I could do this all day.
I don’t care what happened yesterday. I don’t need an explanation. None of it seems to matter anymore, not when she’s here with me. Not when her naked body is wrapped up in mine, not when she draws her hands along my skin, touching me with a tenderness that tells me everything I need to know.
All I want is this. Her.
Us.
I don’t even realize I’ve fallen asleep until her voice startles me awake.
“Aaron,” she whispers.
It takes me a moment to open my eyes, to find my voice. I turn toward her as if in a dream, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “Yes, love?”
“There’s something I want to show you.”
NINE
The morning is cool and serene, everything limned in golden light. Touches of dew dot leaves and grass, the sun still stretching itself into the sky. The air is fresh with scents I cannot adequately describe; it’s an amalgam of early morning fragrances, the familiar smell of the world shuddering awake. That I notice these things at all is unusual; it is clear, even to me, that my mood is greatly improved.
Ella is holding my hand.
She’s been buoyant this morning. She got dressed even more quickly than I did, tugging me out the door with an enthusiasm that almost made me laugh.
Winston, who we discover waiting for us just outside the medical tent, possesses a range of emotions diametrically opposed. He says nothing when Ella and I approach, first taking in the two of us, then glancing at his watch.
“Hey, Winston,” Ella says, still beaming. “What are you doing here?”
“Who, me?” He points at himself, feigning shock. “Oh, nothing. Just waiting out here for this jackass”—he shoots me a dark look—“for over an hour.”
“What? Why?” Ella frowns. “And don’t call him a jackass.”
I process this exchange with some confusion. I’d not realized until just that moment how much I’d been hoping Winston’s appearance at my door had something to do with Ella.
I see now that it does not.
“Winston came to our room this morning,” I explain to her. “He told me he had . . . a surprise for me.”
Ella’s frown deepens. “A surprise?”
“An hour ago,” Winston adds angrily.
“Yes,” I say, meeting his eyes. “An hour ago.”
He visibly clenches his jaw. “You really are the worst, you know that? I mean, everyone is always telling me that you’re the worst—not that I’ve ever doubted it—but wow, this morning has just proven to me how completely self-absorbed you are. I can’t believe I even offered to come get—”
“Winston.” Ella’s voice is quiet, carefully controlled, but her anger is loud. I turn to look at her, not surprised, exactly, but—
Yes, surprised.
I’m still unfamiliar with this dynamic. I’m still not used to someone taking my side.
“Look,” she says. “Warner might be too nice to say anything when you talk to him like that—”
Winston sounds for a moment like he’s choking.
“—but I’m not. So don’t. Not only because it’s awful, but because you’re wrong.”
Winston is still staring at Ella, dumbfounded. “I’m sorry— You think he’s too nice to say anything? You think the reason Warner gets all quiet and gives people death stares is because he’s too nice? To say anything?” Winston glances at me. “Him?”
I am smiling.
Ella is indignant, Winston is furious, and I am smiling. Very nearly laughing.
“Yes,” Ella says, refusing to back down. “You guys are too comfortable bullying him.”
Winston looks around himself a moment, for all the world as if he’s entered some alternate universe. He opens his mouth to say something, looks at me, looks away, and then crosses his arms.
“You heard what he was like, right?” he finally says to Ella. “When you were gone? You heard all the stories about how h—”
“Yes,” she says, her voice darker now. “I heard exactly what happened.”
“And? So you know about all the people he murdered and how horrible he was to everyone and how he made a ton of people here cry and how Nouria nearly shot him for it—and you think we are the ones bullying him? That’s what you think is happening here?”
“Clearly.”
“And you,” Winston says, turning to face me, his eyes narrowing with barely suppressed anger. “You agree with this assessment of your character?”
I smile wider. “Yes.”
“Wow, you really are an asshole.”
“Winston—”
“He made me wait out here for an hour! And this was after I told him I had a surprise for him, and after he slammed the door in my face—multiple times.” Winston shakes his head. “You should’ve heard him. He’s so scathing—so rude—”
“Hey, what the hell is going on over here?” Kenji is stalking toward us. “And where have you been?” he says to Ella. “We’re all waiting for you guys!”
“Waiting for us?” I ask. “For what?”
Kenji throws up his arms in frustration. “Oh my God. You haven’t told him yet?” he says to Ella. “What are you waiting for? Listen, I thought this idea was dumb to begin with, but now it’s just getting ridiculous—”
“I was going to tell him this morning,” she says, tensing. “I just haven’t had a chance yet. We’ve been busy—”
“I bet you were, princess,” Kenji says, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Why is your hair wet?”
“I took a shower.”
“You took a shower,” he says, eyes narrowing. “Really.”
“Okay— What is going on?” I ask, glancing between Ella and the others as a familiar dread moves up my spine. “Is this about the surprise?”
“The surprise?” Kenji is confused only a moment before understanding alights in his eyes. He looks at Winston. “Wait—I thought we sent you to go get him an hour ago?”
Winston explodes. “This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say— This son of a bitch made me wait outside the MT for an hour, even though I was perfectly nice to him, despite my better judgment—”
“Fucking hell,” Kenji mutters angrily, pushing his hands through his hair. “As if we didn’t have enough going on today.” He turns to me. “You made Winston wait an entire hour just to give you the damn dog?”
“The dog?” I frown. “The dog is the surprise? How is it a surprise if I already know it exists?”
“Wait, what dog?” Ella looks at me, then at the others. “You mean the dog from yesterday?”
“Yeah.” Kenji sighs. “Yara took the dog last night. She gave him a bath, scrubbed him up. She got him a collar and everything. She really wanted it to be a surprise for Warner and made us promise not to say anything about it. The dog is wearing a stupid bow on his head right now.”
Ella has stiffened beside me. “Who’s Yara?”
Her faint, almost undetectable note of jealousy— possessiveness—only cements my smile in place.
“You know Yara,” Kenji says to Ella. “Redhead? Tall? Runs the school group? You’ve talked to her—”
Kenji catches sight of my face and cuts himself off.
“And what the hell are you smiling about? You’ve messed up our entire schedule, dickhead. We’re an hour behind on everything now, all becau—”
“Stop,” Ella says angrily. “Stop calling him names. He’s not a dickhead. He’s not a jackass. He’s not self-absorbed. I don’t know why you guys think it’s okay to just say whatever terrible things you want about him—to his face— as if he’s made of stone. You all do it. You all insult him over and over again and he just takes it—he doesn’t even say anything—and somehow you’ve convinced yourselves it’s okay. Why? He’s a real, flesh-and-blood person. Why don’t you care? Why don’t you think he has feelings? What the hell is wrong with you?”
My smile is gone in an instant.
I experience a strange pain then, a sensation not unlike dissolving slowly from the inside. This feeling sharpens to a point, piercing me.
I turn to look at Ella.
She seems to sense the change in me; for a moment, they all do.