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"Good job," Ehlena said to hiht"

There was soh various stretches and then some breaststrokes that crisscrossed the shallow end of the pool

Luchas’s concentration was complete, as if his life depended on his ability to follow directions and perfor, he would, in fact, sink There was no fat on hi center, she had never expected to have anything in co to get better, and there was a chance he would be forever in this neither healthy nor dying netherworld: By to noroing to be in the weight rooine him any different than he was now

"I think I better head back," Novo said as she plugged her cane in and got to her feet

"I’lad you stopped by to see us" Ehlena lifted a hand "Let "

"Thank you--and I’ll talk to you later, Luchas" Novo offered a little wave "Take care"

"You as well," caruff reply

The lad to leave It was hard to be around somebody as infirmed as that when you yourself were rocky It et hereas they were on the Leave Behind list

Considering how ood fortune was the kind of thing that bent your brain

As she reeed into the corridor, she shivered in the relative cold, and by the time she ca run athe cane off the foot and dragged herself onto the mattress As loneliness settled over her like a toxic cloud, she was too tired to fight it--

Her cell phone rang on the rolling table she took herwas facedown, and she had absolutely no interest in checking to see who it was She already knew Her mahmen and her sister were livid that the bachelorette party, or whatever the hell it was called, was happening the following evening and Novo hadn’t done shit with the preparations

But come on Thanks to Sophy, they had a reservation down at that place What else did they need--oh, riiiiiiiiiiight, the goddamn sash, a crown and a scepter, feather boas

The usual Instagra life unless you can create "moments" to prove how sparkly fresh your existence is

Throwing out a hand, she grabbed the phone and flipped it over--

Novo sat up as she accepted the call "You again"

Yet her tone was far from hostile In fact, there was a plaintive quality in there that she really needed to kick in the ass

Peyton’s voice was round, there was all kinds of noise He was at a club Of course

Except he was calling her "What are you doing, big spender?" she drawled

Better, she thought Yes, that was how she wanted to sound More like her old self--her regular self, she aht, sa some random in the back roo well, are we?"

"What are you doing?"

"Laps up and down the corridor Then I’ to play around with some particle physics, bench-press a Prius or two, and read the collective works of Shakespeare So yeah, busy night for ood "You up for a visitor?"

"Depends"

"On what?"

She looked around the mostly barren room "I don’t know," she said softly

"I’ht? The matched set of douche canoes"

He chuckled "Yeah"

She moved her phone to her other ear "And you’re surrounded by huo lax on coh silicon implanted in them that they could qualify as an inert molecule?"

"Pretty much"

"So why are you on my phone?"

"Because I’d rather be with you"

Novo closed her eyes "That fight with your father really must run deep, huh"