Page 42 of Wild Card
I could do both. Because as much as I hate the idea, the small flutter of excitement I feel in my chest at seeing her tomorrow is the closest I’ve come to hope since the accident.
TWENTY-FOUR
Scarlett
I talkHarper into going with me to Tobias’s house the first day I’m working there. It’s a cold morning and we’re both bundled up while she works on the security pad and lock. I’ve brought a box of donuts and some coffee as a morning peace offering. I’m hoping it’ll ease the tension that I’m sure is going to fill the room.
She lets us in, and we shake off the cold and hang our coats up. I’ve seen his condo downtown, but I’ve never had a chance to be here—the site of his legendary parties. I could already tell from the outside it’s massive, but inside just from where I’m standing it already looks labyrinth-like. I might have taken on more than I can handle, but then again, I doubt he’s moving around much based on what I’ve heard.
“Here, we can set things on the dining room table, and I’ll get some napkins and things out of the kitchen.” Harper nods in what I assume is the direction of the dining room, and I follow.
A massive table sits in an enormous dining room with a fireplace, just off a huge chef’s kitchen. His condo is a beautifully decorated bachelor pad, but this place looks like him. His personality is etched across every wall and on the furniture. I can tell that this is the place he likes to spend most of his time.
“I texted him when we got here, so he should be in. He’s still on crutches though, so he’s a little slow moving. Might be a minute,” Harper says to me as she disappears into the kitchen.
I start to open the box of donuts and fold the lid back. Placing coffees at each person’s spot. Between Harper and I, we managed to narrow down his coffee order, and I set the cups at the end of the table and pull out some of the extra creamers and sweeteners they put in the bag with the donut holes. Just as I put those out, I see movement out of the corner of my eye and look up to see Tobias on the threshold of the room.
I haven’t seen him since that night in the hospital. We haven’t texted other than a few get well wishes from me that went unanswered at the start. I haven’t been invited to see him either, only getting updates through Harper and Joss. So I’ve just hoped for the best for him from afar.
The last time I saw him he’d been swollen, bruised, and battered, fast asleep on pain medication, and buried under a blanket at the hospital with bandages around his head. He looks better and worse now. Better in that much of the swelling has gone down and he’s standing with the help of crutches. Worse in that the peaceful look of sleep has been replaced by a stormy look of malcontent. He frowns when he sees me and the donuts, moving slowly into the room until he grabs the chair at the head of the table.
“I got donuts and coffee.” I try to keep a cheerful tone to my voice, but it sounds shaky.
He glances at them and then up at me.
“I can see that,” he deadpans. None of his usual sarcastic banter or playfulness. The words bite even though nothing about them is particularly cruel.
He looks down at the coffee again and the side of his face catches the light. Instead of the bandages, there’s a nasty scar, one that’s very fresh and bright pink across the whole right side of his face. Surface level in some places and considerably deeper in others. My eyes drift down to his arm, remembering that he’d been bandaged there too, and I can see where fresh road rash is fading across his tattoos, leaving me to wonder how they’ll survive the scarring.
“Make sure you get a nice good long look. Catalog it all, so we don’t have to do this every day.” The tone of his voice is dead weight, wrapping around me and throwing me into a dark pool of deep water. One where I’m floundering because I don’t know what to say in response.
“I’m sorry. I just hadn’t—It looks painful.” I trip over my words, hurrying to try to cover up the offense I’ve committed.
“And hideous. I’m aware.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Morning!” Harper interrupts cheerfully, saving me in the process. “We got a couple of different coffees. We both had different guesses on what you drink.”
“Morning. Thanks,” he grumbles.
“We got donuts and donut holes too. I was going to show Scarlett around so you don’t have to, and then I’ll leave you guys to it.”
“Fine.” He takes the coffee I picked for him and puts a donut in his mouth before he moves to awkwardly leave the room on his crutches again.
“I could carry that for you,” I offer, trying to be helpful.
He glares into the distance.
“See I told you you’d be useful,” Harper chirps, and I know it’s more for his benefit than mine. Her coded way of telling him to be nice.
He holds the coffee out and I take it from him, snagging the donut from his mouth before adding a couple of napkins to the mix.
“Lead the way,” I say softly.
He doesn’t say a word as we walk down the hall, but I’m thankful to get away from Harper for a minute. Before she leaves, I want to make sure that he really wants me here. That he’s okay with this arrangement. Because the last thing I want is to be part of bullying him into this and have him hate me for it.
He turns down a hall and into a room which must be the master because it’s huge. A small bar area to the right of the door and then two doors. One that leads to—from what I can tell—a massive bathroom and the other to a cavernous-looking closet. It tracks with his vanity that he’d have all this. He probably has a whole separate closet for his sneakers alone. But I smile a little at getting to see this part of him. His condo is for sure just a place for business because it has none of the personality of this place.
