NALANI
Against what I would want, I end up going to an open lounge to meet with Daniel. This was my non-negotiable condition for meeting him—that we do it in an open space.
The moment I lay eyes on him, I see a shadow of the man I knew mere weeks ago. He looks like he has only eaten to be alive, like he hasn’t had any sleep or touched his beards in days, and his entire personality just gives ragged and devastated. When I draw closer, he smells even worse than he looks, and I notice that the bandages wrapped around both of his hands...covering the injuries he sustained from the fire, I guess, have turned brown already.
My intuition tells me to end this meeting before it begins, but I still approach him because he already saw me, and his face lights up with a weak smile.
My butt doesn’
