Page 8 of Blossoming Dahlia

“You need to try this pen brand my colleague uses,” I told him abruptly. “She swears by it, they’re made for lefties and don’t smudge.” He looked down at his hand, noticing the ink, and laughed.

“Thanks, I’d love a recommendation. I normally just steal ones from the office, but they must be cheap.” Asher sighed, rubbing his hand idly. “I think I may have spoken to her a few months back, Carol Wainrite?” he asked, turning around to face me fully. My mouth dropped open with surprise.

“Oh, no, she’s not my colleague. Dr. Wainrite is the head of my department, she’s my boss. Why did you talk to my boss?”

“She was one of the people who reported you missing,” Asher explained. “We interviewed her, asked about your day, work habits, if there had been any incidents or problems in your work history. She told us about that student, the one who followed you to your car over a bad grade, and we looked into him for a whileas a suspect.” I picked at a loose thread on my sweatpants, a maelstrom of mixed emotions swirling in my chest.

“So I guess you must know a lot about me then?” I asked, trying to keep my tone level. It was weirdly vulnerable to speak to someone who knew almost as much about my life as I did, while I knew next to nothing about them. Asher just shrugged, but judging from his detailed notes of the case, I’d bet that he could write my biography and pass a fact check no problem. “Alright, tell me the most interesting thing you learned about me,” I asked, crossing my legs and leaning forward as far as my stitches would allow. “And it can’t be that I was kidnapped by a serial killer,” I added as he opened his mouth. He smiled ruefully, and thought for a moment, his fingers tapping on his notebook.

“I learned that every Halloween you and your friend Amanda dress up in a couple’s costume and try to win a costume contest at one of the bars near campus.” He grinned, and I laughed in surprise. “You almost won last year, with your mermaid—fish with legs combo, but there was an issue?” he asked.

“The winning girls cheated! They offered the announcer a blowjob in exchange for first place!” I exclaimed. This was a heated topic for Amanda and I, and we were still boycotting that bar out of anger. Well, I was at last. Amanda had been a little more vocal about the loss in the moment and she wasn’t actually allowed back at all. Asher chuckled, and felt my cheeks heat up. “Tell me something interesting about you now,” I implored him, and he shrugged again, adjusting himself so his leg could stretch out on the bed without bumping me.

“I’m not that interesting,” he replied casually, brushing a loose strand of hair out of his face. I noticed the longer he sat working, the messier his hair became from him constantly running his hands through it. It was a wonder he didn’t have ink in his hairtoo, although it would be difficult to see against the charcoal black. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Fine then, tell me something exceedingly boring about yourself,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. He thought for a moment, chewing on his lip.

“I never went to a single party while I was in school,” Asher answered finally, and I narrowed my eyes at him in disbelief. “What? It’s true! I started University when I was sixteen. Nobody wanted to party with some underage nerd who should’ve been in high school.”

Good grief, University at sixteen?I stared at him in disbelief. “Wow, so you must be really smart then,” I replied, then cringed at how obnoxious that had sounded. Asher, to his credit, didn’t seem fazed by the question at all.

“I’m smart at some things,” he said casually, which was what really smart people said to downplay their intelligence. “I like solving problems, everything is easier when you look at it like one big puzzle. Behavioral analysis is like… solving the riddle of a person. Who they are, why they are who they are, what their motives are.” He fiddled nervously with his notebook, picking at the price sticker on the back.

“Like a modern day Sherlock Holmes,” I teased him, smiling. “Although it’s probably pretty stressful, I’d imagine.” He nodded, a small divot forming between his eyebrows as his face pinched.

“Some days are,” he replied.

The door swung open, slamming into the wall with a bang and we both jumped about a foot in the air. Asher lunged toward me, shielding me from whoever was at the door.

“Fuck, sorry about that, the damn wind caught it,” Hunter announced, and my shoulders sagged in relief. Asher had his hands on either side of me, his body hovering over mine, effectively pinning me to the bed. “You okay Ash?”

“Just caught me off guard, that’s all,” he muttered, turning to face me. He was so close, his nose nearly brushed mine, and my breath caught in my throat. “Sorry if I scared you,” he murmured, pulling back abruptly, leaving a void in his absence. Asher stood off the bed immediately, and Hunter eyed him curiously as he brushed his hair out of his eyes, looking embarrassed.

