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I turn thethe room abruptly in silence

"I’m sorry," she says

"For what?"

"Earlier Can I tell you what you saw?"

"I’m not slow, Callie I knohat I saw"

"Look" She squares her shoulders now and lifts her chin There’s the girl I know She’s deter I’m in for quite a show "I knohat you saw, but you don’t kno I feel about it"

"How do you feel, Calliope?"

"Bulldozed," she says and paces around the roonificent The way her legs th in her arms, the determination on her face

"Pete is an old boyfriend froo, I hadn’t seen hihteen Now he suddenly thinks that we should get back together"

My jaw tightens at the thought, but I don’t interrupt

"He showed me two houses, and that was it And I’m pretty sure one was involved in the slave trade"

"Excuse me?" My voice is deceptively cal that aside as if it doesn’t o And I don’t even knohy I feel like I need to defend myself or explain myself to you, but damn it, I do So I am"

She turns to me now, her blue eyes on fire, and she’s never looked sexier

"He shows up tonight and handsto him, there you were, in all your sexiness, and I was just… thrown"

"What happened after I left?"

She bites her lip and looks down at her hands, but I catch her chin in ers and tilt her head up to look at ave him back his flowers and said thank you, but I’ now as hope surges through me Her eyes drop to s aren’t little to me, either And I didn’t know--"

"Don’t stop now" I smile and cup her cheek in h her soft hair

"I didn’t know that the little things were so big until you"

I take a deep breath, so fucking relieved I tipin the feel of her against --" My voice is a hoarse whisper "--but I want to find out"