Page 126 of Toxic Temptation
She’s been playing with Luka for over an hour, and I can see the exhaustion pulling at her like gravity.
Her smiles have gone from genuine to something she has to manufacture. Her reactions are half a beat too slow. But she keeps going, keeps trying to make him laugh, because that’s who Vesper is. She’d set herself on fire to keep everyone else warm.
Waylen tried bribing Luka away with video games twenty minutes ago. I offered a museum trip this weekend. Nothing works. The kid is glued to her side, completely oblivious to the way she’s wilting right in front of us.
Finally, I can’t let her sacrifice herself on the altar of his happiness anymore. “Luka, that’s enough. Vesper’s tired and you need to get to bed.”
“Ten more minutes!” he protests.
“I gave you ten minutes ten minutes ago.”
“And then you lectured me about TV for eight minutes, so that doesn’t count.”
Christ.The kid should run my negotiations. He’s ruthless.
“Luka, don’t argue with your uncle.” Vesper’s voice is soft but firm. “He’s right about bedtime. And TV really will rot your brain. It’ll come leaking out of your ears like strawberry jelly.”
Normally, that would get a laugh from him. But Luka’s bottom lip juts out. “But I never get to spend time with you anymore.”
And there it is. The guilt trip hits Vesper right in the chest. I can see it happen in real time—the way her shoulders drop, her resolve crumbles.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. How about I take a couple days off soon? We can do whatever you want.”
His face glows like Christmas morning. “Really?”
“Really really,” she says, the same call-and-response they always do. It gets cuter every time.
He jumps up and runs to Waylen, suddenly energized now that he’s gotten what he wanted. “Can we read a bedtime story?—”
“Nuh-uh. Clean up the Legos first,” Waylen instructs him. “This living room looks like a toy store exploded.”
Luka folds his hands in a shy prayer position. “Will you help me?”
“If you’d gone to bed when I asked you to thirty minutes ago, I would have helped. Now, you’re on your own, buddy.”
I have to give it to him—Waylen doesn’t cave to the kid’s manipulation. Maybe that’s why Luka actually respects him. If only Waylen would stop looking at me like I’m going to drag his sister down into the lowest depths of hell, I might actually start to like the guy.
Then again, maybe not.
As Luka cleans up his destruction, I load up a plate with the roast chicken and vegetables I made earlier and walk it over to Vesper. She’s curled up on the couch, knees pulled to her chest, looking like she might gratefully disappear into the cushions, never to be seen again.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I say before she can even muster up a word. “I’m going to tell you to eat, and you’re going to say no. I’m going to say it again,Eat,and you’re going to make up some bullshit lie about how you aren’t hungry. And then we’re going to get into an argument, and we’ll both get angry, and in the end, because you’re more exhausted than me, I’m going to win, but you’ll be even more tired and pissed off for having done the whole song and dance. So instead of all that, I’m going to remind you that you haven’t eaten all day, then I’m going to hand you this plate, sit next to you, and watch you eat every bite.”
Vesper watches me the whole time. When I’m finally done, she sighs. “How long have you been rehearsing that speech?”
“Since I started cooking. Are you going to make me fight anyway?”
She squints up at me. “It’s a very weird fetish you have, you know. This whole Hansel & Gretel thing, fattening me up.”
“I believe that’s what the kids call ‘kink-shaming.’” I hand her the plate. “Now, eat. Shouldn’t a doctor know better than to skip meals?”
“It was a long day, okay?” She does take the plate from me, so that’s something. “And how do you even know I haven’t eaten?”The pieces click together, and her eyes flash with remembered anger. “Oh, right. Your spy.”
Luka looks up from his Lego pile. “A spy? That’s so cool!”
“No, it’s not,” Vesper snaps. “It’s a violation of my privacy.”
“It’s protection,” I butt in. “And it’s temporary.”
