Page 38 of Only ever you-Ana & Byron
Back at the House
The old Richardson house had changed.
Fresh paint, new windows, clean lines. It felt like a place someone had finally decided was worth living in. Sylvia had made it a home.
Gray and Cadi had to leave early. Work. Rotas. Life.
Ana gathered her things.
"I should-" she started.
"Stay," Byron said, "Please."
His voice was rough with emotion, cracking along the edges. He couldn't look at her as he walked upstairs. She followed.
The room was familiar and not. The curtains were new. The furniture sleeker. But the bed with its old frame was the same.
Byron lay on it, shoes off, arms folded behind his head. He stared at the ceiling. Ana stood in the doorway for a beat before entering.
They didn't speak for a while. Then he exhaled, voice scraping the air like nails on a chalkboard.
"That fuckin' cunt," he muttered. "She ruined our lives.
Then she shows her face like it's nothin'."
Ana couldn’t help but feel her heart squeeze.
"She walked out. And he just gave up," He said in a muffled voice.
"I know," she said softly.
She crossed the room and lay down beside him, curling into his back without a word. One arm was draped across his side.
He didn't move.
Dryly, she murmured, "There's a lot of you to hug, Robertson."
He snorted. "That's 'cause you've got midget arms, Bartolini."
He turned slowly, wrapped his arms around her.
There was nothing sexual about the hug, only comfort between two people who couldn't speak about feelings too deep for words.
A while later, he spoke again. "Heard you and that Harley lad packed it in."
She nodded into his chest. "It was Harvey. And it was mutual."
"Very tidy. Dead civil. Like bleedin' diplomats."
Ana smiled faintly. "I wanted to take foreign assignments. Johannesburg, Cape Town, maybe Sri Lanka. He... didn't want that."
"Huh," Byron said. "If you were mine, I'd've tied you to the fuckin' bedpost. Wouldn't let you outta my sight. You wouldn't be goin' anywhere without me taggin' along."
She pulled back just enough to look him in the eye. "Good thing you're not my boyfriend, then. With the number of women you go through? I'd be worried about touching you with a ten-foot pole."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"Don't believe everything you read," he said, voice serious.
