Chapter 28: MaryamRAVEL REALLY LIKES touching. This is increasingly clear the longer I spend with him. It’s a problem for a few reasons. First, he never seems to get enough of it. Second, it’s uncomfortable and terribly distracting. I know it’s not considered disobedience in Freedom—quite the opposite, in fact—but it’s one of the harder rules to adjust to here. Third, it gets in the way of me communicating effectively with him, and that, after all, is the point right now.
“I, um, I wanted to . . .” I shrink back. He tightens his grip, so I’m worse off than when I started. “I wanted to talk. Um, can you, can you not . . . ? Just, can we just talk, you know?”
I’ve lost all my Victoirishness in a bundle of signature Cole awkwardness, and I’m too busy squirming to get enough of the right wor
