Page 59 of Tristano

“I’m sorry.”

She sighs. “I’m not. It needed to happen. Maybe now she will be more vigilant. I don’t want anything happening to her.”

I don’t know what to say to that, so I keep quiet. The last few days have thrown me for a loop. Usually I have something to say about everything, but not now.

After several minutes of silence, she wiggles in my arms until she’s looking at me. She has a suspicious gleam in her eye.

“You didn’t touch anything in my room, did you?” she finally asks.

“No, I figured I would leave that up to you.” I tilt my head, confused.

“Huh.” She looks a little disappointed.

“What?” I ask, pulling her into my chest.

I watch as a smile plays on her lips. “And here I thought you would have taken the chance to rifle through my panty drawer in peace.”

“On second thought,” I say, pushing her from my lap.

Serena busts out laughing, and it’s fucking beautiful.

I’ll do whatever it takes to make her laugh like that every day.

“Hey, are you okay?”

I shake my head. “Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know. You just had this look on your face.”

“I think you mean my good looks.”

Serena rolls her eyes as she turns and starts walking away. “Whatever you say. Now get to work. We have an apartment to pack up. I’ll go finish up my room.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

For the next hour, we work separately packing up her life, and when the food is delivered, we eat separately while we work. Once I’m done in the kitchen, I head into her bedroom and find her sitting on the floor with piles of clothes on either side of her.

“Aren’t you supposed to be packing?” I tease as I fall onto her bed. “For fuck’s sake, why is your bed so hard?”

“Because it was that way when I bought it?” She shrugs. “And I decided to go through this shit first. That way we don’t move a bunch of clothes I don’t want anymore.”

“Makes sense. For the record, this bed isn’t coming with us. I’ll buy you a new one if you want one.”

Serena rolls her eyes. “That’s not necessary.”

“Fine. When you decide to leave, I’ll let you take the bed in my guest bedroom.”

If I let you leave.I silently tack on.

Serena looks at me with a look I can’t quite name.

“What?” I ask, fighting the urge to shift.

“You’re something else.”

“I’m your something else though.”

She rolls her eyes, but I see the smile playing on her lips. She’s not ready to admit it, but she wants me to want her. Further proving my point, she stands and turns, stretching in front of me.

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