Page 78 of Here for a Good Time
“Youare the most infuriating person,” he says with a smile. When he leans in further, I shake my head.
“If you’re thinking of kissing me right now, mister—” I warn. He cocks an amused brow at “mister.” “It’s not happening.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s really damn morbid. Think of all the therapy I’m going to have to have to work through the PTSD. And I won’t even be able to bill you for it!”
His laugh is rough. “You havesomany books left to write.Somuch art left to share with the world. Your mom is waiting to hug you. You need to go. I’ll be okay.”
“I don’t care about any of that!” I try to sound firm, but I can’t hide what I am: scared. “None of that means anything without you! Please, please, please don’t give up now. I don’t know what I’d do without you. I don’t want to find out. Please, Zwe, please don’t make me find out. None of it would make sense without you. I would spend every miserable day seeing you everywhere.Everywhere.”
Zwe swipes at my cheeks with both thumbs. “I think it’s my turn to ask if I can kiss you now.”
I nestle my face into his palm. “I can’t say ‘yes.’ This isn’t how our story ends.”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I wish—”
As though being sucked into a wind tunnel, I’m yanked backward, up and away from an equally shocked Zwe.
SIXTEEN
Instantly, and despite being a non-religious person, my first thought is,God?
My wobbly legs give in, but I don’t fall. Instead, each of my arms are hung around two different figures on either side.
“Hold tight, we have to go,” Garima says. She’s soaked, her T-shirt sticking to her body like it was spray-painted on. The same goes for Faith, who’s propping me up on the right. Garima is at least a foot taller than Faith, which putsmein a somewhat lopsided stance, but I’m not going to complain.
“What—” I blink rapidly to make sure I’m not hallucinating them. “You’re… What are you doing here?” Fear grips me as I think that maybe they came back to shoot us and make sure we died.
“What does it look like? We’re saving you,” Garima says.
The smell of gasoline and flames has still got me groggy, and I’m not certain I heard her right. “You… are?” I ask.
She gestures down at the fact that she’s propping me up. “Whatelse does it look like we’re doing?” she asks, then nods over to the side.
When I look at Zwe, two other figures—also drenched—are knelt down in front of him, one with a pair of green garden shears. On instinct, I want to reach over and shield him, my mind jumping to the worst conclusion. I breathe when I see that they’re using them on the rope, not on him.
“You’re doing it wrong!” Leila yells.
“How the fuck would you know, you haven’t even given me a chance to start!” Nita shoots back.
“Are those shears even sharp enough?” Leila asks.
Nita widens her eyes. “They were the only ones left out in the garden! What did you want me to do, locate the toolbox in the shed and examine each gardening tool first before deciding on the optimal—”
“Oh my god!” Faith yells. “You have a whole boat ride for arguing! Can you please just free him so we can get out of this alive?!”
I’m giving myself whiplash by the speed at which I’m looking around, trying to keep track of who’s talking. Part of me is still doubtful that they’re really here to save us and that they don’t have a much more sinister plan up their sleeves, but I don’t have any choice but to trust them right now.
“Who the hell tied this?” Leila yells, then, remembering the answer is right in front of her, she glares up at Garima. “How did you even know how to do this? Was it in a TikTok?”
“Just cut him out!” Garima barks.
It’s an oddly endearing scene, all the more so given the life-or-death stakes. This kind of bickering is the exact sort of situation you get when you put me, Zwe, his brother, and all of our cousins in the same room at Thingyan or any other stressful holiday. You only getthis level of multi-conversational yelling when you know you have a family who will always have your back.
“What if we lift him and carry him out?” Garima suggests.
Silently, we all eye Zwe, gauging if that’s a realistic possibility.
