We rode without a word, and I was conflicted: distressed that Cameron was angry with me;
yet happy—even a little smug—that I had pulled off my first business meeting with distributors
without getting us killed.
We pulled into a small parking lot where a stationed school bus had been converted into a fast-
food stand. It was mid-afternoon. I was starving. The smell of greasy fries was the best thing I
had ever smelled by that point. Cameron barely looked at me while we waited in line. The extent
of our conversation was limited to “What do you want to eat” and “Veggie burger with extra
fries.” Cameron asked for mayo for my fries. I didn’t need to say anything.
I followed him around the back of the converted bus through a band of trees. I could hear
crashing water as we neared the end of the trail. Fifty feet above ground, a waterfall plunged
in an almost perfect line down the face of the rock and into a gurgling bath of water. People,
sporadically spread about the trees and grass, picnicked and took in the breathtaking scene.
Cameron dug a blanket out of the backpack and spread it on a tiny patch of grass as if he had
been there before. We were mostly hidden in the brush.
While he ate and brooded, I threw my helmet-hair back into its cozy ponytail. This caused
Cameron to smile, which he tried to hide from me. I wasn’t sure what, exactly, I had done to
make him angry. There was no doubt in my mind that nothing about the meeting had gone according
to his plans, and that I didn’t do anything that I was supposed to do—like stay quiet.
With a bit of food in my belly and Cameron’s mood seemingly bettered, I figured I would get it
over with, whatever was bugging him.
“You’re angry with me.” I was really good at stating the obvious.
“Uh-huh.” Cameron was lying on his back with his legs crossed one over the other.
Apparently I was supposed to guess what I had done wrong—which I wanted to do as much as a
serial killer wished to confess every crime he had ever committed to the rookie cop who had just
stopped him because of a broken taillight.
“Can you tell me why?” I asked.
“Things could have gone really wrong in there.”
“But they didn’t,” I replied.
“They could have,” he reiterated, with emphasis. “I had no idea what was going on.”
“Welcome to my world,” I mumbled, spearing my straw though the plastic lid of my cup.
Cameron half-smiled. “Emmy, when I don’t know what’s going on and can’t understand what you
’re saying, I can’t react.”
“You don’t have any faith in me.”
“It has nothing to do with my faith in you and everything to do with my mistrust of them. These
people aren’t angels. This isn’t a game. As far as I knew, the old man was threatening to put
a knife at your throat as soon as I wasn’t looking.”
“He never threatened me.”
“I had no way of knowing that,” he griped.
“Considering the circumstances, I think I made the right decision.” I was convinced of this.
Cameron exaggeratingly rolled his eyes at my cockiness. “I should have known that you’d be
able to charm yourself out of trouble. Must be in your genes.”
I wasn’t sure if he’d meant that I had charmed myself out of trouble with the distributors or
with him. It didn’t matter in the end. I had taken his change in demeanor as a signal that I
was on my way to being forgiven. I decided to swoop in for the kill and snuggled up against him.
He didn’t recoil.
“I got you everything you wanted, didn’t I?” I said with a sigh.
“Yes, Emmy,” he conceded, also with a sigh. “You made me a lot of money today. But it’s just
money. I would have preferred it much more if you would have stayed out of their grasp.”
Something moved within the trees. Cameron abruptly pushed me off and sprang up. An old lady
strolled by, shakily leaning on her cane. She was about ninety years old and maybe eighty pounds
soaking wet.
“Sorry,” Cameron said awkwardly to me. He laid back down on the blanket. If I hadn’t been
aware of his paranoia, I would have been insulted by his fear of being seen in public with me.
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at Cameron.
“What’s going to happen when things settle down?” I wondered.
“What do you mean?”
“What happens to me when the danger is gone?”
“You go home,” he said instinctively. He hadn’t changed his mind, after everything.
I tried to keep it cool. “And then what?”
“And then nothing. You go back and live happily ever after,” he said, refusing to look at me.
“What about us?” My voice was shaking.
Cameron was silent.
“I could just stay with you,” I offered.
He laughed, but his tone was tight. “Em, you get yourself in more trouble when you’re bored.
Do you really think you could just stay home and wait around for me while I go to work? I mean,
don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice fantasy, but we already tried that, and it didn’t work.”
I was flustered. “I could go to work with you. Turns out I’m pretty good at it. You said so
yourself.”
“Absolutely not! I won’t allow it.”