TEACH ME TO LOVE YOU (Loving My Stepbrother in Secret)

g pressed against my stomach, listening to his voice drift up from downstairs: lo

only noticed that he hung up befo

as gone, smoothed over so completely I almost believe

e said. "We're goin

t have to

kno

would

about anything else until you find

he offer, and no expectatio

es and followed

urved like something from a magazine. It was also strangely empty. No family photos on the walls. No cl

ad throbbed with noise a few hours earlier were nearly deserted, the s

d not to think about everything inside that

ng. By now she would have called twenty more, and she would

without aski

," I said

r w

t ni

re we

re you're a good

is mouth lifted

dn't have t

N

why di

s on the road.

was no heroic speech. No atte

ign dark, the front doors chained. In daylight it l

. "What if no

around the side of the buildi

aning uniform squinted at us, then at me,

last night." Her voice s

m f

oming my f

nd pleaded if they was a chance

ady n

here let me go an

" she said, then

"He will be here i

ed against it with his arms fold

a hole in the pa

orry

e didn't even try

th a ring of keys at his belt and the tired eyes of someone who had see

ry few weeks," he said. "Mo

let's

nd poured out some phones on the front table I glan

isn't

e phones back and pu

He unlocked the door. "Give me a

g, glittering animal. Now the lights were harsh and white, chairs we

l where I had sat. The floor benea

th

asked. When he finished, he came and s

oked

this phone is here

e took it when I brou

t mostly by a bank of security monitors. H

me stamp, twelv

hand. My phone lay face down beside it. I watched myself drink, and d

alone. Bartenders passed. Customer

20, the cro

h a card. He glanced left, then right. His hand dropped to the counter and slid my

and stared straigh

for two seconds.

," Terik sa

ned.

o grabbed y

ach tur

ey shirt. The jaw. The man who had told me

the first time, his voice sounded rough. "I was watchi

ot your

ti

the footage and pa

said. "That gives the police a name. And he looke

someone to see hi

rawled up

t it slide. An officer can come this afternoon, around two. They'll take

hone for them to

m mine,"

. He simply waited, and the

topped being a small pr

gher. I felt wrung out, as if someone h

ik said, "if I get

ked. "

yours back. You'll n

N

on't h

e things fro

ised an eyebrow. "

er this time. "Thank you

a moment, then nod

's door, got in, and

hould I

w this man. I wasn't goin

n Harlow Street," I said. "Th

why. He just n

silence wasn't uncomfortable, but my m

e past the window until the

any stranger about myself. But

ed at me. "

said. "H

road. "You don't have t

"But I think I nee

. That made it

d him,"