which I developed over the years, but waiting for Mindy to finish her thought might drive me out of my mind.

“—I’m scared of all this. What we are. What we aren’t. I can’t even handle the rest of that. I’m just trying to figure out the here and now.”

“So, let’s figure it out together.” I reach out and take her hand in mine.

“Okay, but after we finish eating.”

In the Wind

Maddox

“I am not staying in bed all day.” Mindy lifts up the blanket.

---