Terrorscape by Nenia Campbell Page B

slip?
An
acknowledgment
of
her
own
hidden
guilt
struggling
to
slip
free
from
the
snare
of
her
subconscious like a fly caught in a spider's web?
I wish he would stop looking at me like that. It's like he
can see right through me.
    If he could, though, he'd be running for the hills.
“Are you always this thoughtful?”
    “No. Yes. I don't know.” She looked down at her
hands while she played with the coffee lid.
More minutes ticked by, broken by bursts of
laughter coming from other tables. Periodically Jade
tilted his head in that direction, a faint smile on his
mouth, as if he wished he were laughing, too.
“So, um,” she fumbled for another opening, “a
little bird told me that your dad teaches Latin?”
    “What kind of bird?”
“A Mary bird, I guess.”
That was incredibly lame. But he laughed, bless
him. “She's right.”
    “Can you speak any Latin?” The second those
words were out of her mouth she realized how stupid
that question was. “I mean, apart from what you said
before. At the ice-breaker.”
Jade leaned his arms on the table. He has nice arms ,
she found herself thinking. Strong .
    “What did you have in mind?”
“Anything, I don't care.”
“Alquid. Mea non refert.”
“What does that mean?”
“Anything. I don't care.”
    It took her a moment to get it but then she heard
herself laugh, and she covered her mouth suddenly
feeling very shy. “That's not what I meant.”
“Okay, you're right. Hmm. How about—” He
paused. “ Pulcher es .”
    “And what does that mean?”
“It means, 'You're beautiful.'”
Val stared at him. A faint pinkish tinge crept into
his cheeks and colored the tips of his ears.
     
Blake blushed like that, too.
    The fluorescent lights—the ambient chatter—the
smells of commingling food and coffee—it was all too
much. She needed to escape, to run, to flee.
    “No I'm not.” Val shook her head, shutting him
out, shutting out the noise, the scenery. “I'm really
not.”
She needed to get out of here.
    Luckily, she was saved from thinking of a viable
excuse. Her phone chose that moment to ring. For
once, timing was ruling in her favor. Then she saw the
number on the display was Lisa's.
“Is that Vivaldi?”
    Val dug her knuckles into her forehead, which
was starting to throb as the seconds ticked by. She
was aware of Jade looking at her, that horrible
expression of concern was back on his face. She toyed
with the idea of not answering the phone and then
decided against it. Lisa wouldn't stop calling until she
got an answer, and she couldn't sit in this place a
moment longer.
    “I'm sorry.” She was sure that he thought her a
fool now. That saddened her, and she was surprised
by that. Surprised that such small hurts could still
sting. “I've got to take this. It's kind of an emergency.”
“Is everything all right?”
    He
straightened,
like
he
was
planning
on
standing and coming with her, like a knight errant
who thought he could save the damsel in distress.
    No, nothing's all right, and you can't save me.
Not from this.
    Val said hastily, “Probably—I hope so. Just a
family thing I'm dealing with. I—we'll do this again,
okay? Some other time?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Some other time.”
    She turned her back on him then, not wanting to
see his face. As the sliding glass doors parted and the
evening breeze tickled her damp, perspiring skin, she
said, “All right, what is it Lisa? What now?”
    “Oh, I'm not Lisa—and as for what I want, well,
why don't you hazard a guess?”
Val dropped the phone.
    It fell slowly, as though in a dream. A nightmare.
She heard his laughter spiral up from the speakers
like curls of smoke.
Shit .
    She dropped to her knees, flinching as the damp
soaked through her jeans as she groped for the phone.
When it rained, it poured in Washington. The same
was true for this sad mess she called a life.
    The line was silent when she held the phone up
once more to her ear. She couldn't even hear him
breathing. Had the sim