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"She feels really bad about the phone call She thinks you’re mad at her"
"I’m not mad"
"You’re moody," he offered
"Yes But not at E herself up for things that aren’t her fault No matter what it is, she will trace a situation backward until she finds some way she can be to blao now"
"Wait" Jason grabbedelse"
"What?"
"I--I feel like I haven’t seen you since you woke up from the mini coma the other day"
"Jason?" I huffed "That was four days ago"
"I know, but four days is enough for me to feel like I haven’t seen you in four years Can we hang out this afternoon--ether?"
"No," I said quickly
"Why?" Jason stood up as I walked away
"Because it’s inappropriate"
"Why?"
"Because I’m married"
"You were married before," he called
I stopped and turned back to face him "I know, but the people didn’t know that"
"So you’re breaking up with ether"
He stood quietly for a second, shaking his head "How am I supposed to react to this?"
"I don’t care" I turned away
"Yes, you do Don’t do that" He grabbed ain "Don’t pretend you don’t care"
"Let go of me, Jason"
"Please, Ara I know this is hard I know you’ve never had to deal with having David and I in the same world, but if you just cast"It hurts"
"What did you expect, Jase?"
He droppedhis eyes "I didn’t think that far ahead I guess…I just liked it better when David was faking dead"
"Well, he still would be if I hadn’t gone diving off a lighthouse"
"I know," he said, exhaling "I just wish I could rewind ti s to hide my undies "And ould you do differently, if ti in the street by that phone booth the night you called your mum" He stepped closer and squatted down in front ofus from the sun "I’d take the phone fro would be okay Then I’d drive you home and see you every day until I asked you to marry me--and you’d say yes, because you love me"
I let that play out in my mind--how different my life would be if I had never ain to the hot summer of reality "You can’t say that, Jase"
"Say what?"
"Say that you think I love you I can’t let that be true I’ it at the sound of gravel crunching under tyres
"Who is that?" I asked
"Post" He stood up
"That’s not a postal van"
"It’s unmarked That’ll be official mail"
"Oh" I walked beside Jason to the van
"Hey there" The delivery guy jumped out and sn for that" Jason reached for the clipboard, scribbled his name and took the sack fron for the ed and handed the clipboard back
"Have a good one" The driver tipped his baseball cap and jurinned and set the sack down on the ground "Yup"
"Wow Don’t see those much anymore"
"I see them at least every three days" He threw the sack over his shoulder "But they’re usually underfor help"
"Ew!" I whipped the back of my hand across his chest "That is really poor huhed and stopped by the fountain to grab o sort thisare in here"
I looked at the sack; that was a lot of mail to sort "It’d be easier if we could just have them sent directly to Loslilian"
"I know But a part of keeping up a lie is putting up with inconveniences"
"It sucks"
"Not as irlfriend’s husband cas; Sa new to fill the e it to be a room for some other hobby she couldn’t stick to, and also told ain period, where he’d give History lectures all around the country He’d stopped asking sohohtstand drawer and looked over at the dog sleeping on the settee across my room He looked peaceful I wasn’t sure I’d ever actually seen Petey sleep before
As e of ht my eye; a thick, leather-bound book stared back up at ed leather brown and soft, ords in the ancient language embossed on the front
I sat onup when Petey ith a loud, whiney yawn "Hey, boy"
He juht toit to the floor by , Petey?"
He pawed at it, his thick, heavy nails scratching up the ancient paper; I bent down to take it fro atbeside hiures of various body parts--marked with patterns and runes, and sat back on his hindquarters, air snuffing fro chest and the little slightly discoloured patches of fur above his eyes that looked like brows
"You wantit was probably asking the obvious