Page 7 of Keeping Knight

He chuckles; a dark, oily sound.

Anger pierces my terror.

How dare he laugh? How dare he?

Then a spark of an idea hits, and I bite into his palm as hard as I can.

Coppery blood fills my mouth.

He yelps and pulls his hand away.

And with the little air I have left, I scream.

Chapter Two

MICAH

Am I using the leftovers as an excuse to see her again?

The question comes to me as I jog up the stairs, both to-go containers still held in my hand. I’d been about to leave the building, halfway through the door, in fact, when I glanced at the containers and realized I’d forgotten to give Ruby’s back to her.

Of course I’d return it. It would be rude not to. I mean, what was I going to do? Just take everything home with me, even though it would only take a few extra minutes to run upstairs?

Maybe a different guy—an ill-mannered, self-absorbed guy like Ruby’s ex, which I’m assuming he is based on the offhand comments she’s made—would consider it too much of an inconvenience. But I just darted back inside and started heading upstairs, bypassing the elevator to take the slower but more reliable stairs.

“Everyone is always complaining about the elevator,” Ruby told me last week. “Some of my neighbors are even threatening to sue the owner of the building over it. It works so infrequently, they’re saying it’s a violation of the ADA. I’m not getting involved with the lawsuit, but I really wish they’d fix the thing so it actually works all the time. When it’s just me going up the stairs, it’s not a big deal. But when I’m loaded down with groceries… four flights of stairs isn’t my favorite.”

It would be easy enough to tell myself that I’m only going to Ruby’s apartment to bring back her food. But that brings me back to my earlier question. Am I only doing it because it’s the polite thing to do? Or is there a part of me that’s glad to have a reason to see her again?

It’s ironic, I think as I hit the third-floor stairwell. When I signed up for the cooking class, it was with zero intention of meeting a woman. Sure, I’d heard about guys using adult ed classes as a way to hook up with women. But that wasn’t why I did it.

Honestly, I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something where I was just Micah, beginner cook, instead of Knight, former Delta Force operator and heir to the Sutton fortune.

It’s not that I try to hide either of those things. While I can’t speak about a lot of the things I did in Delta, I’ve always been proud of my years of service. And I might not love the way people act when they find out my dad is the Jack Sutton, founder and CEO of Sutton Aeronautics, but I love my family. I’d never hurt them by eschewing our name.

It’s just… sometimes it’s nice being someone else. It’s nice knowing people like me for who I am and not what they think I can give them. My closest friends aren’t like that—they treat me like anyone else, and I know they don’t give a shit about how much money I have. But a lot of other people, women in particular…

Well, they aren’t interested in which fantasy movies are my favorite. They don’t care that I like hiking in the Catskills in the spring and visiting the Museum of Natural History a few times a year so I can look at the dinosaur exhibits. And they wouldn’t joke with me about keeping a meatball arsenal behind the counter so we can stage an imaginary attack against our least favorite classmate.

But Ruby cares about all of those things.

Ruby is fun to talk to. She’s smart. Insightful. Kind.

When I signed up for the class, I didn’t think I’d end up meeting a woman I really liked. But I did. And now, six weeks later, I keep finding myself coming up with excuses to see more of her.

First, it was walking her home from class, ostensibly for her safety. And it’s true; I didn’t like the idea of Ruby walking from Midtown to the Upper East Side in the dark.

But would I have offered to walk with anyone else in the class?

Would I have talked to them long enough to learn where they lived?

Probably not. But with Ruby, it felt different.

And now I’m going to pick her up for class, too. I’ll get an extra half-hour every week with her; sharing more conversation and sneaking extra glances at her gorgeous red hair and expressive features that make it impossible for her to hide what she’s thinking.

So, when I take all of that into consideration, I guess the answer is yes. I’m glad to have a reason to see Ruby again.

As I push open the door to the fourth-floor hallway, another thought strikes me.