“Well, good news, and bad news kids,” Hunter declared, wiping his shoes on the mat. “Bad news is that there are still no other rooms available, so we’re stuck in here for the night. The good news, they had a vending machine in the lobby.” He smiled, and tossed a can of soda at Asher, who fumbled to catch it. “How do chips and soda sound for dinner?”

“Sounds fine to me,” I replied, and he handed me my own bag of plain chips and a ginger ale. He tossed a bag at Asher, who was still standing awkwardly beside the bed, and Asher set both items down on the dresser before excusing himself to use the washroom. I opened my bag of chips and set them in my lap, savoring the salt as I popped one in my mouth. Eating bland mush for months on end sure helped me appreciate the simple pleasures in life, like the bare minimum of seasoning.

Hunter found another movie for us to watch on the TV, and Asher quietly rejoined us on the bed after a few tense minutes of hovering next to it. We all ate our chips and watched J-Lo fight a horribly fake-looking snake inAnaconda. It wasn’t a great movie by any means, but it was entertaining, and I was able to relax and enjoy it, eventually curling up on the bed to watch it laying down. Hunter shifted back on the bed until he was beside me, his back propped against the wall, while Asher remained at his perch on the end of the bed. My eyelids started to droop around the end of the movie, and Hunter turned it off as soon as the credits began to roll.

“Alright, I’m going to pass out,” Hunter announced, and I stiffened, sitting up on the bed. He grabbed a pillow off the bed and looked down at the floor, his mouth twisting in mild disgust. “You know what, I think I’ll sleep in the car. No one should lay down on the floor,” he told us, shaking his head. Grabbing his coat and his phone, he patted Asher on the back and shot me a smile. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything,” he said to me kindly, and I smiled back as he slipped outside into the rain. Asher settled himself into a chair beside the table, pulling out his notebook once again.

“Are you going to sleep?” I asked him, watching as he stretched in the little chair.

“Probably not,” he replied with a shrug, “I don’t need much sleep.” I didn’t quite believe him, not with those dark circles under his eyes. He pulled out a few of the files from his bag, arranging them on the table in front of him. I sighed and got up, wincing as my back twinged. Limping over to the bathroom, I rinsed off my face and swished some water around my mouth, wishing for toothpaste but unwilling to bother either of the men for some. I peed quickly, and lifted my shirt to check on the bandages on my back. They looked fine, but honestly what did I know about how they should look? I wished I could shower, but I didn’t want to mess them up, so I just grabbed a washcloth and gave myself a little sponge bath, trying to feel a little bit cleaner.

Finishing my half-assed attempt at grooming, I wandered back into the room, where Asher had apparently turned off the lights, save for the little one on the table beside him. I stepped over his legs, which were sprawled out nearly reaching the bed, and pulled back the covers on the bed. I had a dumb habit of checking for bugs before I slid under the covers. Once, when I was young, I’d found a spider in my bed, and after that, I always had to check. Convinced there were no spiders tonight, I slidunder the covers and curled up facing the window. “Goodnight Asher,” I murmured softly.

“Goodnight Dahlia.”

I smiled, closing my eyes. There was a strange luxury in falling asleep of my own accord.

Chapter seven

Asher

Iknew Hunter was testing me, I could tell by the way he kept pulling back and forcing me to take the lead on things I’d never had to before. Hunter was the lead agent, he had seniority, and he was justbetterat this part of the job than I was. He would always put the witness at ease, build a rapport with them, and gain their trust. But he barely spoke to Dahlia, aside from the basic pleasantries. He was trusting me to build a rapport with her, to make her feel safe, and I wasn’t sure if I could do that. I didn’t connect with people on that level; I was detached and calculating and that was how I preferred things.

Dahlia was surprisingly easy to talk to, though. She was sharp and forthright, and I appreciated that she didn’t play games with her words. What she said was what she meant, there was no subtext to read into. Sometimes it was possible to forget where we had found her, and that caught me off guard. It was what made me be so on edge; I’d catch these flashes of raw vulnerability that reminded me someone had hurt her, and I felta rage in my chest that shocked me. When Hunter had startled us earlier, and I’d nearly crushed her under my body trying to shield her from the danger, I hadn’t been using my brain at all. I’d just reacted on pure instinct, and that was what truly terrified me. Because I could trust my brain, but I didn’t trust my instincts.

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