Page 91 of Fragile Beings
ELISE - 12:19 PM: xoxo see you tonight! Oh, also, I’m bringing a guest. Hope that’s okay byyyyyye
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“I don’t come here often,” Cal mused. He tilted his head back to examine the huge trees looming over them. The air was spicy in this neighborhood. Almost peppery.
Elise squeezed his hand. Her voice was full of warmth when she told him, “Those are old growth eucalyptus trees. Don’t they smell nice?”
“They do.” Although they weren’t his favorite scent. That belonged to the woman strolling next to him, her golden hair shining in the late afternoon light. When she glanced up at him, the sun caught her eyes and made the green flecks in her irises glow.
Hazel, he thought for the thousandth time. Her eyes are hazel.
Cal hoarded every little thing he knew about Elise with the rabid acquisitiveness of a dragon. If he could have turned what he knew into pearls, he would have kept the color of her eyes, the scent of her hair, the story behind the scar on her knee, and the way she sighed when he kissed her throat in the palm of his hand always.
He wanted all the pearls. He wanted the pearls to overflow from his hands, countless and infinitely precious, until they were all he could see and feel. He’d wondered if he would get bored by her by the end of their first week together, her novelty rubbed off like fog on glass, but it didn’t happen. Not the first week. Not the second.
By their third week together, Cal was certain that he’d never tire of collecting those precious pearls, nor of kissing her, listening to her, being with her.
Always on the hunt for more, he asked, “You grew up here?”
“Yes. My parents moved here after the war ended, when they were still rebuilding a lot of downtown. Dad was a war correspondent, but after the charter was signed, he got a job at The Light and married my mom.” Her eyes moved over the neat homes lining the quiet streets, a fond expression softening her face. “My sister Joanna came first, then my brother Liam.” Her lips quirked in that sardonic smile he loved so much. “I was a surprise.”
He could barely comprehend life in a family, let alone one as crowded as hers seemed to be. “Is it bad to be a surprise?” he asked, brow crinkling. He didn’t like the idea of her being punished by the circumstances of her birth, no matter how hypocritical that was.
Elise gently bumped his arm with her shoulder. The end of her light scarf, a pale pink number with tassels on the end, lifted with the cool breeze. “Nah, but it is a running joke in the family. My brother is ten years older than me. They weren’t expecting to have anymore kids, so it made for an interesting dynamic. My siblings were too old to be my playmates, so I mostly hung around my dad. He called me his kid reporter.”
Cal looked down at her and felt a familiar, deep pang of hunger in his chest. Gods, he wanted this. Making the deal with Elise was both the best and worst thing he’d ever done. He couldn’t imagine going back to a time when he didn’t know the pleasure of touching her skin or feeling the radiance of her smile when he pleased her, when he gave her parts of himself he thought were worthless, when he ate the broccoli she hated or brought her small treasures from the ocean.
He wanted to walk under trees and hear about her family and feel her fingers intertwined with his every day for the rest of his life. Too bad he’d put a time limit on the greatest thing to ever happen to him. When the book finished, so too would they.
Cold dread trickled into his veins, as it always did when he thought about the words spilling across the screen of her monitor and what they represented.
She’d wanted to terminate their deal, and perhaps he should have let her. Maybe if they stopped this thing that day in her kitchen, he wouldn’t feel like his whole world could be ripped out from under him at any second.
But, if the option presented itself, he knew he wouldn’t change a thing. If he had to choose between heartbreak and a lifetime of frigid loneliness, he would choose heartbreak every time. At least now he knew what it felt like to be loved, to live.
“You don’t have to worry about my parents,” Elise assured him, misinterpreting his sudden silence for nerves. She gave his fingers a squeeze. “They’re good people. Mom’s a school teacher, so she’s nice to pretty much everyone except my Uncle Chris —but that’s because he’s a bigot. Dad will probably grill you about where you’re from, but only because he’s obsessed with the city. If you let him ramble about history for a while, he’ll think you’re great.”
They took a left at a roundabout and passed a small park. Children and pets ran around the field and a small, colorful play structure, watched over by a group of eagle-eyed caregivers standing off to one side. One of the children had gauzy wings that caught the light and, upon closer inspection, he was fairly certain that wasn’t a dog running with the small group, but a young coyote.
Elise caught him watching the scene with open curiosity and laughed. “Aren’t they cute? This neighborhood used to be mostly arrants, but a lot of new families have moved in since they lifted that travel embargo.” She nudged his arm and pointed across the street.
Cal turned his head and squinted at the brick house. The driveway was empty, and the small yard was impeccably maintained. A sloping path led from the sidewalk, through a fence with no gate, to a door with a symbol emblazoned on its face. It was a hand, palm forward, with an open eye in the center. He knew what it was, even if he’d never had the need to go to a place like it before. A Healing House.
“See? We even got a new healer recently. All the way from the Collective. I haven’t met her yet, but my dad has been to see her a few times and says that she’s managed to cure both his gout and his sweet tooth.” She snorted. “Pretty sure he’s using that to cover up the fact that he’s sneaking sweets in his car again, but I’m not about to narc on him.”
They passed the park and the Healing House before they turned right, onto another quiet street. Elise pointed again, this time at a small, white paneled home on a slight rise. Large, flowering hedges lined the driveway and where the lawn met the sidewalk. As they walked up the driveway, Cal caught sight of the sign above the door.
No solicitors. No crooks. No murderers — unless you’re here for an interview.
He let out a low, raspy laugh. Of course Elise grew up here. He couldn’t imagine her coming from anywhere else.
Following his stare, Elise explained, grinning, “An anniversary gift from my mom.”
They stepped onto the porch. Cal felt a small burst of nerves — this was only the second time he was invited into a home before — but his curiosity quickly pushed them aside. “Anniversary? What’s that?”
Elise waved her hand over the sensor on the door. A moment later, a chime sounded inside the house.
“Oh, it’s what you call the day you got married or got together,” she explained, looking up at him thoughtfully. “People like to celebrate how many years they’ve been together by giving each other gifts or doing something nice. Dad goes all out for their anniversary. Last year he took Mom on a river cruise through Eastern Europe. She came back raving about all the dragons she saw.”
