Page 36 of The Pale Rider
“I am amazed, Aeron! This place is amazing. That’s why I don’t want to get banished because I fucked Jade up.”
“Forget the tattoo for tonight. Look what I got you.”
Aeron looked like a little boy. He was giddy with excitement. I think he was more excited about what was in this Tupperware container than when we binge ate nachos. I might as well see what it was.
I pulled the lid off and resting on a bed of lettuce was falafel and tzatziki sauce. My mouth watered at the sight.
“You talked about this being your favorite food in the chatroom. It was right up there with Cheetos. When we were supposed to meet for me to take you to Mexico, you were supposed to show me the best falafel in Los Angeles. You ate it so much while you were chatting with us that Leif and I used to tease you about it.”
I couldn’t deal with Aeron. As much as I didn’t like him at first, he ended up being so sweet. He could still be a grumpy fuck sometimes, but who manages to keep finding a girl’s favorite food during the end of the world? The fact that he knew and kept trying was making my anxiety slip away about that tattoo I had to give.
Aeron went out of his way to do this for me, and I didn’t want to spend tonight making him talk me down from some ledge. I decided just to chill. I needed to be kinder to Aeron because he was going above and beyond for me.
I leaned back against the pillows.
“What did you get?”
“Stuffed peppers and falafel. That tzatziki sauce is fresh from the farm. I got extra for both of us.”
“Aeron? I’m sorry I gave you a hard time before. You’re pretty great.”
“No, I’m sorry, Ariel. I was so happy to find you that I wanted to kiss you right then and there, but you remembered nothing. I couldn’t risk telling you anything because of your memories, and I couldn’t touch you the way I wanted because I didn’t want to run you off. It put me in a horrible mood, and you took the brunt of it.”
“Truce?”
Aeron gave me this pained look. He wanted more than that. He wanted me to remember, and he wanted the same relationship we had in that chatroom. I couldn’t give him that yet, but I could try.
“I know you can’t tell me everything we talked about in that chatroom, but tell me insignificant things, like my falafel obsession. What are things that we talked about that were just us?”
Aeron gave me this sad smile.
“For starters, you got Leif and I hooked on this insane cartoon on YouTube. Someone released a new episode every week. You would rave about every episode and kept insisting we watch it at least once. Honestly, we kept putting it off because when you would talk about it, it sounds like something Oscar Wilde would have written on LSD. Finally, we got curious and watched it. We got hooked. We would discuss the latest episode in the chatroom when we weren’t talking about your father.”
“I was a falafel eating, cartoon watching, tattoo artist who named her baseball bat before all this?”
“You were an award-winning artist, Ariel. Your tattoos won at several conventions, and your paintings hung in galleries. You’re allowed to be eccentric.”
“What else did we talk about?”
“You were a huge flirt. You demanded photos from both Leif and I. You hit on both of us all the time. Leif can’t wait to meet you too.”
Well, didn’t me before I lost my memories just open up a bunch of cans of shit? If Aeron kissed me out of the blue, was Leif going to do the same? My blood started this entire mess. Was some internet flirtation I had before all this going to fuck things up because Leif and Aeron decided they didn’t want to work together anymore because I ruined their friendship?
“Aeron, I’m sorry if I led the two of you on. I don’t want to break up your team because I teased both of you.”
Aeron laughed in my face, and I had no idea what was so funny.
“Oh, Ariel. It was far more than just teasing. You were our online girlfriend, and we were both totally fine with that. We chatted in that room, but you also had our phone numbers. We texted and talked on the phone all the time.”
Well, wasn’t I just a kinky little minx before?
“So, we had this whole ménage thing going on online? How is that going to work once we are all together? I remember nothing about any of you. I’m growing fond of you now that I’m getting to know you, but I might not feel the same when I get my memories back.”
“I know, Speedy. That’s why I’m not trying to press you for anything.”
“You’re sitting there all hot and half-naked in the towel that keeps looking like it’s about to fall off because you aren’t pressing for anything?”
Aeron gave me this evil grin.
