If You Fall

Ten

They were gone when I woke up at ten and he'd left a note that said he would be back at four. I cleaned up, though Reed had already done so for the most part. Then I painted.

He surprised me at the door and I saw it was indeed a quarter to four. I peeked at the screen that showed him, saw what he was holding and shook my head. I dealt with the alarm, opened the door, and took the rainbow roses, which were actually white roses that had been spliced and dyed so each one was different colors. 

"Little late, but," he said with a sheepish grin and a tight hug.

"I've never seen these in real life," I said, checking them out in fascination as he relocked the door. "I know they're hard to make."

"Hard to find, too." He got a clear vase from under the kitchen sink and put them in with some water. "But totally worth it." His face broke into a smile and it hurt how much I loved him.

"Thank you," I said, arranging them a little. "How'd it go with RJ?"

"He'll be okay, I think." He poured water from the filtered pitcher into a cup and drank it all, then poured another and took it with him into the living room. I followed and we sat on the couch. "The people he's with are the best. If anyone can heal him, it is they."

"What, did you tap into some kind of underground trustworthy adoption agency or something?" I flipped on the TV. Wolves ran. Reed sat on my right, in his usual spot, wearing a black hoodie that said something in Japanese on it. At least, I thought it was Japanese.

"Something," he said agreeably.

"What's your sweatshirt say?"

He looked down at it. He never seemed to realize what he was wearing and indeed got dressed in the dark at times. "Seize the life." His mouth quirked. 

"I like it. It works. When are we going cliff diving?"

"It is a little cold for it now," he pointed out.

"Now as in November and all the following months of winter, it's too cold? Is that why you're suddenly up for it?" I elbowed him.

"Maybe," he allowed. "Really, though, we could go this week. I think we could handle it. I know I could; you, I don't know, you look kind of soft," he pretended to scoff.

"Soft?" I asked indignantly. I was almost as wiry as he, and my muscles were nothing to laugh at.

"Marshmallowy," he said decidedly, and I punched his arm. "Hey, ow."

"Rude," I told him.

We watched for awhile and then made some pasta and he had a couple glasses of wine. I stuck to water. I had enough emotional issues without alcohol.

We were eating chocolate eclairs when I noticed the long red hairs on the shoulder of his sweatshirt, and every joyful feeling was ripped clean away. "Got a new girlfriend?" I asked as I plucked them off, forcing my voice to be light as a feather.

He raised an eyebrow and took them from me with a laugh. "Hardly. Just someone I work with." He made a motion with his hand over the floor and they fell from his fingers.

Sure, just some girl who got to know what he did and where he went and probably even got to go. I almost choked on the unfairness of it.

He noticed my silence and followed my train of thought. "She's not important, chérie. It's not as though I'm the one who brought her into the program." It was the first time he had referred to it as a program. "It's her, mmm, job as well. More than that. Her responsibility."